Barbara Moran: The Day We Lost the H-Bomb

215 The assignment was a coup:George Tyler interview, September 26, 2006.

215 On August 27, 1969, Aluminautsubmerged:Department of the Navy, Naval Ship Systems Command, Recovery of Deep Research Vehicle Alvin, p. 28.

215 Bob Canary, theAluminautpilot:The “wet noodle” quote is from Kaharl, Water Baby , p. 123.

216 He wanted to grab the controls:Ibid.

216 an account flatly denied:George Tyler interview, September 26, 2006. Tyler describes this story as “bullshit.”

216 was in remarkably good condition:Mitchell and Milwee, “Recovery of Alvin,” pp. 21–22.

Interestingly, a bologna sandwich salvaged from the sub showed no deterioration from bacteria. This accidental discovery that near-freezing temperatures and lack of oxygen aided preservation opened up new areas of scientific research. (See WHOI Web site, www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=10737.) 216 Scientists and engineers flushed:Kaharl, Water Baby , pp. 126–127.

216 government funding for deep-sea exploration:Ibid., pp. 127–128; “The Aluminaut Story,” March 6, 1986, p. 10.

216 accepting projects that embarrassed:George Tyler interview, September 26, 2006.

216 in 1971, Reynolds canceled:“The Aluminaut Story,” March 6, 1986, p. 10; Richard Pothier, “Star of Deep for Six Years, She’s to Be a Sub on Bench,” The Miami Herald , undated. The records are not entirely clear, but it appears that the sub was semiretired in 1970 and mothballed in 1971.

216 The sub is probably best known:The Alvin history is from WHOI Web site: www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=10737.

216 All that remains of the original:Author’s visit to Alvin and interviews with Bob Brown and Bruce Strickrott, July 2, 2007.

216 The sub will retire by 2015:William J. Broad, “New Sphere in Exploring the Abyss,” The New York Times , August 26, 2008, p. D1.

216 On January 21, 1968:The details of the Thule accident come from Scott D. Sagan, The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Studies in International History and Politics, 1993), pp. 156–157; “Narrative Summaries of Accidents Involving U.S. Nuclear Weapons 1950–1980,” undated (NNSA, FOIA); Department of the Air Force, USAF Nuclear Safety, Special Edition: Project Crested Ice , 65 (part 2), no. 1, Jan — Feb — Mar 1970. In November 2008, the BBC revealed that the United States had secretly left nuclear components buried in the ice. See Gordon Corera, “Mystery of Lost U.S. Nuclear Bomb,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7720049.stm, posted November 10, 2008.

217 McNamara had proposed canceling:Sagan, Limits of Safety , pp. 178–179.

217 He ordered SAC to stop:“U.S. Bars H-Bombs in Airborne Alert,” The New York Times , February 29, 1968, p. 1; Sagan, Limits of Safety , pp. 193–196.

217 who were tired of cleaning up:Sagan, Limits of Safety , p. 196. Sagan includes this relevant footnote: “Civilian authorities grew increasingly exasperated with the Strategic Air Command after these accidents. For example, in one press report, an unidentified civilian official recalls that Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke found it necessary to go for a swim in the ocean at Palomares to assure the Spaniards that there was no danger and says, ‘Next time we ought to make the whole SAC command go swimming.’”

218 SAC veterans were shocked:Author’s interviews with SAC veterans, August 23 and 25, 2005.

218 In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin:Andrew E. Kramer, “Recalling Cold War, Russia Resumes Long-Range Sorties,” The New York Times , August 18, 2007.

BARBARA MORANis an award winning science journalist whose work has appeared in New Scientist, Invention &Technology, Technology Review , and The Boston Globe . Her television documentary credits include the PBS series Frontline, The American Experience , and NOVA , as well as the History and Discovery Channels. Research for this book began when she was a Knight Fellow at MIT. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Boston University’s Center for Science and Medical Journalism, she lives in Boston with her husband and son.