Eric Schlosser - Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

ALSO BY ERIC SCHLOSSER

Fast Food Nation

Reefer Madness

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First published by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2013

Copyright 2013 by Eric Schlosser

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Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint an excerpt from Anthem from Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs by Leonard Cohen. Copyright 1993 Leonard Cohen. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schlosser, Eric.

Command and control : nuclear weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the illusion of safety / Eric Schlosser.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-101-63866-8

1. Nuclear weaponsAccidentsUnited StatesHistory. 2. Nuclear weaponsAccidentsArkansasHistory. 3. Titan (Missile)History. 4. United States. Air Force. Strategic Air Command. Strategic Missile Wing, 308th. 5. Nuclear weaponsUnited StatesSafety measures. 6. Nuclear weaponsGovernment policyUnited States. I. Title. II. Title: Nuclear weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the illusion of safety.

For my father

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

Thats how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen

CONTENTS

Authors Note

Selected Cast of Characters

Acronyms and Abbreviations

PART ONE

THE TITAN

Not Good

New Wave

No Lone Zones

Spheres Within Spheres

Potential Hazards

PART TWO

MACHINERY OF CONTROL

The Best, the Biggest, and the Most

In Violation

Megadeath

PART THREE

ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN

Acceptable Risks

The Optimum Mix

Breaking In

PART FOUR

OUT OF CONTROL

Decapitation

The Brink

An Abnormal Environment

PART FIVE

DAMASCUS

Balanced and Unbalanced

The Wrong Tape

Like Hell

Confirm or Deny

The End

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

AUTHORS NOTE

This is a book about the effort to control nuclear weaponsto ensure that one doesnt go off by accident, by mistake, or by any other unauthorized means. The emphasis in these pages isnt on the high-level diplomacy behind arms control treaties. Its on the operating systems and the mind-set that have guided the management of Americas nuclear arsenal for almost seventy years. The history of similar efforts in the Soviet Union is largely absent here. Although no less important, such a history requires a knowledge of Russian archives and sources that I lack. Command and Control explores the precarious balance between the need for nuclear weapon safety and the need to defend the United States from attack. It looks at the attempts by American scientists, policy makers, and military officers to reconcile those two demands, from the dawn of the nuclear age until the end of the Cold War. And through the story of a long-forgotten accident, it aims to shed light on a larger theme: the mixture of human fallibility and technological complexity that can lead to disaster.

Although most of the events in this book occurred a long time ago, they remain unfortunately relevant. Thousands of nuclear warheads still sit atop missiles belonging to the United States and Russia, ready to be launched at a moments notice. Hundreds more are possessed by India, China, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea, Great Britain, and France. As of this writing, a nuclear weapon has not destroyed a city since August 1945. But there is no guarantee that such good luck will last.

The fall of the Berlin Wall now feels like ancient history. An entire generation has been raised without experiencing the dread and anxiety of the Cold War, a conflict that lasted almost half a century and threatened to annihilate mankind. This book assumes that most of its readers know little about nuclear weapons, their inner workings, or the strategic thinking that justifies their use. I hope readers who are familiar with these subjects will nevertheless learn a new thing or two here. My own ignorance, I now realize, was profound. No great monument has been built to honor those who served during the Cold War, who risked their lives and sometimes lost them in the name of freedom. It was ordinary men and women, not just diplomats and statesmen, who helped to avert a nuclear holocaust. Their courage and their sacrifices should be remembered.

SELECTED CAST OF CHARACTERS

THE TITAN II MISSILE COMBAT CREW

Captain Michael T. Mazzaro, the commander, a young officer from Massachusetts with a pregnant wife

Lieutenant Allan D. Childers, the deputy commander, raised in Okinawa, a former DJ in his late twenties

Staff Sergeant Rodney L. Holder, the ballistic missile systems analyst technician, son of a Navy officer, responsible for keeping the Titan II ready to launch

Staff Sergeant Ronald O. Fuller, the missile facilities technician, responsible for the equipment at the launch complex

Lieutenant Miguel Serrano, a trainee studying to become a deputy commander

PROPELLANT TRANSFER SYSTEM TEAM A

Senior Airman Charles T. Heineman, the team chief

Senior Airman David Powell, an experienced Titan II repairman, twenty-one and raised in Kentucky

Airman Jeffrey L. Plumb, nineteen and from Detroit, a novice receiving on-the-job training

PROPELLANT TRANSFER SYSTEM TEAM B

Sergeant Jeff Kennedy, a quality control evaluator for the 308th Strategic Missile Wing, perhaps the best missile mechanic at Little Rock Air Force Base, a former deckhand from Maine in his midtwenties

Colonel James L. Morris, the head of maintenance at the 308th Strategic Missile Wing

Senior Airman James R. Sandaker, a young missile technician from Evansville, Minnesota

Technical Sergeant Michael A. Hanson, the team chief

Senior Airman Greg Devlin, a junior middleweight Golden Gloves boxer

Senior Airman David L. Livingston, a twenty-two-year-old missile repairman from Ohio with a fondness for motorcycles

CIVILIANS IN AND AROUND DAMASCUS

Sid King, the twenty-seven-year-old manager of a local radio station

Gus Anglin, the sheriff of Van Buren County

Sam Hutto, a dairy farmer with land across the road from the missile site

THE DISASTER RESPONSE FORCE

Colonel William A. Jones, the head of the force as well as the base commander

Captain Donald P. Mueller, a flight surgeon manning the forces ambulance

Richard L. English, head of the Disaster Preparedness Unit, a civilian in his late fifties, still fit and athletic, nicknamed Colonel, whod served in the Air Force for many years

Technical Sergeant David G. Rossborough, an experienced first responder

SECURITY POLICE OFFICERS

Technical Sergeant Thomas A. Brocksmith, the on-scene police supervisor at the accident site

Technical Sergeant Donald V. Green, a noncommissioned officer in his early thirties who volunteered to escort a flatbed truck to Launch Complex 374-7

Technical Sergeant Jimmy E. Roberts, a friend of Greens who accompanied him on the drive to Damascus

AT THE LITTLE ROCK COMMAND POST