When Under Pressure – Keep Calm and Use Your Brain
How I Almost Lost Two Nuclear Warheads. (C 1968 by Hank Brooks)
This occurred when I was in the army during the Viet Nam War. I was about 25 years old, a second lieutenant and assigned to Ft. McArthur, California, as the post Chemical Officer, since I had a degree in chemical engineering. Ft. McArthur was in southern LA and supported the Nike Missile batteries which protected the Los Angeles area during the cold war. These missiles carried nuclear warheads which could be exploded in the path of enemy bombers, knocking out an entire squadron of bombers. The warheads had many mechanical parts, therefore they had to be serviced periodically by weapons specialists – located in Nevada, about a 10 hour drive away.
Late one evening I gathered the forces for the run to transport two nuclear warheads (in wooden containers about the size of a kitchen table) from a Nike Missile Battery to the Nevada repair facility. We had two jeeps (one for me and one for my XO) with radios with a range of about 4 miles (this was before cell phones), a commercial 18 wheeler with a truck driver and an army truck with about 10 armed soldiers for security. The soldiers had M-1 rifles locked and loaded. Myself and my XO had .45 caliber pistols. One soldier rode in the truck cab with the driver.
At the start of the mission I personally signed for the nuclear warheads (lesson learned: if you are in charge, have your XO sign for them). I briefed the troops: I would lead the column as the lead vehicle, followed by the truck with the warheads, followed by the truck with the troops, followed by the XO in his jeep. The standing order was, the truck driver and troop truck follow the lead jeep, wherever he goes. Every two hours I had to make a call in to Sixth Army Headquarters to let them know we were OK. If the call was not made they would notify Washington D.C. that a nuclear warhead might have been hijacked and they would also notify the State and Military Police to start a search.
All went well for the first two hours. We went down the freeway, I radioed my XO to come take the lead position in the column and I got off to make a call, on a public phone, to Sixth Army headquarters to let them know that “all is well”, then rejoined the column. It all took about 15 minutes for me to make my phone call and catch up to the moving column.. When two more hours had passed, I repeated the procedure, asking my XO to lead the column as I left to make my phone call. I then got back on the freeway to catch up to the column. I asked by driver to take the jeep up to 65 mph. After 15 minutes had passed there was no sight of them. They had orders to maintain a 50 mph speed. So I asked my driver to take it up to 70 mph for about 15 minutes – still no sight of them. I then got on the radio, “Phantom 1”to “Phantom 2”, come in “Phantom 2” – my XO’s call sign. Just static came back on the radio. We continued on for another half hour at 70 mph. I told the driver to pull over to the side of the freeway and started thinking. “What the hell is happening? Did I just lose two nuclear warheads, for which I had personally signed?” Remember the math problems you did in high school, “if one person is in a car going 50 mph and another person is trying to overtake them going 70 mph, how long should it take?” Well that’s what was going thru my head. My driver looked at me and said, “Sir, what do you want to do?” The “YOU” in his question sounded very loud to me. I said out loud, “I don’t know how it is possible, but somehow I believe we are now in front of them.” So I told my driver, with my fingers crossed, “We are sitting right here until them come up the road.” So I got back on the radio, “Phantom 1 to Phantom 2, come in Phantom 2”. Time was passing, I now had to make my call into Sixth Army in about 1/2 hour. My heart was starting to race. Once again, “Phantom 1 to Phantom 2, come in Phantom 2”. Then a faint reply, “This is Phantom 2”. My reply was, “Phantom 2, what is your mile sticker?” Phantom 2 said, “Mile sticker 262”. Just as I though (and hoped) somehow we had passed them. Soon the convoy came over the hill. I radioed the Sixth Army Headquarters phone no to my XO to make the call and I stayed with the convoy.
What happened? Our XO got a little confused when he went through Sacramento. Rather than continue on “I-5 interstate”, he took “I-5 Business”, which took him thru the heart of the city. Our truck driver had orders to follow the jeep in front of him wherever it went. As they were on I-5 Business, I came screaming up I-5 and passed the convoy as the two freeways ran parallel.
