The Broken Arrow Down The Road

A Broken Arrow incident is, in United States military terminology, an accidental event involving nuclear weapons or components that does not create a risk of nuclear war. Today is the 75th anniversary of a Broken Arrow event that happened in Solano County less than 25 miles from here.

On 5 August 1950 a Boeing B-29 bomber was leaving Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base bound for Guam when it crashed shortly after takeoff. It was carrying a Mark 4 nuclear bomb and was part of a contingent of 10 nuclear-capable B-29s being sent to Guam to serve as a deterrent to the People’s Republic of China at the start of the Korean War. The bomb in this B-29 did not have its fissile core installed so there was no risk of a nuclear explosion, but the high explosives in the bomb could and did explode in the fire subsequent to the crash. 12 of the 20 crew and passengers on the plane died in the event, as well as 7 people on the ground in the explosion which spread wreckage over about 2 square miles.

One of the passengers killed in the crash was Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, who at the time was commanding the 5th and 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wings. To honor him, the base was renamed Travis Air Force Base in 1951.

I learned about this anniversary by seeing a reference to it on my Cat Lovers Against The Bomb calendar. I very much like the version of this calendar (the “classic” version) with black-and-white photographs of cats and have been using it as my office calendar for many years now.