This is an anecdote that has remained in certain U.S. Army
artillery circles since the late 1970's. The event's documentation
is nowhere to be found, and its truthfulness is only supported
by the question, "Why would someone make this up?"
Here's how it goes.
The incident, it is told, occurred in Korea, where a U.S.
Army unit kept custody of nuclear warheads that could be released
to the ROK army in the event of an all-out war on the peninsula.
The ROK army had Honest John rockets, and apparently one of the
other duties of the custodial unit was to advise the ROK artillerymen
on the entire system. At least two U.S. officers were present
to watch the Koreans fire an Honest John one afternoon.
The rocket prior to ignition is held secure by three large
pins on its raised launching rail or ramp. The pins are painted
red so they can be readily seen, but apparently the one in the
middle is obscured from casual observation by some of the mechanism
and might be overlooked. A failure to notice and remove that
middle pin would set events in motion.
One of the U.S. officers gave this account:
"I was sitting there waiting for the rocket to fire,
and finally it did. I saw this big cloud of smoke and flames,
but I noticed that I didn't see any rocket coming out of it.
I thought, 'uh oh!'" When the smoke cleared up a little,
I could see the rocket was still sitting there attached to the
truck. Then, the truck started to shake and bounce around, and
pretty soon the whole thing kind of rose up slowly into the air
-- truck, rocket, and all! It got up about 50, 60 feet and then
nosed over, and slammed into the ground. The motor was still
burning, so it started rolling and bouncing end-over-end down
range, until it finally blew up."
Other than proving that the pins had a 200% safety margin,
since one of them was unfortunately all too capable of holding
the rocket on the rail against the thrust of the motor, I can
only imagine what went on in the Korean artillery battalion headquarters.
I imagine some rocketeers quickly became infantrymen, or worse!
I have never heard of such an event occuring to the 3AD or
any Army unit in Germany, but if anyone knows of such an accident,
or of any serious nuclear weapon mishap in Germany, please contact
me through the webmaster.
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