"Broken Arrow, Volume II- A Disclosure of Significant U.S., Soviet, and British Nuclear Weapons Incidents and Accidents, 1945-2008" by Michael H. Maggelet and James C. Oskins. ISBN 978-0-557-65593-9, 348 pages, black and white photographs. Lulu Press.
Broken Arrow, Volume II is a continuation of the authors' research into nuclear weapons accidents. The FOIA process took three years, and after publishing their first book on Broken Arrows, they received an unprecedented amount of declassified material from several agencies. Therefore, they decided to write a second book focusing on nuclear weapons accidents and incidents. Most of the incidents date from the 1950's to 1967, and are quite interesting.
It's the authors' opinion that there are more than thirty-six nuclear weapons accidents; DOD declassified thirty-two in 1980, and FCDNA declassified the 1962 Johnston Island accidents in 1983. They believe there are near 60 accidents (one DOE documents says "95 accidents" which may also include Bent Spears), however, they don't have any AEC post mortem info and pictures are lacking. The basis for the authors' conclusion is severe damage to the weapons involved which would require repair or replacement at the production facility. Some of the dates listed in AEC files still have escaped their research efforts (some may have involved the loss of non-nuclear OST units).
Among the authors' most interesting finds were declassified documents on the accidental salvo of a Mark 17 bomb at Loring in May 1957, the jettisoning of a bomb off Jacksonville, Florida by an A-3D Skywarrior in 1957, and a communist bloc nation shelling a US Navy destroyer in 1967. They present documentation on CIA's "Operation Azorian" and recovery of a portion of a Soviet submarine and its nuclear weapons (or remnants thereof). This volume also covers known Soviet accidents, some incidents, and declassified documents on UK incidents and EOD RSP actions. The much over hyped Goldsboro accident is covered, and there are some great photo's on early weapons and additional data on several notable accidents.
Additional chapters are devoted to Bent Spears and the 1958 Cunningham incident, the 1975 collision between the USS John F. Kennedy and USS Belknap, the loss of the USS Scorpion, and photos of the 1980 Titan II accident site.
In all, the authors' think you'll enjoy "Broken Arrow, Volume II" for it's wide coverage of nuclear weapons accident history and events during the Cold War era.
"Broken Arrow, Volume II" is available from Amazon.com and other booksellers. Autographed copies are available from the authors for a small fee.
Review - Neil Zampella
I purchased this book directly from Mike, and was immediately impressed with the depth of detail and knowledge the authors have brought to what most 463s would think would be a very dry set of reports.
Their additional research into the previously secret background reports of the various Broken Arrows that are publically known, puts names and locations to previously generallized narratives. A few of the reports brought back memories of bases I was assigned to. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the US military's use and deployment of nuclear weapons.