70 Punished in Accidental B-52 Flight (armed, yet!)

[Square Wheels[_3_]]

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002


--
G O T R I B E !!!

Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!

[Herman]

I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any other
country. Americans are, after all, more important than other people.

Regards,
Herman

"Square Wheels" > schreef in bericht
...
>
> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>
>
> --
> G O T R I B E !!!
>
> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>
>

[CWO4 Dave Mann]

Herman wrote:
> I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any other
> country. Americans are, after all, more important than other people.
>
> Regards,
> Herman
>
> "Square Wheels" > schreef in bericht
> ...
>> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>>
>>
>> --
>> G O T R I B E !!!
>>
>> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>>
>>
>
>

I was an Army SIOP custodian for 2 years.

Rules for flying over anyone's country with special weapons on board are
complex and strict. As for these careless assholes, I would have
preferred to see a Danny Deever Drum Out starting with the Secretary of
the Air Force.

This incident really has not gotten as much publicity and public outrage
as it should have. But, considering the Army kept the fact of a loose
SADAM secret for some 25 years, I am not surprised to read some of the
bull**** which was spread by the "official press releases".

I say cut their nuts off and post them on the bulletin board. ****ups
like this absolutely must never be allowed to happen again.

Dave

[David Hartung[_3_]]

CWO4 Dave Mann wrote:
> Herman wrote:
>> I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any other
>> country. Americans are, after all, more important than other people.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Herman
>>
>> "Square Wheels" > schreef in bericht
>> ...
>>> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> G O T R I B E !!!
>>>
>>> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
> I was an Army SIOP custodian for 2 years.
>
> Rules for flying over anyone's country with special weapons on board are
> complex and strict. As for these careless assholes, I would have
> preferred to see a Danny Deever Drum Out starting with the Secretary of
> the Air Force.
>
> This incident really has not gotten as much publicity and public outrage
> as it should have. But, considering the Army kept the fact of a loose
> SADAM secret for some 25 years, I am not surprised to read some of the
> bull**** which was spread by the "official press releases".
>
> I say cut their nuts off and post them on the bulletin board. ****ups
> like this absolutely must never be allowed to happen again.

I spent my 11 years in the USAF as a weapons loader and technician. I agree
whole heartedly. Given that the article says that 70 people were punished, I
suspect that some who should have been punished, got off scot free. The very
first people disciplined should have been the Wing Commander, The Director of
Operations, the Deputy Commander for Maintenance, the Flying squadron commander,
the Munitions squadron commander, and the entire flight crew. Add to that the
Munitions squadron(MMS) Maintenance Supervisor, the MMS Maintenance
Superintendent, The loading shop chief, the loading flight line expediter, the
entire load crew, the munitions handling crew, the the munitions handling
supervisor, the Munitions Storage branch chief, and the munitions controller on
duty.

I'm certain that there are more, but special weapons are not something to be
played with. Their security is serious, and it seems as if the people at Minot
had forgotten this.

David
former Tsgt. USAF

Former AFSC 46270

[SHIVER ME TIMBERS]

> I spent my 11 years in the USAF as a weapons loader and technician.

Well I'm just an armchair pilot like many in this group so what do I know
about nuclear bombs and what they look like.

BUT.... CURIOUS QUESTION.

Wouldn't it be a smart move to paint these little buggers in a special
vibrant day glo colour that someone looking at them from a hundred yards
would be able to recognize them for what they are.

I mean how could so many people handle such a thing and not realize that
they were nukes.

ARN'T THEY LABELED..?????????????

Now if they were day glo yellow with nuclear bomb imprinted down the
length in a font size that could not be missed......

Does that sound too logical.

[David Hartung[_3_]]

SHIVER ME TIMBERS wrote:
>> I spent my 11 years in the USAF as a weapons loader and technician.
>
> Well I'm just an armchair pilot like many in this group so what do I know
> about nuclear bombs and what they look like.
>
> BUT.... CURIOUS QUESTION.
>
> Wouldn't it be a smart move to paint these little buggers in a special
> vibrant day glo colour that someone looking at them from a hundred yards
> would be able to recognize them for what they are.
>
> I mean how could so many people handle such a thing and not realize that
> they were nukes.
>
> ARN'T THEY LABELED..?????????????

Yes, and missiles without warheads have a visible indicator that they are inert,
or at least they did in my day.

[CWO4 Dave Mann]

David Hartung wrote:
> SHIVER ME TIMBERS wrote:
>>> I spent my 11 years in the USAF as a weapons loader and technician.
>>
>> Well I'm just an armchair pilot like many in this group so what do I know
>> about nuclear bombs and what they look like.
>>
>> BUT.... CURIOUS QUESTION.
>>
>> Wouldn't it be a smart move to paint these little buggers in a special
>> vibrant day glo colour that someone looking at them from a hundred
>> yards would be able to recognize them for what they are.
>>
>> I mean how could so many people handle such a thing and not realize
>> that they were nukes.
>>
>> ARN'T THEY LABELED..?????????????
>
> Yes, and missiles without warheads have a visible indicator that they
> are inert, or at least they did in my day.
>

Still true today, including the difference in the colors gold and black
at the destruct points. Also there are technology-ripe methods,
barscanners, Palm Pilots specially modified and all kinds of other
stuff. Still and all, nothing, absolutely nothing beats the old
fashioned "Two Man Rule" inventory and walk around. That is what these
morons failed to do properly.

[Al G[_1_]]

"SHIVER ME TIMBERS" > wrote in message
...
>> I spent my 11 years in the USAF as a weapons loader and technician.
>
> Well I'm just an armchair pilot like many in this group so what do I know
> about nuclear bombs and what they look like.
>
> BUT.... CURIOUS QUESTION.
>
> Wouldn't it be a smart move to paint these little buggers in a special
> vibrant day glo colour that someone looking at them from a hundred yards
> would be able to recognize them for what they are.
>
> I mean how could so many people handle such a thing and not realize that
> they were nukes.
>
> ARN'T THEY LABELED..?????????????
>
> Now if they were day glo yellow with nuclear bomb imprinted down the
> length in a font size that could not be missed......
>
> Does that sound too logical.

Training weapons are blue, real weapons are not. There is a small window
that the crew is required to look through to confirm what kind of weapon the
are carrying. No one did this. Well, at least until the error was
discovered. You don't want the ability to confirm a weapons status from a
distance, that would constitute confirming the presence of a real weapon
publicly, which we do not do. I've seen people court marshaled for a minor
violation of the two man rule. Heads should roll, and that should start at
the top. No one was watching, and no one was watching the watchers. As
someone said earlier, the only guy that should get a "get out of jail free"
card is the airman that caught it.

Al G ex Aw3, ex loader.

[Al G[_1_]]

"Square Wheels" > wrote in message
...
>
> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>
>
> --
> G O T R I B E !!!
>
> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>
>

Not armed. Loaded, as in "Put aboard an aircraft". The aircraft carrying
these missiles, wasn't even equipped to arm and launch the weapons. Quite a
difference.

Al G

[CWO4 Dave Mann]

Al G wrote:
> "Square Wheels" > wrote in message
> ...
>> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>>
>>
>> --
>> G O T R I B E !!!
>>
>> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>>
>>
>
> Not armed. Loaded, as in "Put aboard an aircraft". The aircraft carrying
> these missiles, wasn't even equipped to arm and launch the weapons. Quite a
> difference.
>
> Al G
>
>

If they had been armed I really would have worried!

When a Special Weapon is at rest in it's individual packing case,
shipping case, or storage container, it is impossible to make the weapon
go into nuclear detonation. The essential elements are not there but
are someplace else.

When the weapon is prepared for use, certain elements are inserted into
the weapon and the device is then capable of being armed.

When the weapon is ready for deployment, certain steps are carried out
by authorized people in concert with each other to make the weapon into
a nuclear weapon ready to be detonated.

After the weapon is dispatched onto it's way to the target the weapon
may be detonated by an automatic procedure or by a manual remote control
procedure, or it may be "stunned" and the ability for it to produce an
atomic explosion canceled. The weapon may still end up on the target as
in a gravity bomb, but the detonating conventional explosive only will
explode.

It is highly unlikely that the device would be stunned after deployment
unless it were "en route" to the target with enough time -- say a few
tens of seconds -- to stun the device. That would not be a preferable
action, however, since fissile materials would be scattered by the
conventional explosion.

Anyway, hopefully this entire SNAFU will cause a very detailed re-look
at SIOP and Special Weapons procedures. Along with a whole bunch of
nuts pinned to the post bulletin board.

Cheers,

Dave

[Grumpy AuContraire[_2_]]

Al G wrote:

> "SHIVER ME TIMBERS" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>>I spent my 11 years in the USAF as a weapons loader and technician.
>>
>>Well I'm just an armchair pilot like many in this group so what do I know
>>about nuclear bombs and what they look like.
>>
>>BUT.... CURIOUS QUESTION.
>>
>>Wouldn't it be a smart move to paint these little buggers in a special
>>vibrant day glo colour that someone looking at them from a hundred yards
>>would be able to recognize them for what they are.
>>
>>I mean how could so many people handle such a thing and not realize that
>>they were nukes.
>>
>>ARN'T THEY LABELED..?????????????
>>
>>Now if they were day glo yellow with nuclear bomb imprinted down the
>>length in a font size that could not be missed......
>>
>>Does that sound too logical.
>
>
> Training weapons are blue, real weapons are not. There is a small window
> that the crew is required to look through to confirm what kind of weapon the
> are carrying. No one did this. Well, at least until the error was
> discovered. You don't want the ability to confirm a weapons status from a
> distance, that would constitute confirming the presence of a real weapon
> publicly, which we do not do. I've seen people court marshaled for a minor
> violation of the two man rule. Heads should roll, and that should start at
> the top. No one was watching, and no one was watching the watchers. As
> someone said earlier, the only guy that should get a "get out of jail free"
> card is the airman that caught it.
>


The person the "caught" it probably will be the one to get persecuted...

JT

(If experience means anything)

[Glenn[_2_]]

"Herman" > wrote in message
...
>I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any other
>country. Americans are, after all, more important than other people.
>
Except for Australians.

We rule

[Glenn[_2_]]

"CWO4 Dave Mann" > wrote in message
. ..
> Herman wrote:
>> I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any other
>> country. Americans are, after all, more important than other people.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Herman
>>
>> "Square Wheels" > schreef in bericht
>> ...
>>> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> G O T R I B E !!!
>>>
>>> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
> I was an Army SIOP custodian for 2 years.
>
> Rules for flying over anyone's country with special weapons on board are
> complex and strict. As for these careless assholes, I would have
> preferred to see a Danny Deever Drum Out starting with the Secretary of
> the Air Force.
>
> This incident really has not gotten as much publicity and public outrage
> as it should have. But, considering the Army kept the fact of a loose
> SADAM secret for some 25 years, I am not surprised to read some of the
> bull**** which was spread by the "official press releases".
>
> I say cut their nuts off and post them on the bulletin board. ****ups
> like this absolutely must never be allowed to happen again.
>
> Dave

I thought that Nukes were always flying around America. Or used to.
However, you're comments about rules about Nukes in foreign countries being
strict etc, we're told in Australia that
we can not be told if they have Nukes on board the carriers or not. We just
assume they are. Or are you saying that our Government knowingly lets Nukes
in.
That would be not quite how they portray it.m(but then all politicins are
lying little *******s) And kind of makes more sense on the Kiwi stand of not
allowing them.

[CWO4 Dave Mann]

Glenn wrote:
>
> "CWO4 Dave Mann" > wrote in message
> . ..
>> Herman wrote:
>>> I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any
>>> other country. Americans are, after all, more important than other
>>> people.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Herman
>>>
>>> "Square Wheels" > schreef in bericht
>>> ...
>>>> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> G O T R I B E !!!
>>>>
>>>> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I was an Army SIOP custodian for 2 years.
>>
>> Rules for flying over anyone's country with special weapons on board
>> are complex and strict. As for these careless assholes, I would have
>> preferred to see a Danny Deever Drum Out starting with the Secretary
>> of the Air Force.
>>
>> This incident really has not gotten as much publicity and public
>> outrage as it should have. But, considering the Army kept the fact of
>> a loose SADAM secret for some 25 years, I am not surprised to read
>> some of the bull**** which was spread by the "official press releases".
>>
>> I say cut their nuts off and post them on the bulletin board. ****ups
>> like this absolutely must never be allowed to happen again.
>>
>> Dave
>
> I thought that Nukes were always flying around America. Or used to.
> However, you're comments about rules about Nukes in foreign countries
> being strict etc, we're told in Australia that
> we can not be told if they have Nukes on board the carriers or not. We
> just assume they are. Or are you saying that our Government knowingly
> lets Nukes in.
> That would be not quite how they portray it.m(but then all politicins
> are lying little *******s) And kind of makes more sense on the Kiwi
> stand of not allowing them.
>
>
>


A priori: ALL politicians of whatever stripe are duplicitous thieves to
whom prevarication is a way of life.

The official US Government policy concerning Special Weapons is to
neither confirm or deny existence in any one particular place or time.
That means that the Aircraft Carrier on a port call may or may not have
SW on board. Same with storage facilities, and so forth. It is nothing
more than a political charade since any real enemy knows where they are.

For example, back in the days of thousands of ICBM's on constant watch,
the US Government would not release to anyone the locations and which
were armed with nuclear weapons. However, at the diplomatic level, the
US State Department routinely exchanged map coordinates of US and USSR
missile installations as part of various strategic verification
measures. Thus, while the tax-paying US citizen was denied information,
our arch enemy the USSR got it for free.

Anyway, you can use common sense if you are a military person or combat
buff. Any vehicle which has a "strategic mission" can be guaranteed to
be nuclear capable. That includes cruise missiles carried aboard ships
at sea, various air craft, submarines and so forth. Look at Jane's and
you will see that there are such things as nuclear depth charges,
torpedoes, demolition devices, and so forth, in addition to the odd 20
Megaton Hydrogen fusion device (reportedly the largest in the US inventory).

Back in the day when the Army Engineers developed plans to deny the
Fulda Gap to an on-rush of Soviet tanks, nuclear demolition charges were
stockpiled and ready to be easily emplaced. Not much thought was given
to the surrounding countryside of course, since it was assumed that
should those devices be employed, tactical devices fired from 155mm,
120mm and 8" howitzers would have already been used.

Today the greatest challenge facing the US nuclear inventory is "will
they still work". That is because of the exposure of internal
components to hard radiation and deterioration of said components. That
is why the PanTex facility continues to take in devices shipped from all
over the place and either rebuild them or de-militarize them. De-milled
weapons are separated into the fissile and non-fissile materials. The
fissile materials are either placed into storage or processed for other
uses or re-processed to make new weapons grade fissile materials. The
mechanical parts are recycled as scrap after destruction so that their
identity as components of a special weapon is erradicated. For pieces
of equipment which are radioactive, they are reduced to a shredded mulch
and stored in a nuclear waste container and facility.

We do not need as many nukes as we needed back in the old days of The
Main Enemy. It was always strategy that at least one half of deployed
weapons would be rendered ineffective by combat action before use (fancy
words meaning that your missile silo was hit by an enemy nuke before you
could launch). That added to the strategy of the Nuclear Triad (silo
launched sytems, submarine launched systems and airplane launched
systems) required something like 40,000 special weapons. That inventory
include such oddities as Davy Crockett Atomic Mortar rounds, Special
Atomic Demolition Munitions (SADAM) -- the quintessential "suitcase
nuke" although it was actually a backpack-able device slightly smaller
in size of a 5 gallon paint can and weighing about 75 lbs. (See, if you
were a Special Forces Engineer, you would parachute into enemy territory
and set the timer for a few minutes and then attempt to be a mile or two
way when it went off.).

Today, the USA still has enough special weapons to rule the world many
times over. Note that I do not use the phrase "destroy the world". We
ARE the preeminent nuclear power in the world and will be so for the
foreseeable future. Even China and the old Soviet Unions various
fragments can't possible approach our capabilities for deployment and
strategic or tactical employment. For example, think about the
potential of launching nukes at the capital cities of every nation in
the world which has ****ed us off in the past few years. So we use up a
couple hundred nukes? We still have several thousand left to make sure
the melted stay melted and irradiated for a hundred years. The Lesser
Countries of the World may yap all they want, just like the stray dogs
they resemble, but at the end of the day the USA still has several
thousand nukes which can be delivered in an elegant and effective
manner. This, of course, is the penultimate Jingoistic Wet Dream, but
most people in the world would not believe just how many Americans of
all colors, religions, political perpetuation, have frequent dreams of a
world cleansing by the USA with the attendant bending of that world to
OUR rules.

The End

[AWem]

I see there are some deeply-held feelings about lying weasle-word
politicians (on which I could not possibly comment) but you guys may
find this report of the officila version of events interesting:

http://dailyreport.afa.org/AFA/Reports/2007/Month10/Day22/

Happy reading :-)


Andy

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:16:36 GMT, Grumpy AuContraire
> wrote:

>
>
>Al G wrote:
>
>> "SHIVER ME TIMBERS" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>>>I spent my 11 years in the USAF as a weapons loader and technician.
>>>
>>>Well I'm just an armchair pilot like many in this group so what do I know
>>>about nuclear bombs and what they look like.
>>>
>>>BUT.... CURIOUS QUESTION.
>>>
>>>Wouldn't it be a smart move to paint these little buggers in a special
>>>vibrant day glo colour that someone looking at them from a hundred yards
>>>would be able to recognize them for what they are.
>>>
>>>I mean how could so many people handle such a thing and not realize that
>>>they were nukes.
>>>
>>>ARN'T THEY LABELED..?????????????
>>>
>>>Now if they were day glo yellow with nuclear bomb imprinted down the
>>>length in a font size that could not be missed......
>>>
>>>Does that sound too logical.
>>
>>
>> Training weapons are blue, real weapons are not. There is a small window
>> that the crew is required to look through to confirm what kind of weapon the
>> are carrying. No one did this. Well, at least until the error was
>> discovered. You don't want the ability to confirm a weapons status from a
>> distance, that would constitute confirming the presence of a real weapon
>> publicly, which we do not do. I've seen people court marshaled for a minor
>> violation of the two man rule. Heads should roll, and that should start at
>> the top. No one was watching, and no one was watching the watchers. As
>> someone said earlier, the only guy that should get a "get out of jail free"
>> card is the airman that caught it.
>>
>
>
>The person the "caught" it probably will be the one to get persecuted...
>
>JT
>
>(If experience means anything)

[AWem]

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:41:29 -0500, CWO4 Dave Mann
> wrote:

>This, of course, is the penultimate Jingoistic Wet Dream, but
>most people in the world would not believe just how many Americans of
>all colors, religions, political perpetuation, have frequent dreams of a
>world cleansing by the USA with the attendant bending of that world to
>OUR rules.


Sounds just like the Yenc "debate"!

(Sorry guys - just couldn't resist it!)

andy

Oh go on! Smile!!

[Grumpy AuContraire[_2_]]

CWO4 Dave Mann wrote:

> Glenn wrote:
>
>>
>> "CWO4 Dave Mann" > wrote in message
>> . ..
>>
>>> Herman wrote:
>>>
>>>> I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any
>>>> other country. Americans are, after all, more important than other
>>>> people.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Herman
>>>>
>>>> "Square Wheels" > schreef in
>>>> bericht ...
>>>>
>>>>> http://news.aol.com/story/_a/70-punished-in-accidental-b-52-flight/n20071019214309990002
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> G O T R I B E !!!
>>>>>
>>>>> Vote Kenny Lofton for Governor of Ohio!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> I was an Army SIOP custodian for 2 years.
>>>
>>> Rules for flying over anyone's country with special weapons on board
>>> are complex and strict. As for these careless assholes, I would have
>>> preferred to see a Danny Deever Drum Out starting with the Secretary
>>> of the Air Force.
>>>
>>> This incident really has not gotten as much publicity and public
>>> outrage as it should have. But, considering the Army kept the fact
>>> of a loose SADAM secret for some 25 years, I am not surprised to read
>>> some of the bull**** which was spread by the "official press releases".
>>>
>>> I say cut their nuts off and post them on the bulletin board.
>>> ****ups like this absolutely must never be allowed to happen again.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>
>>
>> I thought that Nukes were always flying around America. Or used to.
>> However, you're comments about rules about Nukes in foreign countries
>> being strict etc, we're told in Australia that
>> we can not be told if they have Nukes on board the carriers or not. We
>> just assume they are. Or are you saying that our Government knowingly
>> lets Nukes in.
>> That would be not quite how they portray it.m(but then all politicins
>> are lying little *******s) And kind of makes more sense on the Kiwi
>> stand of not allowing them.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> A priori: ALL politicians of whatever stripe are duplicitous thieves to
> whom prevarication is a way of life.
>
> The official US Government policy concerning Special Weapons is to
> neither confirm or deny existence in any one particular place or time.
> That means that the Aircraft Carrier on a port call may or may not have
> SW on board. Same with storage facilities, and so forth. It is nothing
> more than a political charade since any real enemy knows where they are.
>
> For example, back in the days of thousands of ICBM's on constant watch,
> the US Government would not release to anyone the locations and which
> were armed with nuclear weapons. However, at the diplomatic level, the
> US State Department routinely exchanged map coordinates of US and USSR
> missile installations as part of various strategic verification
> measures. Thus, while the tax-paying US citizen was denied information,
> our arch enemy the USSR got it for free.
>
> Anyway, you can use common sense if you are a military person or combat
> buff. Any vehicle which has a "strategic mission" can be guaranteed to
> be nuclear capable. That includes cruise missiles carried aboard ships
> at sea, various air craft, submarines and so forth. Look at Jane's and
> you will see that there are such things as nuclear depth charges,
> torpedoes, demolition devices, and so forth, in addition to the odd 20
> Megaton Hydrogen fusion device (reportedly the largest in the US
> inventory).
>
> Back in the day when the Army Engineers developed plans to deny the
> Fulda Gap to an on-rush of Soviet tanks, nuclear demolition charges were
> stockpiled and ready to be easily emplaced. Not much thought was given
> to the surrounding countryside of course, since it was assumed that
> should those devices be employed, tactical devices fired from 155mm,
> 120mm and 8" howitzers would have already been used.
>
> Today the greatest challenge facing the US nuclear inventory is "will
> they still work". That is because of the exposure of internal
> components to hard radiation and deterioration of said components. That
> is why the PanTex facility continues to take in devices shipped from all
> over the place and either rebuild them or de-militarize them. De-milled
> weapons are separated into the fissile and non-fissile materials. The
> fissile materials are either placed into storage or processed for other
> uses or re-processed to make new weapons grade fissile materials. The
> mechanical parts are recycled as scrap after destruction so that their
> identity as components of a special weapon is erradicated. For pieces
> of equipment which are radioactive, they are reduced to a shredded mulch
> and stored in a nuclear waste container and facility.
>
> We do not need as many nukes as we needed back in the old days of The
> Main Enemy. It was always strategy that at least one half of deployed
> weapons would be rendered ineffective by combat action before use (fancy
> words meaning that your missile silo was hit by an enemy nuke before you
> could launch). That added to the strategy of the Nuclear Triad (silo
> launched sytems, submarine launched systems and airplane launched
> systems) required something like 40,000 special weapons. That inventory
> include such oddities as Davy Crockett Atomic Mortar rounds, Special
> Atomic Demolition Munitions (SADAM) -- the quintessential "suitcase
> nuke" although it was actually a backpack-able device slightly smaller
> in size of a 5 gallon paint can and weighing about 75 lbs. (See, if you
> were a Special Forces Engineer, you would parachute into enemy territory
> and set the timer for a few minutes and then attempt to be a mile or two
> way when it went off.).
>
> Today, the USA still has enough special weapons to rule the world many
> times over. Note that I do not use the phrase "destroy the world". We
> ARE the preeminent nuclear power in the world and will be so for the
> foreseeable future. Even China and the old Soviet Unions various
> fragments can't possible approach our capabilities for deployment and
> strategic or tactical employment. For example, think about the
> potential of launching nukes at the capital cities of every nation in
> the world which has ****ed us off in the past few years. So we use up a
> couple hundred nukes? We still have several thousand left to make sure
> the melted stay melted and irradiated for a hundred years. The Lesser
> Countries of the World may yap all they want, just like the stray dogs
> they resemble, but at the end of the day the USA still has several
> thousand nukes which can be delivered in an elegant and effective
> manner. This, of course, is the penultimate Jingoistic Wet Dream, but
> most people in the world would not believe just how many Americans of
> all colors, religions, political perpetuation, have frequent dreams of a
> world cleansing by the USA with the attendant bending of that world to
> OUR rules.
>
> The End
>
>

And yet some politicos want to strip this cushion away...

<grrrrr>

JT

[muff528]

"Herman" > wrote in message
...

>I suppose it would have been allright if they had flown over any other
>country.

Isn't that what they're for? (tongue in cheek)

Seriously, I doubt that anyone would have anything to worry about unless
they were the intended recipient of the parcel. It's more an expression of
faith than actual knowledge, but I believe that for a nuclear event to
occur, there would need to be a much more complex unbroken chain of errors
than actually happened. Maybe I'm mistaken.

>Americans are, after all, more important than other people.

We *are* "other people".

TP

[[email protected]]

My tuppence worth:-

Tereis no way it would get anywhere near being Armed; Armed means
ready to drop.

Loaded is entirely different; weapons can be loaded on an aircraft
and be perfectly safe, but armed is a whole different kettle of
fish. Particularly for Special Weapons, which need, typically, three
components with extreme safeguards on each, to be brought together
and assembled before anything remotely like instant sunshine can
occur. On top of that special coded sequences while in flight have
to be carried out for the weapons to self -arm (in the old days Core
assembly in flight was done manually).
Cunning Plan!!! I'll give you a Cunning Plan!

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