Category Archives: Military sites

This clump of trees in a North Carolina farm field does not look like much but it covers the site of what could have been the worst desaster in America.

on January 24, 1961, a B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs broke apart in mid-air over Faro, North Carolina. The aircraft experienced a catastrophic fuel leak, leading to a loss of control. As the crew bailed out, the two nuclear weapons were released. While one bomb’s parachute deployed and it landed relatively intact, the second plummeted to the ground at high speed, breaking apart and burying its core deep within a muddy field. This latter bomb was discovered to have come perilously close to detonation, with five of its six safety mechanisms having been triggered by the fall. The only remaining safeguard was a single switch that required a manual action from the aircrew. The close call demonstrated the fragility of the safety measures in place at the time and prompted a major reevaluation of nuclear weapons protocol and safety.

The incident’s aftermath had a profound and lasting impact on U.S. nuclear policy. The part of the second bomb containing its uranium core was deemed too difficult and risky to recover and was ultimately left buried, with the government purchasing an easement on the land to prevent future disturbance. The declassification of documents related to the crash decades later revealed the full extent of the danger, confirming that a 3.8-megaton explosion had been narrowly averted. This near-catastrophe was a significant factor in the development and implementation of new safety features, such as permissive action links (PALs), which require a special code to arm a nuclear weapon. The Goldsboro crash remains a critical historical case study, illustrating the immense risks associated with Cold War nuclear strategy and the importance of stringent safety protocols.

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This concrete tower stands along the Atlantic shoreline on North Carlolina’s Topsail Island. It looks like an old lifeguard shack but it was part of a clandestine Navy program. Operation Bumblebee was a pivotal, top-secret guided missile testing program conducted by the U.S. Navy on Topsail Island, from 1946 to 1948, shortly after the end of World War II. In partnership with Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the program aimed to develop supersonic ramjet missiles capable of defending naval vessels against airborne threats, a pressing concern following the kamikaze attacks of WWII. The isolated nature of Topsail Island, then a relatively barren barrier island, made it an ideal location for these experimental launches. During its operational period, over 200 experimental rockets were assembled in a dedicated building and fired from launch pads along the coast, with their flights meticulously tracked by a series of concrete observation towers built across the island.

The impact of Operation Bumblebee on both Topsail Island and the broader landscape of modern technology was profound. Although the facility was eventually relocated due to weather interference and increasing sea traffic, the testing conducted on Topsail Island proved the viability of the ramjet engine, a crucial step that paved the way for supersonic jet flight and advanced missile technology. The infrastructure left behind, including roads, a bridge, and many of the concrete towers, laid the groundwork for the island’s subsequent development into a beach resort. Today, many of these historical structures still stand, some converted into homes or businesses, serving as tangible reminders of North Carolina’s significant contribution to the early days of missile and space technology. The Missiles and More Museum on Topsail Island, housed in the original missile assembly building, further preserves and interprets this remarkable chapter of naval and scientific history.

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