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Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See detail. This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show. On January 23rd, 1961, just four days after President John F. Kennedy was sworn into office, a B-52 bomber crashed near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Two H-bombs, each 250 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan marking the end of World War II, were thrown out and fell at a velocity of 700 miles per hour and crashed into Goldsboro, North Carolina. Information about this event was kept classified until 2013. This is the true story of that mission as told by the man who actually dismantled the hydrogen bombs in the aftermath of an accident that could have been the worst man-made disaster in history.
Here is Earl Smith with the true story of the Goldsboro Broken Arrow. Well, I graduated high school in 1956 in Hatton, Alabama. And like everybody else around there, the day after you graduate high school, you go to Kalamazoo, Michigan. So I go to Kalamazoo to visit my brother. I had a brother and two sisters live there.
And my brother had a neighbor about my age. And so we decided to go downtown on a Saturday morning just to fool around. And so there was a recruiter station. I said, let's go and make that thing.
I think we're going to join. So it was in the morning. We were down there. So by three o'clock that afternoon, we was pulling out on a train for the processing station in the Air Force. So anyway, when I went back, my brother was about to have a heart attack. He said, you did what? I said, I joined the Air Force. No, you didn't.
Yeah, I did. I got to leave this afternoon. And I left. We signed up on a buddy plan.
And after that, I never saw my buddy again. So he goes to California for schooling. I go to Texas. And the first school I went to is called Munition School. And they give you different tests to see kind of what you're qualified for. So this first assignment, they send me to it down to Puerto Rico, Ramey Air Force Base.
So I go down to Puerto Rico there. And while I'm doing the job and what the Munition maintenance calls for, which is basically taking care of the bombs and the ammo in the storage area and loading them on a plane, what have you. Well, the Air Force decided to start an airborne alert with nuclear weapons. So we had 33 B-36 bombers down there.
So they started what they call Operation Curtain Razor. Every day at one o'clock, a plane would leave Ramey. And at the same time, another plane would leave North Africa. There's one always in the air and five on the ground, or five days on the ground when loaded with nuclear weapons, each one ready to go, and ammunition.
So anyway, when I leave Puerto Rico, they formed a new squadron called the 53rd MMS, which is Munition Maintenance Squadron. And we wound up at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Back then, I just figured I'd rather disarm a bomb and eat when I was hungry, you know, but real reckless, you know, back then. But I'm the same kid that when I was growing up, all the little neighbor kids older than me, they taught me into turning over a neighbor's beehive and stuff like that.
And I'd throw a bucket in the well, the old Doug Wells, and I'd do stuff like that. I was real daring. So I guess it stems from back from something like that. I had put in for bomb disposal school, but before you can get in, you have to, I understand, have to have a grade of 90 or above, I believe, from Munition Maintenance for them to put the money behind you. And it's strictly voluntary, so I received an appointment after a few months to go to EOD school in Indiana and Maryland. Well, the school, like I say, was extremely hard.
You just literally live from day to day and hope you can make it through another day. Because the man when they're in the indoctrination, first of all, they take you out in this field. It's about a 20-acre field, and they have everything that's ever been thrown, dropped, or projected from all over the world up to a V-1 and V-2 rocket. It hadn't got to the big rockets at the time. And a man tells you, he said, gentlemen, before you graduate this school, if you're fortunate enough to graduate this school, you'll be able to walk up to any piece of ordinance out here and tell me what it is, what kind of explosive you've used in it, what kind of fusion system, and what country it's from, and how to disarm it.
And everybody's punching everybody. Yeah, sure. Yeah.
But before you leave that school, that's one of the easier things you can do. You're not even getting into the big missiles and what have you. But really, the nuclear bombs hadn't entered and hadn't entered my mind.
I just was never dreaming that I'd have anything dropped in my lap like was dropped in my lap. But once I get back to my base after I graduate, and it happened to be my night on standby. It was January. It was actually January the 23rd, 1961, when the control tire called me. And they said, we have a B-52 coming in tail number 0187 with fuel leaks in the Bombay area.
Well, I knew that was serious because when they go to let the landing gear down, you possibly have sparks could create a fire. And I lived off base. So it had been a snow on the ground. It was about 10 degrees that night. So I got dressed right quick and I didn't bother to lace my boots on.
I just wrapped the strings around them, tied them. But by the time I got to the base, they determined it had crashed off base about 12 miles. So General Moore already had a helicopter waiting for me because the EOD man has a first priority on what they call a broken air. The bomb that fell was a Mark 39 bomb, which is actually 3.8 megatons of explosive. And a lot of people don't know how much a megaton is. If you take a railroad car, coal car, and you load it heaping up with TNT, it would stretch all the way across the United States and back in far Chicago. That's only 1 megaton.
This was 3.8. And you've been listening to Earl Smith, the true story of the Goldsboro Broken Arrow. You're going to want to hear the rest of this story here on our American stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that all of our stories about American history from war to innovation, culture, and faith are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.
Go to hillsdale.edu to learn more. Hey, it's me, Tyler. Bose open earbuds are stylish. The color, it looks almost like an earring. I feel like it could go with anything. The music I'm making right now feels like a holiday. I want to look like it too.
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Based on the international best-selling thriller. The Pope discovered something before he died. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci.
Ambition becomes corruption. Join Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. We sisters have eyes and ears. Top critics are raving. Conclave is hands down the best picture of the year.
I had to find the truth. Conclave. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested.
Only in theaters this Friday. But 2024 presidential election is here. MSNBC has the in-depth coverage and analysis you need. Our reporters are on the ground. Steve Kornacki is at the big board breaking down the races. Rachel Manno and our decision 2024 team will provide insight as results come in and the next day Morning Joe will give you perspective on what it all means for the future of our country.
Watch coverage of the 2024 presidential election Tuesday November 5th on MSNBC. Just a few years ago only 3% of domestic violence shelters accepted pets meaning many abuse survivors had to choose between staying in a difficult situation for their pet or leaving their pet behind. One in three women and one in four men experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime and nearly half of survivors delay leaving because they can't bring their pets with them. Purina believes in the healing power of pets particularly for survivors of abuse. They believe pets and people are better together which is one of the many reasons they started the purple leash project. Through the purple leash project Purina is helping break down one of the many barriers abuse survivors face. The lack of pet friendly domestic violence shelters. Purina has helped increase the amount of pet friendly shelters across the country from 3% to nearly 20% through the purple leash project. With more pet friendly domestic violence shelters survivors and their pets can escape and heal together.
Visit Purina.com to get involved. And we continue here with our American stories and we just learned from Earl Smith that just one of the two hydrogen bombs that fell on Goldsboro North Carolina in 1961 contained 3.8 megatons of explosives. Here's Earl making that statistic understandable to laymen. The experts claimed that it would with a fallout and everything if one of them had gone off it would kill everybody all the way from New York City all down Eastern Seaboard to the tip of the Florida Keys.
So I'm pretty much wiping off the whole Eastern Seaboard. It was 250 times stronger than what was dropped on Hiroshima. That was only 40 kilotons. So this thing was it was just just a monster. So when we get out to the things he had a light under the helicopter and we're flying around and I see a parachute I said my god they're not supposed to be connected. So I said set me down as close as you can get to it and the guy said I don't want to get too close.
I said it don't matter buddy you get me close as you can. So General Moore tells me said now you can't touch that bomb or anything until we get permission from Atomic Energy Commission. I said no sir that's not the way it works and that scared me. So I got off and see what to do and I walk up to the bomb when I opened that access door and saw that red A. I mean I just I just turned cold. I mean it's scariest thing.
I was 24 years old and as the old saying what am I doing here you know that was something I just didn't sign up for. But it was it was it was armed and functioning and and I thought I really thought at that point when I couldn't find that other bomb I thought I was dying. I mean it's funny what you can tell your your mind you tell yourself and I did I was paying I had the pains in the chest and everything was right around. I mean buddy I knew I was going I was going fast but I had to get get done what I could and I happened to look over in the distance there's about a five mile area that was literally lit up over parts of the plane burning.
I saw an ambulance over with the big big cross on it and I started feel better for some reason or other you know. So a few hours later a few hours later every general seemed like an Air Force showing up and General Moore who was a General Moore was one star general and General Sweeney who was the the the commander of 8th Air Force of which I was assigned to. Anyway he starts asking me what all what did you do first blah blah blah blah and I said well I'm probably in a lot of trouble.
He said what do you mean? Well when General Sweeney found out that I had been told by General Moore that I had to get permission for atomic energy equation he turned to his aid and said get General Moore over here. I said oh lord I'm in trouble. So General Moore comes up and the very words he said to General Moore he said General Moore if you don't know this man's damn job I suggest you have him up to your office about two to three times a week for coffee and donut so he can explain to you what the hell he does.
Oh lord my heart just sunk because General Moore's going back to 8th Air Force and here I'm gonna be stuck on base with this general and I'm a little old airman first-class enlisted man you know and they made him look bad and made him look real bad. Nothing ever came of it but that was I was more scared of that than I was the bomb. I wasn't worried about the bomb I knew I could take it. Well about an hour and a half later three more EOD men a Sergeant Fletcher and a Sergeant Fincher and a Sergeant Evers they came out in the pickup and we proceeded to disarm the first bomb and what happens those bombs are so powerful they have to be let down by parachute because they blow the plane out of the air but they can be set up to 46 hours this can be that long a delay because they don't worry about the Russians coming up and disarming them because if they don't do exactly the steps as they're supposed to be it'll blow up anyway. So we knew that part too so you got to do and disconnect one CKT wire and then wait three minutes or so and then you know it's the steps you have to do it exactly so that's it that's the reason for the parachute so anyway we get this bomb taken care of and I called out the motor pool for them to get a to bring a flatbed truck out so they could get down in the lift to get this bomb to go back to the base or just it's taken care of. Well eight and a half hours after this happened this Lieutenant Ravel shows up with a crew from SAC headquarters Wright Patterson Air Force Base and he comes marching out there like little Lord Fortenroy taking in charge. Well the first thing he did was we finally found a second bomb and it was well it really took about about three days before we really got to the part because everything had to be done we'd have to be real careful digging because we had 92 detonators that were live and those had to be each one had to be counted for and put in a little container and get back to the base. Well when they got down they're deep enough to for the big after body part where the parachute was still in well Lieutenant Ravel and his group removed that out of the ground you have just that after body. Well I was the lowest ranking man and on there so I got the good duty of getting down in a hole and in the muddy water and icy water and everything reaching down in the hole and pulling up parts of the bomb and identifying what each one was and I reached down I got the the nuclear core righted up between my legs and I hand it to some I don't remember who it was but I told him I probably never had any more kids and I didn't after that so once we got all of that stuff out in a tritium bottle then there wasn't really anything else for them to you know that's explosive to where the big the big diggers couldn't come in and the local people wouldn't drink the water they were scared to death they wouldn't drink the water so we got permission to bring three of the old-timers around I can't remember even what their names were but anyway I took a cup and poured some water in it and I drank it and I said would you know do you think I would drink it if you know that kind of gave him peace of mind so I never heard any more thing about that but they told us to didn't want the public to know what we were looking for there was one a part had which right about three thousand pounds which was uranium 235 and 238 it hit hard pan and kept going and we were looking for this that's what all the digging was going to be about but they told us to tell everybody when they were reporting about yesterday we were looking for a part to an ejection seat which made made a lot of now that's what we actually had to say but one one poor man was a scarecropper and he looks up and see this humongous parachute was something then he thought the Russians were invading so he grabbed a pone of cornbread and some milk and some blankets they found him seven hours later under some bushes where they were looking for a major Shelton he he was something who killed him the body three bodies were killed in two bodies were in the wreckage immediately close to where the bomb was but five men survived one man captain Maddox he didn't have an ejection seat so when everybody else ejected he said he saw he saw a hole and he just dove for it never dreaming he'd get out so he made it through and then he hit the ride somewhere back to the base he still had a parachute and the gate guard was talking about going to arrest him thought he'd stole a parachute but nobody to my knowledge has ever escaped jumping out of a jet plane and survived and you're listening to Earl Smith and my goodness what he was up to that day in North Carolina well we never knew about it until fairly recently there's been a book written about it a big best seller it's being optioned as a movie the Goldsboro Broken Arrow is the thriller by Joel Dobson the book inaccurately recounts the story from the perspective of Jack Ravel and that's why we're bringing you Earl Smith's account he was the guy who did the work not the guy who wanted the credit and we know the difference between those two when it comes to political theater and show boaters when we come back we're going to continue this remarkable story the story of how one of the world's greatest man-made disasters was averted here on our American stories hey it's me Tyler both open earbuds are stylish the color that looks almost like an earring I feel like it could go with anything the music I'm making right now feels like a holiday I want to look like it soon check out Boze.com for more the Pope is dead from focus features comes the electrifying new film Conclave we're about to choose the most famous man in the world based on the international best-selling thriller the Pope discovered something before he died Ralph Fiennes Stanley Tucci ambition becomes corruption John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini we sisters have eyes and ears top critics are raving Conclave is hands-down the best picture of the year I had to find a truth Conclave rated PG parental guidance suggested only in theaters this Friday but 2024 presidential election is here MSNBC has the in-depth coverage and analysis you need our reporters are on the ground Steve Kornacki is at the big board breaking down the races Rachel Maddow and our decision 20 2014 will provide insight as results come in and the next day Morning Joe will give you perspective on what it all means for the future of our country watch coverage of the 2024 presidential election Tuesday November 5th on MSNBC just a few years ago only 3% of domestic violence shelters accepted pets meaning many abuse survivors had to choose between staying in a difficult situation for their pet or leaving their pet behind one in three women and one in four men experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime and nearly half of survivors delay leaving because they can't bring their pets with them Purina believes in the healing power of pets particularly for survivors of abuse they believe pets and people are better together which is one of the many reasons they started the purple leash project through the purple leash project Purina is helping break down one of the many barriers abuse survivors face the lack of pet friendly domestic violence shelters Purina has helped increase the amount of pet friendly shelters across the country from 3% to nearly 20% through the purple leash project with more pet friendly domestic violence shelters survivors and their pets can escape and heal together visit Purina.com slash purple to get involved the all-electric chevy equinox ev combines everything you need when you're ready to go ev starting at 34 995 the 2025 equinox evlt gives you an impressive balance of all-electric range safety features for peace of mind and effortless technology including the 17.7 inch diagonal display screen all at a price you'll love the chevy equinox ev is the fun to drive all-electric suv that gives you what you need to do exactly what you want the manufacturer suggested retail price excludes tax title license dealer fees and optional equipment dealer sets final price to learn more visit chevy.com slash equinox ev and we continue here with our American stories and we love telling you these stories from history because they're important and my goodness these are things ordinary Americans do that are well they're just extraordinary let's return to Earl Smith picking up with three other men who helped him dismantle the hydrogen bomb back in 1961 in Goldsboro North Carolina they're the real heroes too like I said they're they're they're all dead now and what had happened before this before I found out about all this somehow this lieutenant Ravel had found out the other three guys were dead so he thought I was dead too so he proceeded to tell the story like all it how he took care of that bomb which was a bunch of crap I mean just out and out blatant lie we had someone like because he had nothing to do that bomb was ready to the time he got shot come on team was taken care of ready to go back to the base and I imagine he was quite shocked when he found out that I was still alive after I come come up there and there was a lot of a lot of publicity about it after I got back home this movie producer called me from Paris France and he said he was making a movie called the Cold War and he loved to tell my story in it and he said I'll fly you back up there we'll pay all your expenses and everything I said okay so we I went back up there in in April of that year well the man who Kurt Keller who is a principal person he is he wants everything to be historically correct and he's the president historical society for Goldsboro well this lieutenant when he was telling his story me or neither three of the other guys were ever mentioned about anything never mentioned never mentioned so that set me on fire about getting everything straight so that's when I went back they had the absolute our Kurt Keller invited me up to tell the story as a matter of fact when we made this movie the man is flying over from Paris the guy who's the director or president of historical society he said this lieutenant Ravel was invited to be a part of it too he said I'll take bets he won't show up and guess what he didn't I was sure hoping to hell he would I was after all that he told and this stuff and and after three dead man Sergeant Fincher Sergeant Fletcher and Sergeant Evers well all they'd done and they couldn't defend herself and the way he did that I lost any respect I ever might have had about him and then when they write this book they write this book I think they ended up being two books I've only seen one Broken Arrow over Goldsboro the man that wrote that I finally had talked to him and I said I don't hold you I said first of all I asked him where did you get this information he said well from lieutenant Ravel I said well he polled you a bunch of crap and then I proceeded to tell him about what really happened and he said well I figured he was an officer and a gentleman I said well you kind of figured wrong on this one because he wasn't turned out to be other than that but he never showed up when we went to film this movie but that's the way it happened I remember everything just just like as yesterday I don't because when something like that is so vivid I mean something it's so important you just don't forget it but like I said I never thought we were told I never ever mentioned it they say you don't ever speak of this you know ever you ever you never never ever ever speak of so that scared this old boy so I kind of put it out of my mind you know well first of all they said something that bothered me for many years because they were telling everybody that all the parts were found and I knew that piece of uranium 238 through therapy was still in that ground and I didn't know where did anything it might have moved where it might have finally started doing something to the water supply and it bothered me for many years about the people living down there and and and but we were told you know you you don't talk about this you don't you know but they were telling the Air Force was telling we were looking for an ejection seat to see what killed Major Shelton and they spent a little over a million dollars digging now now me now million dollars in 1961 was a lot of money a lot of money so they they let us know right quick you don't talk about it they know and President Kennedy they only been in office four days and that was his first first speech I think he had to make about our press report I guess but like I said I know who they were a lot of generals not a general there and and a lot of media had started showing up believe finally and they well he threatened with a $25,000 fine that's what now they couldn't keep him out but that's that's what they did but it was born it's hello no you don't say a word about this don't say a word about it you know so I don't think it there is I thought for a long time I worried about it but because when you think about it the radiation would have come from from the core and we got the core out but this this other is buried so deep and uranium that's where it comes from out of ground anyway so so they're still on the ground they're doing they do regular testing on it but my later years I I got in I mostly selling RVs up dandy RV up in Oxford and these men came in and they were EOD men so I mentioned to one of them I said you know I I was ex-EOD man I said I worked on a little job up in North Carolina and he looked and looked at you you worked on that job that's yeah I said it sure did I said I was I was gonna stand by I had it by myself first our night he said you know it's all over the internet and I said well no I mean so boy I finally got in got on there and rest of reading all that stuff my blood started boiling and all that crap he was telling you know and I mean that not only just for myself for the other man that risk their lives even when you go out on something like that you don't know what's gonna happen and but for him to come in and try to take credit for something somebody else did it's just not right no what no way in the world I don't I don't hold any animosity toward him he's at the time I could broke his neck when I first heard about it but but you're not supposed to hate and I mean this the whole thing was just I mean just just just like something something never it's never happening and you've been listening to Earl Smith telling the story of disarming a hydrogen bomb no two hydrogen bombs that fell on North Carolina back on January 23rd 1961 this event was kept classified until 2013 and by the way assuming that everyone had died lieutenant Jack Ravel decided to well do what we all know people like this did what he thought he could do take advantage of an opportunity and take credit for work done by other men no surprise that he wasn't showing up wherever Earl Smith showed up because my goodness Earl would have had detailed memory of disarming that bomb that let's face it lieutenant Jack Ravel simply couldn't or didn't have a great story and by the way we always welcome your stories send them to our American stories calm and this is just a look you don't hear a guy talking about himself in heroic ways he he did what he was trained to do and he did it with a bunch of guys and a whole bunch of guys died probably trying to get this plane to land safely and not create again what would have been perhaps the worst man-made disaster in human history Earl Smith's story the story of a man who disarmed a couple of H bombs in North Carolina back in 1961 the year of my birth here on our American stories the all-electric Chevy Equinox EV combines everything you need when you're ready to go EV starting at $34,995 the 2025 Equinox EVLT gives you an impressive balance of all-electric range safety features for peace of mind and effortless technology including the 17.7 inch diagonal display screen all at a price you'll love the Chevy Equinox EV is the fun to drive all-electric SUV that gives you what you need to do exactly what you want the manufacturer suggested retail price excludes tax title license dealer fees and optional equipment dealer sets final price to learn more visit chevy.com equinox EV this is Tonya Rad from scrubbing in with Becca Tilly and Tonya Rad this is what you do when you've just found that statement handbag on eBay and you want to build an entire wardrobe around it you start selling to keep buying yep on eBay over that all-black everything phase list it and buy all the color feeling more vintage than ever it's out with the new and in with the pre-loved next thing you know you've refreshed your wardrobe basically without spending a dime yeah eBay the place to buy and sell new pre-loved vintage and rare fashion eBay things people love hear that pumpkin that's fall calling and the pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks from that first sweater to late autumn weather it's all a fall in just one sip order ahead on the Starbucks app hey it's Lance Bass from frosted tips thanks to Hyundai I recently took a road trip to Vegas for this year's I heart radio music festival I was joined by my friend and fellow boy bander AJ McLean and we got to explore some pretty cool spots along the way and we even recorded a special episode for you guys here's a sneak peek what are your must-have road trip snacks the original spree size sweet tarts but the original sweet charts not the little chewy ones those are not sweet tarts oh I like the chewy ones here are my go-to Reese's peanut butter cups got to where they have to be the holiday versions they have to be either Easter egg with lots of peanut butter pumpkin they got a pumpkin now I'm a peanut butter guy this episode is presented by Hyundai hey it's me Tyler both open earbuds are stylish the color the way it looks it looks almost like a earring you know so I feel like it could go with anything my style is very fun I feel like I always look like I'm on holiday I just really like playing around with it and tying it to the music so yeah I really 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