January 25, 2024 • 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!
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
January twenty third, nineteen sixty one, just four days after
President John F.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Kennedy was sworn.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Into office, a B fifty two bomber crashed near Seymour
Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Two h bombs,
each two hundred 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 Goldsboro, North Carolina.
(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. Hero was 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
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 name was
(01:54):
about to have a heart attack.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
You say, you did what I said I'll do oined
the Air Force. 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 h for school
and I go to Texas And the first school I
went to is called munition school, and uh, they give
(02:21):
you 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 go
down down to Puerto Rico there and uh, well I'm
doing the job and what a munition maintenance uh called for,
(02:41):
which is basically taking care of the bombs and AMO
in the storage there 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 would 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 end. 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 I
(03:55):
thought it bucketing Well, the old Doug Wells, and I'd do.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I was real therey, 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 you Nation man for
them to put the money behind you. And it's strictly voluntary.
(04:19):
So I received an appointment after a few months to
go to EOD School in Indiana and 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
Indian doctor Nation. First of all, I take you out
(04:40):
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
one and V two rocket. It hasn't got to the
big rockets at the time. And a man tells you said, gentlemen,
before you graduate this school. If you're fortunate enough to
(05:01):
graduate this school, you'll be able to walk up to
any piece of ordinance 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. Neverybody 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. They said, we have a B fifty
two coming in till number one eighty seven with a
(06:05):
few 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 just wrapped
(06:26):
the strings around them, tight them. But 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 a
broken air. The bomb that fell was Mark thirty nine bomb,
(06:49):
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, they would
stretch you all the way across the United States and
back in far Chicago. That's only one megaton. Only one megaton.
(07:10):
This was three point eight.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith the true story
of the Goldsborough Broken Arrow and that occurred on this
day in nineteen sixty one. 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.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
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 to learn more. And we continue
(08:12):
here with our American stories. And we just learned from
Earl Smith. That's just one of the two hydrogen bombs
that fell on Goldsboro, North Carolina on this day 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 are 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
(08:53):
on Hiroshima that was only forty kilotons. So this thing
was 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
(09:14):
guy said, but I don't want to get too close,
and said, it don't matter what. 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 with ATOMAC 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
(09:35):
access door 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. What am I doing here?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You know?
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That was uh some I just didn't sign up for.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But uh it was.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It was it was armed and function And I thought,
I really thought at that point when I said couldn't
find that other moment, 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, I
had the pains in the chest, and everything was right around.
I mean, buddy, I knew I was going I was
(10:14):
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 cross on it,
and I started to feel better for some reason or other,
you know. So a few hours later, a few hours ever,
(10:37):
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 uh, the commander of
eight Air Force, of which I was assigned to.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Anyway, he starts to asking me, what all, what did
you do first?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Blah blah blah blah, And I said, well, so I'm
probably in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
He said, what do you mean.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, when General Sweeney found out that I had been
told by General Moore that I had to get permission
for atomic inergyctation, he turned to his aid and said,
get General Moore over here.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I said, Oh lord, I'm in trouble.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
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, 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.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Oh lord, my heart.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Just sunk because General Moore is going back to eighth
Air Force and here I'm gonna be stuck on base
with this general. I'm a little wireman, first class enlisted man,
you know. 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 wasnt worried about the bomb. I knew
(11:58):
I could take you well. About an hour and a
half later, three more of the eled men, a Sergeant
Fletcher and a Sergeant Fincher and Sergeant Evers, they came
out and to pick up and we proceeded to disarmed
the first bomb.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
And what happens.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
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
(12:39):
to be.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It'll blow up anyway. So we knew that part too.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
So you got to do disconnect one c KT 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 the reason for the parachute. So anyway, we
get this bomb taken care of, and I called out
the motor pool for him to get a to bring
(13:05):
a flatbed truck out so they could get down in
the lift to get this bomb to go back to
the base.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
It's taking care of.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
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,
(13:35):
and that was what 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 night, as
we're live, and those had to be each one had
to be county for him and put in a little
container and got back to the base. Well when he
(13:55):
got down, dug deep enough for the big after body
part where the pair she was still in. Well, a
lieutenant revel in his group removed that out of the ground.
That was just that afterbody. Well, I was the lowest
ranking man and on there, so I got the good
duty of getting down in the hole, down in the
(14:18):
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, I reached down,
I got the nuclear core rited up between my legs
and I handed it to somebody, don't remember who was,
but I told him I probably won't ever have any.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
More kids, and I didn't after that.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So once we got all of that stuff out in
a treatum 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 coming in and uh, the local
people wouldn't drink the water. You were scared to death.
I wasn't drink the water. So we've got permission to
(15:03):
bring three of the old timers around. I don'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 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
(15:26):
want the public to know what we were looking for.
There was one a part had which ran about three
thousand pounds, 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 were a reporter anybody else,
(15:48):
that we were looking for a part to an ejection seat.
We made a lot of now that's what we actually.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Had to say.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
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
(16:18):
who killed him.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
The body.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
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,
(16:42):
never dreaming he'd get out. So he made it through
and then hissed to ride somewhere back to the bass.
Hell 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, is ever escape jumped outawa
jet plain and survive.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
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
(17:26):
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 averted,
(17:50):
and that occurred on this day in nineteen sixty one
here on our American stories. And we continue here with
our American stories. And we love telling you these stories
(18:12):
from history because they're important. In my goodness, these are
the 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, and that
occurred on this day in nineteen sixty one in Goldsboro,
(18:34):
North Carolina.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
They're the real heroes to Like I said, 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 he
(18:57):
thought I was dead too, so needed to tell the
story like all of 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 on, team was taken care of,
ready to go back to the base. And I imagine
(19:18):
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
(19:40):
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,
(20:03):
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 getting everything straight.
So that's when I went back. Kirk Keller invited me
up to tell the story. As a matter of fact,
(20:24):
when we made this movie, the man who's flying over
from Parish, 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
(20:47):
all that he told and this stuff. And after three
dead men, Sergey Finchier, Sergeant Fletcher and Sergeant Evers, with
all they'd done and they couldn't offend herself.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
He did that.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I lost any respect I ever might have had about him.
And then when they wrote this book, they wrote this book.
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
(21:22):
asked him where did you get this information? He said,
well from Lieutenant Ravel. I said, well, he told 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.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Other than that.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
But he never showed up when we went to film
this movie. But that's where it happened. I remember everything
just like it yesterday, 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 like I said, I
never thought we were told and never ever mentioned it.
(22:07):
They say, you don't ever speak of this, You don't
ever you ever, you never, never ever ever speak of it.
So that scared this little boy, so I kind of
put it out of my mind.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
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
(22:41):
years about the people living down there, and and uh,
but uh, we were told and no, 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 injection seat to see what killed h Major Shelton,
and they I met a little over a million dollars
(23:02):
digging now now, I mean now a million dollars in
nineteen sixty one.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
It was a lot of money, a lot of money.
So they they let us know. Verrew quickly. You don't
talk about it now.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And President Kennedy had only been in office four days
and that was his first first 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 generals there and uh and
a lot of media had started showing them till they
finally had that. Willy threatened with a twenty five thousand
(23:35):
dollars fine.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
That's what now.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
They couldn't keep him out, but that's that's what they did.
But there was bore that's hello. Don't you don't say
a word about it. Don't say word about it, you know, so, uh,
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
(23:59):
the core and got the core out. But this other
is buried so deep that iranium, that's where it comes
from out of the ground anyway. So so uh, they're
still on the ground. They're doing they do regular testing
on it. But by later years I got in I
mostly selling RV's up ut Dandy r V up in
(24:19):
uh uh 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 x eod men.
I said, I worked on a little job up in
North Carolina. And he looked a little looked at you.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
You worked on that job? I said yeah, I said,
sure did, I said I was. I was on stand by.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I had to buy myself first are and I He said,
you know it's all those the internet? And I said,
well no, I mean so boy. I finally got and
got on there and rest reading all that stuff, my
blood 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 men that risk their lives.
(25:03):
When you go out on something like that, you don't
know what's going to happen. But for him to come
in and try to take credit for something somebody else
did it's just not right.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
No way in the world.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
I don't hold any animosity toward him 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's never happening.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith telling the story
of disarming a hydrogen bomb.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
No.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Two hydrogen bombs.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
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
Jackravell decided to well do what we all know people
like this, did what he thought he could do, take
(26:07):
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 Reravell simply couldn't or didn't have
a great story. And by the way, we always welcome
(26:30):
your stories, send them to our American Stories dot com.
And this is just a look, 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
(26:52):
man made disaster in human history. Earl Smith's story the
story of a man who disarmed a couple of h bombs,
and that occurred on this day in nineteen sixty one,
the year of my birth.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Here are now American stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
January twenty third, nineteen sixty one, just four days after
President John F.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Kennedy was sworn.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Into office, a B fifty two bomber crashed near Seymour
Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Two h bombs,
each two hundred 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 Goldsboro, North Carolina.
(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. Hero was 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
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 name was
(01:54):
about to have a heart attack.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
You say, you did what I said I'll do oined
the Air Force. 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 h for school
and I go to Texas And the first school I
went to is called munition school, and uh, they give
(02:21):
you 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 go
down down to Puerto Rico there and uh, well I'm
doing the job and what a munition maintenance uh called for,
(02:41):
which is basically taking care of the bombs and AMO
in the storage there 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 would 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 end. 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 I
(03:55):
thought it bucketing Well, the old Doug Wells, and I'd do.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I was real therey, 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 you Nation man for
them to put the money behind you. And it's strictly voluntary.
(04:19):
So I received an appointment after a few months to
go to EOD School in Indiana and 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
Indian doctor Nation. First of all, I take you out
(04:40):
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
one and V two rocket. It hasn't got to the
big rockets at the time. And a man tells you said, gentlemen,
before you graduate this school. If you're fortunate enough to
(05:01):
graduate this school, you'll be able to walk up to
any piece of ordinance 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. Neverybody 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. They said, we have a B fifty
two coming in till number one eighty seven with a
(06:05):
few 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 just wrapped
(06:26):
the strings around them, tight them. But 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 a
broken air. The bomb that fell was Mark thirty nine bomb,
(06:49):
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, they would
stretch you all the way across the United States and
back in far Chicago. That's only one megaton. Only one megaton.
(07:10):
This was three point eight.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith the true story
of the Goldsborough Broken Arrow and that occurred on this
day in nineteen sixty one. 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.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
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 to learn more. And we continue
(08:12):
here with our American stories. And we just learned from
Earl Smith. That's just one of the two hydrogen bombs
that fell on Goldsboro, North Carolina on this day 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 are 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
(08:53):
on Hiroshima that was only forty kilotons. So this thing
was 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
(09:14):
guy said, but I don't want to get too close,
and said, it don't matter what. 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 with ATOMAC 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
(09:35):
access door 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. What am I doing here?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You know?
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That was uh some I just didn't sign up for.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But uh it was.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It was it was armed and function And I thought,
I really thought at that point when I said couldn't
find that other moment, 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, I
had the pains in the chest, and everything was right around.
I mean, buddy, I knew I was going I was
(10:14):
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 cross on it,
and I started to feel better for some reason or other,
you know. So a few hours later, a few hours ever,
(10:37):
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 uh, the commander of
eight Air Force, of which I was assigned to.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Anyway, he starts to asking me, what all, what did
you do first?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Blah blah blah blah, And I said, well, so I'm
probably in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
He said, what do you mean.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, when General Sweeney found out that I had been
told by General Moore that I had to get permission
for atomic inergyctation, he turned to his aid and said,
get General Moore over here.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I said, Oh lord, I'm in trouble.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
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, 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.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Oh lord, my heart.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Just sunk because General Moore is going back to eighth
Air Force and here I'm gonna be stuck on base
with this general. I'm a little wireman, first class enlisted man,
you know. 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 wasnt worried about the bomb. I knew
(11:58):
I could take you well. About an hour and a
half later, three more of the eled men, a Sergeant
Fletcher and a Sergeant Fincher and Sergeant Evers, they came
out and to pick up and we proceeded to disarmed
the first bomb.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
And what happens.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
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
(12:39):
to be.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It'll blow up anyway. So we knew that part too.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
So you got to do disconnect one c KT 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 the reason for the parachute. So anyway, we
get this bomb taken care of, and I called out
the motor pool for him to get a to bring
(13:05):
a flatbed truck out so they could get down in
the lift to get this bomb to go back to
the base.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
It's taking care of.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
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,
(13:35):
and that was what 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 night, as
we're live, and those had to be each one had
to be county for him and put in a little
container and got back to the base. Well when he
(13:55):
got down, dug deep enough for the big after body
part where the pair she was still in. Well, a
lieutenant revel in his group removed that out of the ground.
That was just that afterbody. Well, I was the lowest
ranking man and on there, so I got the good
duty of getting down in the hole, down in the
(14:18):
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, I reached down,
I got the nuclear core rited up between my legs
and I handed it to somebody, don't remember who was,
but I told him I probably won't ever have any.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
More kids, and I didn't after that.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So once we got all of that stuff out in
a treatum 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 coming in and uh, the local
people wouldn't drink the water. You were scared to death.
I wasn't drink the water. So we've got permission to
(15:03):
bring three of the old timers around. I don'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 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
(15:26):
want the public to know what we were looking for.
There was one a part had which ran about three
thousand pounds, 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 were a reporter anybody else,
(15:48):
that we were looking for a part to an ejection seat.
We made a lot of now that's what we actually.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Had to say.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
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
(16:18):
who killed him.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
The body.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
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,
(16:42):
never dreaming he'd get out. So he made it through
and then hissed to ride somewhere back to the bass.
Hell 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, is ever escape jumped outawa
jet plain and survive.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
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
(17:26):
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 averted,
(17:50):
and that occurred on this day in nineteen sixty one
here on our American stories. And we continue here with
our American stories. And we love telling you these stories
(18:12):
from history because they're important. In my goodness, these are
the 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, and that
occurred on this day in nineteen sixty one in Goldsboro,
(18:34):
North Carolina.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
They're the real heroes to Like I said, 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 he
(18:57):
thought I was dead too, so needed to tell the
story like all of 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 on, team was taken care of,
ready to go back to the base. And I imagine
(19:18):
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
(19:40):
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,
(20:03):
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 getting everything straight.
So that's when I went back. Kirk Keller invited me
up to tell the story. As a matter of fact,
(20:24):
when we made this movie, the man who's flying over
from Parish, 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
(20:47):
all that he told and this stuff. And after three
dead men, Sergey Finchier, Sergeant Fletcher and Sergeant Evers, with
all they'd done and they couldn't offend herself.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
He did that.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I lost any respect I ever might have had about him.
And then when they wrote this book, they wrote this book.
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
(21:22):
asked him where did you get this information? He said,
well from Lieutenant Ravel. I said, well, he told 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.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Other than that.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
But he never showed up when we went to film
this movie. But that's where it happened. I remember everything
just like it yesterday, 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 like I said, I
never thought we were told and never ever mentioned it.
(22:07):
They say, you don't ever speak of this, You don't
ever you ever, you never, never ever ever speak of it.
So that scared this little boy, so I kind of
put it out of my mind.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
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
(22:41):
years about the people living down there, and and uh,
but uh, we were told and no, 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 injection seat to see what killed h Major Shelton,
and they I met a little over a million dollars
(23:02):
digging now now, I mean now a million dollars in
nineteen sixty one.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
It was a lot of money, a lot of money.
So they they let us know. Verrew quickly. You don't
talk about it now.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And President Kennedy had only been in office four days
and that was his first first 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 generals there and uh and
a lot of media had started showing them till they
finally had that. Willy threatened with a twenty five thousand
(23:35):
dollars fine.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
That's what now.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
They couldn't keep him out, but that's that's what they did.
But there was bore that's hello. Don't you don't say
a word about it. Don't say word about it, you know, so, uh,
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
(23:59):
the core and got the core out. But this other
is buried so deep that iranium, that's where it comes
from out of the ground anyway. So so uh, they're
still on the ground. They're doing they do regular testing
on it. But by later years I got in I
mostly selling RV's up ut Dandy r V up in
(24:19):
uh uh 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 x eod men.
I said, I worked on a little job up in
North Carolina. And he looked a little looked at you.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
You worked on that job? I said yeah, I said,
sure did, I said I was. I was on stand by.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I had to buy myself first are and I He said,
you know it's all those the internet? And I said,
well no, I mean so boy. I finally got and
got on there and rest reading all that stuff, my
blood 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 men that risk their lives.
(25:03):
When you go out on something like that, you don't
know what's going to happen. But for him to come
in and try to take credit for something somebody else
did it's just not right.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
No way in the world.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
I don't hold any animosity toward him 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's never happening.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And you've been listening to Earl Smith telling the story
of disarming a hydrogen bomb.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
No.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Two hydrogen bombs.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
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
Jackravell decided to well do what we all know people
like this, did what he thought he could do, take
(26:07):
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 Reravell simply couldn't or didn't have
a great story. And by the way, we always welcome
(26:30):
your stories, send them to our American Stories dot com.
And this is just a look, 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
(26:52):
man made disaster in human history. Earl Smith's story the
story of a man who disarmed a couple of h bombs,
and that occurred on this day in nineteen sixty one,
the year of my birth.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Here are now American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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