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On a cold morning in January, 1961 Goldsboro, North Carolina woke up to this; a thermonuclear
bomb sticking out of the ground.
A second unexploded bomb was buried in a crater not far away.
Both nukes had literally fallen out of a crashing B-52 bomber in the middle of the night.
Had either bomb gone off, they would have unleashed an explosion with two hundred and
fifty times the destructive power of Hiroshima.
The fireball alone would’ve been more than a kilometer and a half wide, vaporizing everything
in its path.
Nuclear fallout could have blanketed much of the East Coast, reaching as far as Washington,
Baltimore, or even New York.
This incident, according to recently declassified documents, was a close call.
Because at least one of the bombs had armed itself as it fell back to earth, and its widely
believed that only a single safety switch prevented disaster.
But as harrowing as it sounds, what happened in Goldsboro would repeat itself.
Throughout the 1960s, B-52 bombers accidentally dropped a total 14 thermonuclear bombs, and
sometimes with serious consequences.
During the height of the Cold War, America kept bombers, loaded up with thermonuclear
weapons airborne at all times, twenty four hours a day, every day of the year.
At any given moment, there were at least a dozen nuclear bombers in the air, flying one
of several routes approaching the Soviet Union.
It was called Operation Chrome Dome.
A program to keep nuclear bombers on continuous airborne alert, so that if the Soviets launched
a surprise nuclear attack, America would be ready to respond.
And keeping the bombers airborne was critical.
Because in 1957, the Soviets launched the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile.
Sticking a nuke on top of a rocket was a game changer.
Unlike a bomber which needed hours to deliver a nuclear bomb, a missile could hit its target
in under half an hour.
And there’d be little warning of one coming, nor any way to stop it.
Gentlemen this Air Intelligence Briefing is secret.
We’ve analyzed the Soviet guided missile test program in great depth.
The Soviet missile development program reveals that it introduces a new dimension to surprise
and forces us to reassess our own strategic position and reevaluate the Soviet’s ability
to deal a crippling blow.
By the late 1950s, American intelligence was convinced that the West had fallen behind
in nuclear missile technology.
And the Soviet’s weren't exactly shy about it either.
Khrushchev bragged openly that Soviet factories were cranking missiles out like sausages.
If true, it meant the Soviets would soon gain an enormous strategic advantage, one that
could even knock out America’s ability to respond to a Soviet nuclear attack.
Because faced with a barrage of incoming missiles, America’s bombers might not even make it
off the ground in time.
And that’s where Operation Chrome Dome came in.
By keeping some of America's nuclear bombers airborne at all times, they would be well
out of harm’s way and ready to head towards the Soviet Union.
Knowing this, the Soviets might reconsider.
But the program would push B-52s and their flight crews to their limits.
Bombers would be in the air for as long as 24 hours.
It was risky, and the obvious question at least someone had to be asking was, what happens
when one of these bombers loaded up with nukes crashes?
The answer came just three months into the program.
But Goldsboro would be just the first in a string of early accidents in which a total
of six nuclear bombs crashed back to earth, only to be recovered without much in the way
of consequences.
The bombs simply hit the ground without any of their conventional or nuclear explosives detonating.
It might have even created a false sense of confidence.
Because Chrome Dome missions continued for years, even as it became clear that the Soviets
never had missile superiority to begin with.
The bombers were kept flying because unlike buried missiles silos, and stealthy nuclear
submarines, B-52’s patrolling Soviet borders were a constant reminder that America was ready.
But the program would soon be seen in an entirely different light.
An accident over Palomares, Spain in 1966 sent four nukes crashing back to earth.
And this time, two of them detonated their conventional explosives.
There was no nuclear blast.
But five square kilometers of Spanish countryside were contaminated with radioactive plutonium.
It was the worst nuclear accident of its time, and 17,000 tonnes of radioactive soil had
to be shipped back to the United States in an enormous cleanup effort.
Decades later, there were still traces of the contamination at site.
After the Spain incident, Operation Chrome Dome was scaled back.
But it that wouldn't prevent a final accident in Thule Greenland, when another four thermonuclear
bombs came crashing back to earth.
All of them detonated their conventional explosives, spreading contamination over a large area.
One of the nuclear bombs was never recovered.
And that put an immediate end to Operation Chrome Dome.
The Cold War, especially during the 1960s, was an insane time, and the legacy of Operation
Chrome Dome is hard to pin down.
America accidently dropped 14 Nuclear Bombs.
But keeping bombers airborne for eight straight years also helped maintain the delicate balance
of power between America and the Soviet Union, and it might’ve prevented nuclear war.
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