April 26, 2023 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on January 23, 1961, a B-52 bomber crashed in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Two H-bombs—each 250 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan, fell to the ground. Earl Smith dismantled those bombs, and he's here to tell us the story.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lei Habib, and this is our American stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
On January twenty third, nineteen sixty one, just four days
after President John F. Kennedy was sworn into office, a
B fifty two bomber crashed near Seymour Johnson Air Force
Base in North Carolina. Two h bombs, each two hundred
(00:34):
and fifty 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 seven hundred miles
per hour and crashed into.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Information about this event was kept classified until twenty thirteen.
This is the true story of that mission, as told
by the man who actually dismantled the hydra and bombs
in the aftermath of an accident that could have been
the worst man made disaster in history. He rose Earl
Smith with a true story of the Goldsboro Broken Arrow Well.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I graduated high school in nineteen fifty six 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 lived there, and my brother had
a neighbor about my age, and so we decided to
(01:33):
go downtown on a Saturday morning, just food around, and
so there was a recruiter station. I said, let's go
in and make that thing. God, I think we're going
to join. So it was in the morning we were
down there. So by three o'clock that afternoon was pulling
out on a train for the processing station in the
Air Force. So anyway, when I went back, my brother
(01:54):
name was about to have a heart attack. You said,
you did what I said, I joined the Air Force.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
No you didn't, Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I gotta leave it, and I left. We signed up
on a buddy plan. After that, I never saw my
buddy again. So he goes to California for school and
I go to Texas. And the first school I went
to is called munition school, and uh, they give you
(02:21):
different tests to see kind of what you qualified for.
So this uh versus assignment. They sent me to it
down to Puerto Rico, Rainy Air Force Base. So I
go down down to Puerto Rico there and uh, well
I'm doing the job and what's a munition maintenance, UH
called for, which is basically taking care of the bombs
(02:44):
and now AMO in the storage are and loading him
on the plane.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
What have you.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, the Air Force decided to start an airborne alert
with nuclear weapons. So we had thirty three B thirty
six bombers down there. So they started what they call
Operation Curtain Raiser. Every day at one o'clock, a plane
would leave Raimi and at the same time another plane
(03:11):
would leave North Africa. There's one always always in the air.
In five on the ground were five days on the
ground was loaded with neutral weapons, each one ready to
go in ammunition. So anyway, when I leave Puerto Rico,
they formed a new squad and called a fifty third
MMAS which Ammunitions Maintenance quatern and we wound up at
(03:34):
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Back then,
I you know, I just figured I'd rather disarm a
momb and eat when I was hungry, you know, but
real regulously, you know that back then. But I'm the
same kid that when I was growing up, all of
the neighbor kids older me, they taught me into turning
over a neighbors beehive and stuff like that, and the
(03:54):
earth thought it was bucketing. Well, the old doug Wells,
I'd do stuff like that. I was a real dry
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 nine year above. I believed
from U Nation Man for them to put the money
(04:16):
behind you, and it's strictly voluntary. So I received an
appointment after a few months to go to EOD School
in Indiana in Maryland. Well, the school, 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 in
(04:38):
doctor Nation. First of all, I take you out in
this field. It's about about a twenty acre field, and
they have everything that's ever been thrown, dropped or projected
from all over the world up to a V on
V two rocket. It hasn't got to the big rockets
at the time. And a man tells you said, gentlemen,
(04:58):
before you graduate this school. If you're fortunate not to
graduate this school, you'll be able to walk up to
any piece of ordnance out here and don't tell me
what it is, what kind of explosive used in it,
what kind of fusion system, and what country is from,
and how to disarm it. Everybody put you every yeah, sure,
uh yeah, I mean it's but before you leave that school.
(05:21):
That's one of the easier things you can do. You
not even got into the the big big missiles and
what have you. But really the uclear bombs hadn't entered
and hadn't entered my mind. I just never dreaming that
I'd have anything dropped in my lap, like we dropped
in my lap. But once I, uh, I get back
(05:42):
to my base after I graduate, and uh it happened
to be my night on standby. It was January exactly
January the twenty third, nineteen sixty one, when the control
tire called me and they said, we have a B
fifty two coming in tell number one to eighty seven
(06:05):
with a few of leaks in the Bombay area. Well
I knew that was serious because when they go to
let the landing gear down, he possibly have sparks, could
you know, create a fire. And I lived off base,
so it had been a snow on the ground. There's
about ten degrees that night, so I got dressed right quick,
and I didn't bother to lace my boots on. I
(06:26):
just wrapped the strings around them tied them. By the
time I got to the base, they determined it he
had crashed off base about twelve miles. So General Moore
had already had a helicopter waiting for me, because the
led man has a first priority on what to call.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
A broken air.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The bomb that fell was Mark thirty nine bomb, which
is actually three point eight megaton to explosive, and a
lot of people don't know how much a megaton is.
If you take a railroad car, cold car and you
load it heaping up with T and T, it would
stretch you all the way across the United States back
(07:06):
in far Chicago. That's only one megaton. Only one megaton.
That's three point eight.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith the true story
of the Goldsborough 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
(07:35):
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
cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
(07:55):
to learn more. And we continue here with our American stories.
And we just learned from Earl Smith. That's just one
(08:16):
of the two hydrogen bombs that fell on Goldsborough, North
Carolina in nineteen sixty one contained three point eight megatons
of explosives. Here's Earl making that statistic understandable to layman.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
The experts claimed that it would with a fallout and
everything if one of them had going off, or would
killed everybody all away from New York City, all down
eastern seaboard to the tip of the Florida Keys, so
pretty much wiping off the whole Eastern seaboard. It was
two hundred and fifty times stronger than what was dropped
(08:52):
on Hiroshima that was only forty kilotons. So this thing,
it was just just a monster. So when we get
out to the 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. Uh So I said, set me down as
close as you can get to it. And the guy said,
(09:13):
but I don't want to get too close. And said,
it don't matter, buddy, you can get me close as
you can. So General Moore tells me. He said, now
you can't touch that bomb or anything until we'll get
permission 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. When I walk
up to the ball. When I opened that access door
(09:35):
and saw that red a, I mean, I just I
just turned cold. I mean, it's scariest thing. I was
twenty four years old and and there's the old Sam.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
What am I doing here?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You know?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
That was uh something I just didn't sign up for,
but uh it was. It was it was armed and
function and I thought, I really thought at that point
when I couldn't find it other I thought I was dying.
I mean, it's funny what you can tell your your mind,
you can tell yourself, and I did. I was paining.
(10:07):
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 was about a five mile area
that was literally lit up, parts of the plane burning,
and I saw a hamlet somewhere with the big, big
(10:28):
cross on it, and I started.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
To feel better for some reason or other.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
You know. So a few hours later, a few hours ever,
in general seemed like an air force showing up, and uh,
General Moore who was General Moore was one star general,
and General Sweeney, who was the the uh, the commander
of eight Air Force with which I was assigned to. Anyway,
(10:51):
he starts asking me, what all, what did you do first?
Blah blah blah blah, And I said, well, so I'm
probably in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
He said, what do you mean. Well, when General Sweeney.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Found out that I had been told by General Moore
that I had to get permission for atomic energycation, 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
(11:24):
nown 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 is sunk because
General Moore is going back to eighth Air Force and
here I'm gonna be stuck on base with this general.
And I'm a little wireman, first class enlisted man, you know.
(11:46):
And he made him look bad, 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. An hour and a half later, three more
of the eled men, a Sergeant Fletcher and a Sergeant
(12:06):
Fincher and Sergeant Evers. They came out to pick up
and we proceeded to disarmed the first bomb.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
And what happens.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
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 forty
six hours. This can be that long a delay because
they don't worry about the Russians coming up and disarm them.
Because they don't do exactly the steps is they're supposed
(12:38):
to be, it'll blow up anyway.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
So we knew that part too.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So you got to do disconnect one c KT wire
and then wait three minutes or so what and then
you know it's the steps. You have to do it exactly.
So that's that's the reason for the parachute. So anyway,
we get this I'm taking care of and I called
out the motor pool for him to get a to
(13:04):
bring a flatbed truck out so they could get down
in the lift to get this bomb to go back
to the base.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
It's taking care of. Well.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Eight and a half hours after this happened, this Lieutenant
Ravel shows up with a crew from Sack Headquarters right
Patterson Air Force Base, and he comes marching out there
like little Lord Fortnroy taking in charge. Well, the first
thing he did was we we finally found a second bomb,
(13:34):
and that was well, it really took about about three
days before we really got to the park because everything
had to be done. We'd had to be real careful
digging because we get had ninety two that nat as
we're alive, and those had to be each one had
to be counted for and put in a little container
and got back to the base. Well when he got down,
(13:55):
dug deep enough for the big after body part where
the parachute was still in well, a lieutenant revel in
his group removed that out of the ground.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
That was just that afterbody.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Well.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I was the lowest ranking man and on there, so
I got the good duty of getting down in the
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 uh,
(14:28):
I reached down and I got the nuclear core rited
up between my legs and I handed it to somebody
I don't remember who was, but I told him I
probably won't ever have any more kids, and I didn't
after that. So once we got all of that stuff
out in a treatium bottle, then there wasn't really anything
else for them to. You know, that's explosive to where
(14:52):
the big the big diggers couldn't coming in. And uh,
the local people wouldn't drink the water. You were scared
of death. I wasn't drink the water. So we've got
permission to bring three of the old timers around. I
don'tn't remember even what the names were, but anyway, I
took a cup and poured some water in it and
I drank it, and I said, well, you know when
(15:14):
you think I would drink it if you know? So
that kind of gave him peace of mind. So we
never heard any more thing about that. But they told
us to didn't want the public to know what we
were looking for.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
There was one.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
A part had which ran about three thousand pound, which
was you ran him two thirty five and two thirty eight.
It hit hard pan and kept going, and we were
looking for this. That's what all of digging was going
to be about. But they told us to tell everybody
when they would report anybody else, that we were looking
very apart to an ejection seat. It made a lot
(15:51):
of now that's what we actually had to say. But
one one poor man was a sharecropper and he looks
up and see this humongous parachute was something in it.
He thought the Russians were invading, so he grabbed a
pone of corn bread and some milk and some blankets.
They found him seven hours later under some bushes from
where they were looking for Major Shelton. He was something
(16:17):
who killed him.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
The body.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Three bodies were killed and 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,
(16:41):
never dreaming he'd get out. So he made it through
and then hissed to ride.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Somewhere back to the bass.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
He'll had a parachute and the gate guard was talking
about going to rest him. Thought he'd stole the parachute.
But nobody, to my knowledge, is ever escape jumping out
of a jet pline and survive.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
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 Goldsborough Broken Arrow is
the thriller by Joel Dobson. The book inaccurately recounts the
(17:25):
story from the perspective of Jackravelle, 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 voters. 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
(17:48):
averted here on our American stories. And we continue here
(18:09):
with our American stories. And we love telling you these
stories from history because they're important. In my goodness, these
are things ordinary Americans do that are.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Well, they're just extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Let's return to Earl Smith picking up with three other
men who helped him dismantle the hydrogen bomb back in
nineteen sixty one in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
They're the real heroes to like I said, they're they're
all dead now. And what had happened before this? Before
I found out about all this? Somehow this Lieutenant Revel
had found out the other three guys were dead, so
(18:55):
he thought I was dead too. So he proceeded to
tell the story like all and how he took care
of that bomb, which was a bunch of crap, I mean,
just out and out blatant lie or something or not,
because he had nothing to do. That bomb was ready
to the time he got shot. Come one was taken
care of, ready to go back to the base. And
(19:16):
I imagine he was quite shocked when he find out
that I was still alive. After I come up there,
and there was 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 he called
the Cold War and he loved to tell my story
in it. And he said I'll fly you back up
(19:38):
there and we'll pay all expenses and everything. I said, okay,
So I went back up there in April of that year. Well,
the man who Kurt Keller, who is a Princeville person
is he wants everything to be historically correct and he's
the prayer of the Historical Society for Goldborough. Well, this lieutenant,
(20:01):
when he was telling his story, me or neither of
the three of the other guys were ever mentioned about anything,
never mentioned, never mentioned. So that set me on fire
getting everything straight. So that's when I went back the
Kirk Keller invited me up to tell the story. As
a matter of fact, Uh, when we made this movie,
(20:24):
the man who's 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 the hell
he would was after all that he told and this stuff,
(20:47):
and after three dead men, Sergey Finchier, Sergeant Fletcher and
Sergeant Evers, with all they'd done, and then they they
couldn't offend herself. And the way he did that, I
lost him any respect I ever might have had about him.
And then when they wrote this book, they wrote this book,
(21:07):
I think they ended up being two books. I want
to see one. Broken Air over Goldborough 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 told you a
(21:28):
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 uh turned out to be other than that. But
he never showed up when we went to film this movie.
But that's where it happened. I remember everything just like
(21:52):
it was yesterday. I don't, 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 uh, like I said,
I never thought we were told and never ever mentioned it.
They say, you don't ever speak of this, You don't
ever you ever, you never never ever ever speak of it.
(22:13):
So that scared this little bore. So I kind of
put it out of my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Well, first of all, they said, it's 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 two thirty eight through thirty one was still
in that ground, and I didn't know where anything he
might have moved, where it might've finally started doing something
to the water supply. And it bothered me for many
(22:39):
years about the people living down there, and and and
uh but uh, we were told and no, you you
you don't talk about this, you don't, you know, but
they were telling the Air Force, were telling we were
looking for an ejection seat to see what killed uh
Major Shelton. And they spent a little over a million
dollar dollars digging now now, I mean now a million
(23:02):
dollars in nineteen sixty one. It was a lot of money,
a lot of money. So they they let us know
wherew quickly. You don't talk about it now now And
President Kennedy had only been in office four days.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
That was his first first.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Uh uh speech. I think he had to make about
a press report, I guess, But like I said, I
know there were a lot of generals, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Generals there and uh and.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
A lot of media had started showing them till they
finally had they will they threatened with a twenty five
thousand dollars Fine, that's what Now they couldn't keep him out,
but that's that's what they did.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
But there's more. They's hella, don't you don't say a
word about it. Don't say it word about it, you know?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So, uh, I don't think it Uh 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 other is buried so deep that iranium. That's
where it comes from out of ground anyway.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
So so uh, they're still on the ground.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
They're doing they do regular testing on it. But by
later years I got in I mostly selling RV's up
Dandy r V up in uh uh Oxford, and these
men came in and they were eld men. So I
mentioned to one of them, I said, you know, I
I was x eod men. I said, I worked on
(24:29):
a little job up in North Carolina. And he looked
a little looked that you you worked.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
On that job.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I said yeah, I said, sure did, I said, I
I was on stand by. I had to buy myself first,
iron I. He said, you know, it's all those the internet,
And I said, well.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
No, I mean so boy.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I finally got and got on there and rest reading
all that stuff. My bod blood started balling all that
crap he was telling, you know, and uh, I mean
that not's only just for myself, for the other man
risk their lives. When you go out on something like it,
you don't know what's going to happen. But for him
to come in and try to take credit for something
(25:09):
somebody else did, it's just not right.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
No way in the world.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
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 you're not supposed to hate. And I mean this,
the whole thing was just I mean, just like something
something that never it's never happening.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith telling the story
of disarming a hydrogen bomb. No.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Two hydrogen bombs.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
It fell on North Carolina back on January twenty third,
nineteen sixty one. This event was kept classified until twenty thirteen.
And by the way, assuming that everyone had died, Lieutenant
Jack were decided to well do what we all know
people like this, did what he thought he could do,
(26:05):
take advantage of an opportunity and take credit.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
For work done by other men.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
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 Ravell simply couldn't or didn't have a great story.
And by the way, we always welcome your stories, send
(26:30):
them to our American Stories dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And this is just a look.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You don't hear a guy talking about himself in heroic ways.
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
(26:56):
a couple of h bombs in North Carolina back in
nineteen sixty one, the year of my birth.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Here on our American Stories
This is Lei Habib, and this is our American stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
On January twenty third, nineteen sixty one, just four days
after President John F. Kennedy was sworn into office, a
B fifty two bomber crashed near Seymour Johnson Air Force
Base in North Carolina. Two h bombs, each two hundred
(00:34):
and fifty 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 seven hundred miles
per hour and crashed into.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Information about this event was kept classified until twenty thirteen.
This is the true story of that mission, as told
by the man who actually dismantled the hydra and bombs
in the aftermath of an accident that could have been
the worst man made disaster in history. He rose Earl
Smith with a true story of the Goldsboro Broken Arrow Well.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I graduated high school in nineteen fifty six 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 lived there, and my brother had
a neighbor about my age, and so we decided to
(01:33):
go downtown on a Saturday morning, just food around, and
so there was a recruiter station. I said, let's go
in and make that thing. God, I think we're going
to join. So it was in the morning we were
down there. So by three o'clock that afternoon was pulling
out on a train for the processing station in the
Air Force. So anyway, when I went back, my brother
(01:54):
name was about to have a heart attack. You said,
you did what I said, I joined the Air Force.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
No you didn't, Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I gotta leave it, and I left. We signed up
on a buddy plan. After that, I never saw my
buddy again. So he goes to California for school and
I go to Texas. And the first school I went
to is called munition school, and uh, they give you
(02:21):
different tests to see kind of what you qualified for.
So this uh versus assignment. They sent me to it
down to Puerto Rico, Rainy Air Force Base. So I
go down down to Puerto Rico there and uh, well
I'm doing the job and what's a munition maintenance, UH
called for, which is basically taking care of the bombs
(02:44):
and now AMO in the storage are and loading him
on the plane.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
What have you.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, the Air Force decided to start an airborne alert
with nuclear weapons. So we had thirty three B thirty
six bombers down there. So they started what they call
Operation Curtain Raiser. Every day at one o'clock, a plane
would leave Raimi and at the same time another plane
(03:11):
would leave North Africa. There's one always always in the air.
In five on the ground were five days on the
ground was loaded with neutral weapons, each one ready to
go in ammunition. So anyway, when I leave Puerto Rico,
they formed a new squad and called a fifty third
MMAS which Ammunitions Maintenance quatern and we wound up at
(03:34):
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Back then,
I you know, I just figured I'd rather disarm a
momb and eat when I was hungry, you know, but
real regulously, you know that back then. But I'm the
same kid that when I was growing up, all of
the neighbor kids older me, they taught me into turning
over a neighbors beehive and stuff like that, and the
(03:54):
earth thought it was bucketing. Well, the old doug Wells,
I'd do stuff like that. I was a real dry
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 nine year above. I believed
from U Nation Man for them to put the money
(04:16):
behind you, and it's strictly voluntary. So I received an
appointment after a few months to go to EOD School
in Indiana in Maryland. Well, the school, 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 in
(04:38):
doctor Nation. First of all, I take you out in
this field. It's about about a twenty acre field, and
they have everything that's ever been thrown, dropped or projected
from all over the world up to a V on
V two rocket. It hasn't got to the big rockets
at the time. And a man tells you said, gentlemen,
(04:58):
before you graduate this school. If you're fortunate not to
graduate this school, you'll be able to walk up to
any piece of ordnance out here and don't tell me
what it is, what kind of explosive used in it,
what kind of fusion system, and what country is from,
and how to disarm it. Everybody put you every yeah, sure,
uh yeah, I mean it's but before you leave that school.
(05:21):
That's one of the easier things you can do. You
not even got into the the big big missiles and
what have you. But really the uclear bombs hadn't entered
and hadn't entered my mind. I just never dreaming that
I'd have anything dropped in my lap, like we dropped
in my lap. But once I, uh, I get back
(05:42):
to my base after I graduate, and uh it happened
to be my night on standby. It was January exactly
January the twenty third, nineteen sixty one, when the control
tire called me and they said, we have a B
fifty two coming in tell number one to eighty seven
(06:05):
with a few of leaks in the Bombay area. Well
I knew that was serious because when they go to
let the landing gear down, he possibly have sparks, could
you know, create a fire. And I lived off base,
so it had been a snow on the ground. There's
about ten degrees that night, so I got dressed right quick,
and I didn't bother to lace my boots on. I
(06:26):
just wrapped the strings around them tied them. By the
time I got to the base, they determined it he
had crashed off base about twelve miles. So General Moore
had already had a helicopter waiting for me, because the
led man has a first priority on what to call.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
A broken air.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The bomb that fell was Mark thirty nine bomb, which
is actually three point eight megaton to explosive, and a
lot of people don't know how much a megaton is.
If you take a railroad car, cold car and you
load it heaping up with T and T, it would
stretch you all the way across the United States back
(07:06):
in far Chicago. That's only one megaton. Only one megaton.
That's three point eight.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith the true story
of the Goldsborough 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
(07:35):
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
cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
(07:55):
to learn more. And we continue here with our American stories.
And we just learned from Earl Smith. That's just one
(08:16):
of the two hydrogen bombs that fell on Goldsborough, North
Carolina in nineteen sixty one contained three point eight megatons
of explosives. Here's Earl making that statistic understandable to layman.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
The experts claimed that it would with a fallout and
everything if one of them had going off, or would
killed everybody all away from New York City, all down
eastern seaboard to the tip of the Florida Keys, so
pretty much wiping off the whole Eastern seaboard. It was
two hundred and fifty times stronger than what was dropped
(08:52):
on Hiroshima that was only forty kilotons. So this thing,
it was just just a monster. So when we get
out to the 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. Uh So I said, set me down as
close as you can get to it. And the guy said,
(09:13):
but I don't want to get too close. And said,
it don't matter, buddy, you can get me close as
you can. So General Moore tells me. He said, now
you can't touch that bomb or anything until we'll get
permission 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. When I walk
up to the ball. When I opened that access door
(09:35):
and saw that red a, I mean, I just I
just turned cold. I mean, it's scariest thing. I was
twenty four years old and and there's the old Sam.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
What am I doing here?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You know?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
That was uh something I just didn't sign up for,
but uh it was. It was it was armed and
function and I thought, I really thought at that point
when I couldn't find it other I thought I was dying.
I mean, it's funny what you can tell your your mind,
you can tell yourself, and I did. I was paining.
(10:07):
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 was about a five mile area
that was literally lit up, parts of the plane burning,
and I saw a hamlet somewhere with the big, big
(10:28):
cross on it, and I started.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
To feel better for some reason or other.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
You know. So a few hours later, a few hours ever,
in general seemed like an air force showing up, and uh,
General Moore who was General Moore was one star general,
and General Sweeney, who was the the uh, the commander
of eight Air Force with which I was assigned to. Anyway,
(10:51):
he starts asking me, what all, what did you do first?
Blah blah blah blah, And I said, well, so I'm
probably in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
He said, what do you mean. Well, when General Sweeney.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Found out that I had been told by General Moore
that I had to get permission for atomic energycation, 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
(11:24):
nown 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 is sunk because
General Moore is going back to eighth Air Force and
here I'm gonna be stuck on base with this general.
And I'm a little wireman, first class enlisted man, you know.
(11:46):
And he made him look bad, 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. An hour and a half later, three more
of the eled men, a Sergeant Fletcher and a Sergeant
(12:06):
Fincher and Sergeant Evers. They came out to pick up
and we proceeded to disarmed the first bomb.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
And what happens.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
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 forty
six hours. This can be that long a delay because
they don't worry about the Russians coming up and disarm them.
Because they don't do exactly the steps is they're supposed
(12:38):
to be, it'll blow up anyway.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
So we knew that part too.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So you got to do disconnect one c KT wire
and then wait three minutes or so what and then
you know it's the steps. You have to do it exactly.
So that's that's the reason for the parachute. So anyway,
we get this I'm taking care of and I called
out the motor pool for him to get a to
(13:04):
bring a flatbed truck out so they could get down
in the lift to get this bomb to go back
to the base.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
It's taking care of. Well.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Eight and a half hours after this happened, this Lieutenant
Ravel shows up with a crew from Sack Headquarters right
Patterson Air Force Base, and he comes marching out there
like little Lord Fortnroy taking in charge. Well, the first
thing he did was we we finally found a second bomb,
(13:34):
and that was well, it really took about about three
days before we really got to the park because everything
had to be done. We'd had to be real careful
digging because we get had ninety two that nat as
we're alive, and those had to be each one had
to be counted for and put in a little container
and got back to the base. Well when he got down,
(13:55):
dug deep enough for the big after body part where
the parachute was still in well, a lieutenant revel in
his group removed that out of the ground.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
That was just that afterbody.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Well.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I was the lowest ranking man and on there, so
I got the good duty of getting down in the
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 uh,
(14:28):
I reached down and I got the nuclear core rited
up between my legs and I handed it to somebody
I don't remember who was, but I told him I
probably won't ever have any more kids, and I didn't
after that. So once we got all of that stuff
out in a treatium bottle, then there wasn't really anything
else for them to. You know, that's explosive to where
(14:52):
the big the big diggers couldn't coming in. And uh,
the local people wouldn't drink the water. You were scared
of death. I wasn't drink the water. So we've got
permission to bring three of the old timers around. I
don'tn't remember even what the names were, but anyway, I
took a cup and poured some water in it and
I drank it, and I said, well, you know when
(15:14):
you think I would drink it if you know? So
that kind of gave him peace of mind. So we
never heard any more thing about that. But they told
us to didn't want the public to know what we
were looking for.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
There was one.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
A part had which ran about three thousand pound, which
was you ran him two thirty five and two thirty eight.
It hit hard pan and kept going, and we were
looking for this. That's what all of digging was going
to be about. But they told us to tell everybody
when they would report anybody else, that we were looking
very apart to an ejection seat. It made a lot
(15:51):
of now that's what we actually had to say. But
one one poor man was a sharecropper and he looks
up and see this humongous parachute was something in it.
He thought the Russians were invading, so he grabbed a
pone of corn bread and some milk and some blankets.
They found him seven hours later under some bushes from
where they were looking for Major Shelton. He was something
(16:17):
who killed him.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
The body.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Three bodies were killed and 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,
(16:41):
never dreaming he'd get out. So he made it through
and then hissed to ride.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Somewhere back to the bass.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
He'll had a parachute and the gate guard was talking
about going to rest him. Thought he'd stole the parachute.
But nobody, to my knowledge, is ever escape jumping out
of a jet pline and survive.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
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 Goldsborough Broken Arrow is
the thriller by Joel Dobson. The book inaccurately recounts the
(17:25):
story from the perspective of Jackravelle, 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 voters. 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
(17:48):
averted here on our American stories. And we continue here
(18:09):
with our American stories. And we love telling you these
stories from history because they're important. In my goodness, these
are things ordinary Americans do that are.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Well, they're just extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Let's return to Earl Smith picking up with three other
men who helped him dismantle the hydrogen bomb back in
nineteen sixty one in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
They're the real heroes to like I said, they're they're
all dead now. And what had happened before this? Before
I found out about all this? Somehow this Lieutenant Revel
had found out the other three guys were dead, so
(18:55):
he thought I was dead too. So he proceeded to
tell the story like all and how he took care
of that bomb, which was a bunch of crap, I mean,
just out and out blatant lie or something or not,
because he had nothing to do. That bomb was ready
to the time he got shot. Come one was taken
care of, ready to go back to the base. And
(19:16):
I imagine he was quite shocked when he find out
that I was still alive. After I come up there,
and there was 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 he called
the Cold War and he loved to tell my story
in it. And he said I'll fly you back up
(19:38):
there and we'll pay all expenses and everything. I said, okay,
So I went back up there in April of that year. Well,
the man who Kurt Keller, who is a Princeville person
is he wants everything to be historically correct and he's
the prayer of the Historical Society for Goldborough. Well, this lieutenant,
(20:01):
when he was telling his story, me or neither of
the three of the other guys were ever mentioned about anything,
never mentioned, never mentioned. So that set me on fire
getting everything straight. So that's when I went back the
Kirk Keller invited me up to tell the story. As
a matter of fact, Uh, when we made this movie,
(20:24):
the man who's 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 the hell
he would was after all that he told and this stuff,
(20:47):
and after three dead men, Sergey Finchier, Sergeant Fletcher and
Sergeant Evers, with all they'd done, and then they they
couldn't offend herself. And the way he did that, I
lost him any respect I ever might have had about him.
And then when they wrote this book, they wrote this book,
(21:07):
I think they ended up being two books. I want
to see one. Broken Air over Goldborough 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 told you a
(21:28):
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 uh turned out to be other than that. But
he never showed up when we went to film this movie.
But that's where it happened. I remember everything just like
(21:52):
it was yesterday. I don't, 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 uh, like I said,
I never thought we were told and never ever mentioned it.
They say, you don't ever speak of this, You don't
ever you ever, you never never ever ever speak of it.
(22:13):
So that scared this little bore. So I kind of
put it out of my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Well, first of all, they said, it's 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 two thirty eight through thirty one was still
in that ground, and I didn't know where anything he
might have moved, where it might've finally started doing something
to the water supply. And it bothered me for many
(22:39):
years about the people living down there, and and and
uh but uh, we were told and no, you you
you don't talk about this, you don't, you know, but
they were telling the Air Force, were telling we were
looking for an ejection seat to see what killed uh
Major Shelton. And they spent a little over a million
dollar dollars digging now now, I mean now a million
(23:02):
dollars in nineteen sixty one. It was a lot of money,
a lot of money. So they they let us know
wherew quickly. You don't talk about it now now And
President Kennedy had only been in office four days.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
That was his first first.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Uh uh speech. I think he had to make about
a press report, I guess, But like I said, I
know there were a lot of generals, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Generals there and uh and.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
A lot of media had started showing them till they
finally had they will they threatened with a twenty five
thousand dollars Fine, that's what Now they couldn't keep him out,
but that's that's what they did.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
But there's more. They's hella, don't you don't say a
word about it. Don't say it word about it, you know?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So, uh, I don't think it Uh 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 other is buried so deep that iranium. That's
where it comes from out of ground anyway.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
So so uh, they're still on the ground.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
They're doing they do regular testing on it. But by
later years I got in I mostly selling RV's up
Dandy r V up in uh uh Oxford, and these
men came in and they were eld men. So I
mentioned to one of them, I said, you know, I
I was x eod men. I said, I worked on
(24:29):
a little job up in North Carolina. And he looked
a little looked that you you worked.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
On that job.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I said yeah, I said, sure did, I said, I
I was on stand by. I had to buy myself first,
iron I. He said, you know, it's all those the internet,
And I said, well.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
No, I mean so boy.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I finally got and got on there and rest reading
all that stuff. My bod blood started balling all that
crap he was telling, you know, and uh, I mean
that not's only just for myself, for the other man
risk their lives. When you go out on something like it,
you don't know what's going to happen. But for him
to come in and try to take credit for something
(25:09):
somebody else did, it's just not right.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
No way in the world.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
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 you're not supposed to hate. And I mean this,
the whole thing was just I mean, just like something
something that never it's never happening.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith telling the story
of disarming a hydrogen bomb. No.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Two hydrogen bombs.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
It fell on North Carolina back on January twenty third,
nineteen sixty one. This event was kept classified until twenty thirteen.
And by the way, assuming that everyone had died, Lieutenant
Jack were decided to well do what we all know
people like this, did what he thought he could do,
(26:05):
take advantage of an opportunity and take credit.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
For work done by other men.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
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 Ravell simply couldn't or didn't have a great story.
And by the way, we always welcome your stories, send
(26:30):
them to our American Stories dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And this is just a look.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You don't hear a guy talking about himself in heroic ways.
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
(26:56):
a couple of h bombs in North Carolina back in
nineteen sixty one, the year of my birth.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.