Damaged Arrow: How the U.S. Navy Misplaced a Nuclear Bomb

On 5 December 1965, the large American plane service Ticonderoga was heading to Japan for relaxation and recreation for its 3,000 crew, following a month on ‘Yankee Station’ launching missions towards targets in Vietnam.

While preventing an actual battle and dropping males in typical warfare, Tico’s main mission was Chilly Struggle nuclear fight with the Communist bloc. The cruise from the Yankee Station to Japan was used to apply procedures for Armageddon.

Douglas Webster was a younger pilot from Ohio, newly married and with seventeen fight missions underneath his belt. On that day in 1965 he strapped into an A-4 Skyhawk bomber for a routine weapons loading drill and simulated mission. After mishandling the maneuver, the aircraft and its pilot sunk to the underside of the South China sea, together with a dwell B43 one-megaton thermonuclear bomb.

A canopy-up mission started. The crew was ordered to remain quiet, rumors flow into of sabotage, a broken weapon and a hard pilot who wanted ‘disposing of’. The incident, a ‘Damaged Arrow’ within the parlance of the Pentagon, was stored underneath wraps till 25 years later. The main points that emerged triggered a diplomatic incident, revealing that the U.S. had violated agreements to not carry nuclear weapons into Japan. Relations and the general public solely learnt the reality when researchers found archived paperwork that disclosed the true location of the service, tons of of miles nearer to land than admitted.

Damaged Arrow tells the story of Ticonderoga’s sailors and airmen, the hazards of fight missions and shipboard life, and the accident that threatened to wipe her off the map and blow US-Japanese relations aside. For the primary time, by beforehand categorised paperwork, by no means earlier than revealed photographs of the accident plane and the recollections of those that have been there, the story of service aviation’s solely ‘Damaged Arrow’ is instructed in full.

Desk of Contents

Chapter One: Eve of Destruction

Chapter Two: Warren, Ohio

Chapter Three: The Champions

Chapter 4: The Massive T

Chapter 5: Shore Depart

Chapter Six: Yankee Station

Chapter Seven: Overboard

Chapter Eight: Cowl-up

Chapter 9: Hope and Tragedy

Chapter 10: Accident #28