The Greensboro Mishap: How America Almost Beat Themselves in the Cold War

1961 America was a place big on dreams, hope and national pride. America had long ago left the Second World War behind them, having since built the world’s most powerful economy and military, and was the free world’s undisputed leader. The only threat to their existence, or so everyone thought, was the mighty communist empire, the USSR, that was participating in a nuclear arms race with the USA. However, at one point unknown to the public until close to a month ago, the entire eastern seaboard of the United States was almost destroyed by a nuclear warhead. This was not a result of enemy fire. However, if the weapon were to have blown up it would have been the most catastrophic instance of friendly fire in history that would have changed the world and, undoubtedly, the image of 1960s America.

On January 23^rd, 1961, Major W.S. Tulloch of the United States Air Force departed on a routine Atlantic Airborne alert mission in his B52G jet powered bomber from an air base located in Goldsboro, North Carolina. The mission would be Tulloch’s last as his plane began to leak fuel at an alarming rate. On his attempted descent to the air base, he lost control of the plane. The men in the plane ejected before impact; two were killed while five survived the accident. The more monumental issue, however, was not the safety of the men in the plane, but the fact that the plane held two 2.5 megaton MK. 39 nuclear bombs. Each of the bombs had a capacity 250 times more powerful than the bomb that ravaged Hiroshima and effectively ended the Second World War.

One of the bombs fell harmlessly to the ground, largely disintegrating on impact without danger of explosion. The other bomb had a more monumental descent. Of the four safety switches on the bomb, three were faulty and failed to stop the bomb from completing several stages of arming itself, including releasing its parachute, the final step before the bomb detonates. Luckily, a single low voltage switch on the bomb prevented a catastrophe with far reaching effects. Lt. ReVelle,  who participated in recovering the bomb after it landed, was quoted as saying. “As far as I’m concerned we came damn close to having a Bay of North Carolina. The nuclear explosion would have completely changed the Eastern seaboard if it had gone off.” Instead, the bomb landed without effect or much fanfare in a tree, standing upright as an omen to take further precautions in the future. If the bomb had exploded, experts believe the fallout would have reached populations centers stretching from Washington D.C. to New York City. Tens of millions of fatalities likely would have occurred.

At the time ,the US government insisted there had never been any threat to the public. In a time where there was greater trust towards those in authority, most people likely went on with their lives as if nothing had happened. Sadly, the near miss did nothing to dampen the pace of nuclear development for military purposes. We will never know how the world would have changed if that single low voltage switch had not held strong, but a United States of America with its own Chernobyl covering the entire Eastern seaboard is hard to conceive. What is even more disturbing, is how many other near misses were likely covered up by the Cold War government. At the very least, the Greensboro incident serves as a lesson for mankind that we are responsible for own fate, and in the future we can only pray that a single low voltage switch is never again the only safeguard protecting the lives of millions.