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On this site we will once again discover the age old adage of the human condition...

Truth Is more Fascinating than Fiction

For almost twenty years now I have been on a search for a little known fact of Americana. A cold war incident that could have/should have changed the way we viewed our participation in the continuation of the cold war, and our government's handling of our nuclear arsenal. 

But, a media who agreed that communism was a great enough threat to national security, agreed that the story die a quick and uneventful death.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, (Actually, March 11, 1958), an atomic bomb was dropped on American soil. It landed on the tiny community of Mars Bluff, South Carolina, near Florence. The procedures leading up the the event should remind us how introducing the human element into an equation can have disastrous consequences.

  First, lets look at the bomb. A quick reminder of basic fission physics. A large amount of TNT is exactly timed to explode in perfect unison to equally compress a fissionable core. In the early days of nuclear weapons the conventional explosive surrounding the core, could be detonated by concussion, such as a bullet, or impact with the ground.  The 1958 device weighed 7,600 pounds and produced a thirty-kiloton explosion.

The airplane, like the bomb, was a fascinating contradiction of cutting edge technology, and experimental engineering. The B-47 was the first modern Jet Bomber. At 600 mph it was faster than jet fighters of its day. It was intended as a long range bomber and could just make it to Europe without refueling. The B-47 was a flying fuel tank. In fact, 52% of its gross weight was made up of fuel. 

In the event of a problem immediately after take-off, modern aircraft have the ability to jettison fuel to make the airplane lighter in the event of an engine failure. No contingency had been made in the design of the B-47 to jettison fuel, so the Air Force came up with an alternate weight reduction plan. If a B-47 had trouble immediately after take off it was to jettison weight in the form of its ordinance. It was to drop its bombs to reduce the load.

(For the sake of brevity and site space I have abbreviate some of the events, as well as the narrative, surrounding the story, leading up to the loss of the bomb). 

In the military everything hinges on your performance. The points one gets for performance determine rank, promotions, which translates directly into, pay and retirement. There are points awarded or subtracted for on time departures, as well as score of a bombing run. For this reason pre take-off items may have been abbreviated to facilitate an on time departure (such as a sticky bomb locking pin).

The mission that day was to depart Savannah Georgia, fly to Europe for a simulated bomb run. There was the usual pressure to depart on time, which was interrupted by a bomb locking pin that would not latch properly. The locking pin was finally forced into place for taxi, but was removed (as mentioned earlier, to allow for emergency jettison of the bomb) before taking off.  During the climb the locking pin was to be reinstalled, but as it had on the ground, refused to go into place. The bombardier was sent back to manually install the stubborn pin. The tiny door to the bomb bay would not allow a grown man with a parachute to pass through, and the bombardier removed his chute and headed aft. Initially, the bombardier he could not find the manual locking pin. Assuming that the lock must be above the bomb he made his way around the curvature of the bomb, trying to climb higher. When reaching for a handhold he accidentally grabbed the manual release handle. Bomb, with chute-less bombardier on top, dropped onto the bomb bay doors. For a moment the bombardier lay across the bomb some what akin to Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove. Then, just before the bomb bay doors gave up the effort of the unassisted holding up of more than three and a half tons of bomb, he grabbed onto some piece of the airplane. The doors fell open, the bomb was away.

On the ground, the Gregg family was at home.

Then at 4:19 pm things in the Gregg world changed as the first nuclear bomb to be dropped on American citizens detonated in the woods behind their back yard.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this story, only a perfectly controlled explosion of the conventional explosive encasing the fissionable material can create an Atomic blast. Fortunately, the impact of the bomb into the ground only detonated the conventional explosive. Still, three and a half tons of TNT made a crater 50 feet across and 35 feet deep, destroying their home, and injuring all family members.  

There is a great deal more depth to this story, (such as the family's $44,000 settlement) and I only relate this to you here as a completion of my own personal quest. There is a lot more research material available to you, if you care to pursue it.

My goal for the past twenty years was to find the site, so that I would be able to stand in the crater belonging to the first Atomic Bomb to be dropped on American citizens.

Today, the surrounding area has been cleared to make way for a development. Although, this particular lot has had no interest. Probably, because it has a big hole in it. Even though the area was recently cleared, the crater remains mostly whole, perhaps a little shallower, as it settles. It is virtually hidden from sight, surrounded by saplings, and has some trash tossed into it by people who have absolutely no idea of the significance of this site.

We can only speculate about the outcome if a nuclear chain reaction had occurred. 

An atomic blast is considered devastating because our only association to it is through our experience in the media. While we imagine a whole city disappearing, in reality this single thirty-kiloton bomb was rather small. The bomb would have caused massage damage and many deaths, but would not have vaporized the city of Florence. 

The researchers at your PBS stations have actually provided the examples for you.

This example is base on an very accurate position of the bomb's landing point. 

This is how the initial bomb blast would have affected its immediate  area.

For Map Details Click Here

As You can see the most devastating effects would have been outside of the city proper.

However, the fallout, considering the winds normal easterly flow would have adversely affected North Carolina possibly turning the Wilmington area into a ghost town.

For  Detailed Explanations Click Here

Myrtle Beach, SC. might have prospered from the fact that Wilmington NC. probably would have ceased to exist.

 Still, the Florence, Myrtle Beach area would be a much different place today. In fact, I suspect that the military policies and politics in general, would be quite different today.

I  wanted to share this with you. Partly to show how fragile your rock solid daily existence could really be. And, perhaps demonstrate, for the millionth time, how often mankind's technology out classes our ability to insure our control over it. 

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