The Mystery of Minot: Loose nukes and a cluster of dead airmen raise troubling questions
Wed, 11/21/2007 - 18:53 — dlindorff
This article appeared initially in the Oct. 22, 2007 issue of American Conservative magazine.

By Dave Lindorff

The unauthorized Aug. 29/30 cross-country flight of a B-52H Stratofortress armed with six nuclear-tipped AGM-29 Advanced Cruise missiles, which saw these 150-kiloton warheads go missing for 36 hours, has all the elements of two Hollywood movies. One would be a thriller about the theft from an armed weapons bunker of six nukes for some dark and murky purpose. The lead might be played by Matt Damon. The other movie would be a slapstick comedy about a bunch of bozos who couldn’t tell the difference between a nuclear weapon and a pile of dummy warheads. The lead might be played by Adam Sandler, backed by the cast of “Police Academy III.”

So far, the Pentagon, which has launched two separate investigations into the incident, seems to be assuming that it is dealing with the comedy version, saying that some incredible “mistake” led to nuclear weapons being taken inadvertently from a weapons-storage bunker, loaded into launch position on a bomber, and flown from North Dakota to Louisiana.

The American Conservative has discovered that to date, more than a month after the incident, Pentagon investigators have completely ignored a peculiar cluster of six deaths, during the weeks immediately preceding and following the flight, of personnel at the two Air Force bases involved in the incident and at Air Force Commando Operations headquarters.

The operative assumption of the investigations appears to be that an Air Force decision to store nuclear, conventional, and dummy warheads in the same bunker and one mistake by weapons handlers initiated a chain of errors and oversights that led to the flight.

On Sept. 23, the Washington Post, in a story based upon interviews with military officials, many of them unidentified, suggested that the first known case of nuclear warheads leaving a weapons-storage area improperly was the result of two mistakes. The first, the article suggested, was a decision by the Air Force to permit the storing of nuclear weapons in the same highly secure and constantly guarded sod-covered bunkers—known as “igloos”—as non-nuclear weapons and dummy warheads (something that had never been allowed in the past). The second was some as yet unidentified mistake by weapons handlers at Minot to mount six nuclear warheads onto six of the 12 Advanced Cruise Missiles that had been slated to be flown to Barksdale AFB for destruction. Those missiles and the six others, part of a group of 400 such missiles declared obsolete and slated for retirement and disassembly, should have been fitted with dummy warheads also. The Post article quotes military sources as saying that once the mistake was made, a cascade of errors followed as weapons handlers, ground crews, and the B-52 crew skipped all nuclear protocols, assuming they were dealing with dummy warheads.

The problem with this theory is that dummy warheads don’t look the same as the real thing. The real warheads, called W80-1’s, are shiny silver, a color which is clearly visible through postage-stamp-sized windows on the nosecone covers that protect them on the missiles. In addition, the mounted warheads are encased in a red covering as a second precaution.

Apparently the nukes (which can be set to explode at between 5 kilotons and 150 kilotons) were easily spotted by a Barksdale AFB ground crew when they went out to the plane on the tarmac hours after it landed. If the Barksdale ground crew, which had absolutely no reason to suspect it was looking at nuclear-tipped missiles, easily spotted the “error,” why did everyone at Minot miss it, as claimed?

Clearly, whoever loaded the six nukes on one B-52 wing pylon, and whoever mounted that unit on the wing, knew or should have known that they were dealing with nukes—and absent an order from the highest authority in Washington, loading such nukes on a bomber was against all policy. The odds of randomly putting six nukes all on one pylon, and six dummies on the other, are 1:924. And how curious that the pilot, who is supposed to check all 12 missiles before flying, checked only the pylon containing the dummy warheads.

Various experts familiar with nuclear-weapons-handling protocols express astonishment at what happened on Aug. 29 and 30. After all, over the course of more than six decades, the protocols for handling nuclear arms have called for at least two people at every step, with paper trails, bar codes, and real-time computer tracking of every warhead in the arsenal. Nothing like this has been known to have happened before. Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger, who served as US Strategic Command chief from 1996 to 1998, told the Post, “I a have been in the nuclear business since 1966 and am not aware of any incident more disturbing.”

Philip Coyle, a senior advisor at the Center for Defense Information who served as assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, calls the iincident “astonishing” and “unbelievable.” He says, “This wasn’t just a mistake. I’ve counted, and at least 20 things had to have gone wrong for this to have occurred.”

Bruce Blair, a former Air Force nuclear launch officer who is now president of the World Security Institute, says that the explanation of the incident as laid out in the Washington Post, and in the limited statements from the Air Force and Department of Defense, which call it a “mistake,” are “incomplete.” He notes that no mention has been made as to whether the nukes in question, which had been pre-mounted on a pylon for attachment to the B-52 wing, had their PAL (permission action link) codes unlocked to make them operational, or whether a system on board the plane that would ordinarily prevent an unauthorized launch had been activated. “For all we know, these missiles could have been fully operational,” he says.

The Air Force and Department of Defense are refusing to answer any questions about such matters.

Meanwhile, there are those six deaths. On July 20, 1st Lt. Weston Kissel, a 28-year-old B-52 pilot from Minot, died in a motorcycle accident while on home leave in Tennessee.

Another Minot B-52 pilot, 20-year-old Adam Barrs, died on July 5 in Minot when a car he was riding in, driven by another Minot airman, Stephen Garrett, went off the road, hit a tree, and caught fire. Airman Garrett was brought to the hospital in critical condition and has since been charged with negligent homicide.

Two more Air Force personnel, Senior Airman Clint Huff, 29, of Barksdale AFB, and his wife Linda died on Sept. 15 in nearby Shreveport, Louisiana, when Huff reportedly attempted to pass a van in a no-passing zone on his motorcycle, and the van made a left-hand turn, striking them.

Then there are two reported suicides, which both occurred within days of the flight. One involved Todd Blue, a 20-year-old airman who was in a unit that guarded weapons at Minot. He reportedly shot himself in the head on Sept. 11 while on a visit to his family in Wytheville, Virginia. Local police investigators termed his death a suicide.

The second suicide, on Aug. 30, was John Frueh, a special forces weather commando at the Air Force’s Special Operations command headquartered at Hurlburt AFB in Florida. Hurlburt’s website says, “Every night, as millions of Americans sleep peacefully under the blanket of freedom,” Air Force Special Operations commandos work “in deep dark places, far away from home, risking their lives to keep that blanket safe.”

Frueh, 33, a married father of two who had just received approval for promotion from captain to major, reportedly flew from Florida to Portland, Oregon, for a friend’s wedding. He never showed up. Instead, he called on Aug. 29, the day the missiles were loaded, from an interstate pull-off just outside Portland to say he was going for a hike in a park nearby. (It is not clear why he was at a highway rest stop as he had no car.) A day later, back in Portland, he rented a car at the airport, again calling his family. After he failed to appear at the wedding, his family filed a missing person’s report with the Portland police. The Sheriff’s Department in remote Skamania County, Washington, found Frueh’s rental car ten days later on the side of a road nearly 120 miles from the airport in a remote area of Badger Peak. Search dogs found his body in the woods. His death was ruled a suicide, though neither the sheriff’s investigator nor the medical examiner would give details. What makes this alleged suicide odd, however, is that the sheriff reports that Frueh had with him a knapsack containing a GPS locator and a videocam—odd equipment for someone intent on ending his life.

Of course, it could be that all six of these deaths are coincidences—all just accidents and personal tragedies. But when they occur around the time six nuclear-tipped missiles go missing in a bizarre incident, the likes of which the Pentagon hasn’t seen before, one would think investigators would be on those cases like vultures on carrion. In fact, police and medical examiners in the Frueh and Blue cases say no federal investigators, whether from DOD or FBI, have called them. Worse still, because the B-52 incident got so little media attention—no coverage in most local news—none of those investigating the accidents and suicides even knew about it or about the other deaths.

“It would have been interesting to know all that when I was examining Mr. Blue’s body,” says Virginia coroner Mike Stoker, “but no one told me about any of it or asked me about him.”

“If we had known that several people had died under questionable circumstances, it might have affected how we’d look at a body,” says Don Phillips, the sheriff’s deputy in Washington State who investigated the Frueh death. “But nobody from the federal government has ever contacted us about this.”

“Certainly, in a case like this, the suicides should be a red flag,” says Hans Kristensen, a nuclear-affairs expert with the Federation of American Scientists. It’s wild speculation to think that there might be some connection between the deaths and the incident, but it certainly should be investigated.”

I'm from Minot. Believe me, suicide is an option.

Quoted: I'm from Minot. Believe me, suicide is an option.

How about the guy going to the wedding?

I think this has been argued like crazy already.  I want to say an almost identical article was posted about a month ago.

Yeah, that's the fishy one.

So what they're really saying is over the course of a month or so, there was 2 motorcycle crashes and some guy DUI'd into a tree.

As far as the actual suicides go, I'm not going there right now. I just fail to see anything about a pair of fatal motorcycle accidents as suspicious. That seems like a HUGE stretch by the theorists to try to make it look and seem bigger than it is, or something it isn't.

Quoted: So what they're really saying is over the course of a month or so, there was 2 motorcycle crashes and some guy DUI'd into a tree. As far as the actual suicides go, I'm not going there right now. I just fail to see anything about a pair of fatal motorcycle accidents as suspicious. That seems like a HUGE stretch by the theorists to try to make it look and seem bigger than it is, or something it isn't.

I hate to feed the tinfoilers too.  If I was directly involved with the incident and watching my life flash before my eyes, I might take a motorcycle ride and have an "accident" myself.  It looks a lot better on your line of duty determination, and your family won't have to feel guilty that way.  Then again, a lot of Airmen die in motorcycle wrecks every year, no telling if they were even related to the nuke incident.  

ETA:  I don't know why they even mentioned the Combat Weather guy, what the hell did he have to do with anything, other than being in the AF?  

You know what those deaths say to me?  That a bunch of the crew at Minot were idiots.  DUI, trying to pass in a no passing zone, committing suicide...sounds like a fucked up base where it would be all too possible for this to be a colossal fuckup rather than some vague conspiracy that didn't actually lead to anything happening.

Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

I guess if they graduated HS at 14, college at 18, and entered pilot training at 19, they could be a BUFF pilot at 20.  

Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

Yep, the planes were built during their fathers service.

Quoted: Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force? I guess if they graduated HS at 14, college at 18, and entered pilot training at 19, they could be a BUFF pilot at 20.

I messed up, there are 24 year olds flying them though.

Quoted: a special forces weather commando

www.specialtactics.com/wxoverview.shtml

Quoted: a special forces weather commando

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Special_Tactics

What's a "Special forces weather commando"?

Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

Bingo.  Aircraft mech, sure.  Pilot, hell no.

Quoted: What's a "Special forces weather commando"?

See the links above.

Air Force Special Tactics are special operations personnel of the United States Air Force under the Air Force Special Operations Command or AFSOC, a branch of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The 720th Special Tactics Group is responsible for all Special Tactics personnel and consists of six operational squadrons and numerous supporting organizations.

There are several types of USAF special operations personnel, they are: S.E.R.E. Specialist (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape), Combat Controllers (CCTs), Pararescuemen (PJs, AKA Pararescue Jumpers or Parajumpers), Special Operations Weather Technicians (SOWT), Combat Rescue Officers (CROs) which are the officer version of PJ's, and Special Tactics Officers (STOs) which are the officer version of CCT's. CROs and PJs share a separate pipeline from STOs and CCTs (who also share a pipeline). SOWT personnel do not attend either the Pararescue or CCT pipeline, but attend a separate weather school and receive Basic Airborne qualification from the U.S. Army's Airborne School at Ft. Benning.

They typically operate in close cooperation with other special operations units, such as the Marine Corps Force Recon, Army Rangers, Army Special Forces, and Navy SEALs.

Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

I highly doubt it as the person would have to graduate college and finish flight school before they were 21. Possible maybe, but not likely.

Quoted: ETA:  I don't know why they even mentioned the Combat Weather guy, what the hell did he have to do with anything, other than being in the AF?

I imagine the tinfoil theory is that he was the secret assassin who engineered all of those "executions", and once his job was done, then super secret assassins had to make sure he could never tell his story. And then I suppose super duper secret assassins had to kill the super secret assassins. At the end of the day, when they're all dead: Cheney's the last man standing with a smoking gun.

Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

No, but since the rest of the article is tinfoil bullshit, it flies...

Quoted: Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force? No, but since the rest of the article is tinfoil bullshit, it flies...

He was an airman.

www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=140988

Heck, 6 dead airmen is a GOOD week. Military guys off themselves every weekend. DWI wrecks are the usual method of choice. Why do you think you get all those holiday safety briefings?

Now, if they had 6  airmen full of bullet holes in the weapons bunker and on the flightline they might be on to something.

All of you people calling this tinfoil bs, just how did thoes nukes fly from ND to LA without anyone noticing them? It took the GROUND PERSONEL in LA to point them out.

I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible.

Quoted: All of you people calling this tinfoil bs, just how did thoes nukes fly from ND to LA without anyone noticing them? It took the GROUND PERSONEL in LA to point them out.

No shit.  We all know that a series of mistakes were made which resulted in the wrong warheads, on the right missiles, on the right aircraft, to go to the right place.  We all know (especially those familiar with PRP, PNAF, etc) what kinds of shit had to go wrong for such a thing to happen.  It sucks that it happened, but mistakes happen all the time, some more serious than others.  There was no grand conspiracy there, some shit got screwed up, that's all.  Take of the tinfoil, you'll live longer.

Quoted: Quoted: All of you people calling this tinfoil bs, just how did thoes nukes fly from ND to LA without anyone noticing them? It took the GROUND PERSONEL in LA to point them out. No shit.  We all know that a series of mistakes were made which resulted in the wrong warheads, on the right missiles, on the right aircraft, to go to the right place.  We all know (especially those familiar with PRP, PNAF, etc) what kinds of shit had to go wrong for such a thing to happen.  It sucks that it happened, but mistakes happen all the time, some more serious than others.  There was no grand conspiracy there, some shit got screwed up, that's all.  Take of the tinfoil, you'll live longer.

Learn to think outside the box, and you will not see the world thru such rose colored glasses.

Quoted: No shit.  We all know that a series of mistakes were made which resulted in the wrong warheads, on the right missiles, on the right aircraft, to go to the right place.  We all know (especially those familiar with PRP, PNAF, etc) what kinds of shit had to go wrong for such a thing to happen.  It sucks that it happened, but mistakes happen all the time, some more serious than others.  There was no grand conspiracy there, some shit got screwed up, that's all.  Take of the tinfoil, you'll live longer.

QFT

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: All of you people calling this tinfoil bs, just how did thoes nukes fly from ND to LA without anyone noticing them? It took the GROUND PERSONEL in LA to point them out. No shit.  We all know that a series of mistakes were made which resulted in the wrong warheads, on the right missiles, on the right aircraft, to go to the right place.  We all know (especially those familiar with PRP, PNAF, etc) what kinds of shit had to go wrong for such a thing to happen.  It sucks that it happened, but mistakes happen all the time, some more serious than others.  There was no grand conspiracy there, some shit got screwed up, that's all.  Take of the tinfoil, you'll live longer. Learn to think outside the box, and you will not see the world thru such rose colored glasses.

Sometimes, when you open your mind too far, your brain falls right out.  

Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible.

That's the mystery. Not 2 cycles crashes, a DUI and pair of suicides.

Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible.

it was obviously possible.  It happened.  

Do not despair.....Oliver Stone is working on a screenplay RIGHT NOW.

But he is having some trouble getting the story....everybody is dead!!

Quoted: Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible. it was obviously possible.  It happened.

He figures the security mesures that were in place in the past have just been done away with, you think that is the case?

Quoted: Do not despair.....Oliver Stone is working on a screenplay RIGHT NOW. But he is having some trouble getting the story....everybody is dead!!

Never slowed him down before.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible. it was obviously possible.  It happened.   He figures the security mesures that were in place in the past have just been done away with, you think that is the case?

No they haven't.  This was a f-up of grand proportions, with Airmen up and down the chain showing complaincancy and disregard for procedure.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible. it was obviously possible.  It happened.   He figures the security mesures that were in place in the past have just been done away with, you think that is the case? No they haven't.  This was a f-up of grand proportions, with Airmen up and down the chain showing complaincancy and disregard for procedure.

There are officers involved in the process too, several officers.

Quoted: Quoted: Do not despair.....Oliver Stone is working on a screenplay RIGHT NOW. But he is having some trouble getting the story....everybody is dead!! Never slowed him down before.

True dat, the coke does the work for him!

Let's see.  Subs surface under cargo ships and run into undersea mountains, the Army leaves live artillery nukes on an unsecured loading dock over the Memorial day weekend in Germany  and the Air Force takes nukes for an unplanned ride and has lost several in the past.

Never use conspiracy to explain something that occurred because of abject military stupidity. You just make yourself look dumber that the guys that actually fucked up.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible. it was obviously possible.  It happened.   He figures the security mesures that were in place in the past have just been done away with, you think that is the case? No they haven't.  This was a f-up of grand proportions, with Airmen up and down the chain showing complaincancy and disregard for procedure. There are officers involved in the process too, several officers.

Even officers in the Air Force fall under the general term Airmen.  It's the equivalent to Soldier, Marine, or Sailor.

Well duh you know Bush, Cheney and Haliburton did it.

Quoted: Well duh you know Bush, Cheney and Haliburton did it.

I doubt that, but blackwater may have take the new rule on owning MGs a little too far.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: All of you people calling this tinfoil bs, just how did thoes nukes fly from ND to LA without anyone noticing them? It took the GROUND PERSONEL in LA to point them out. No shit.  We all know that a series of mistakes were made which resulted in the wrong warheads, on the right missiles, on the right aircraft, to go to the right place.  We all know (especially those familiar with PRP, PNAF, etc) what kinds of shit had to go wrong for such a thing to happen.  It sucks that it happened, but mistakes happen all the time, some more serious than others.  There was no grand conspiracy there, some shit got screwed up, that's all.  Take of the tinfoil, you'll live longer. Learn to think outside the box, and you will not see the world thru such rose colored glasses. Sometimes, when you open your mind too far, your brain falls right out.

Sigline material

What really happened was the nukes were taken, and when they landed the nuke cores were removed and are being used by rouge Airman as future WMDs!!!

They allowed the warheads to be found to throw off suspicion.

FREE

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible. it was obviously possible.  It happened.   He figures the security mesures that were in place in the past have just been done away with, you think that is the case? No they haven't.  This was a f-up of grand proportions, with Airmen up and down the chain showing complaincancy and disregard for procedure. There are officers involved in the process too, several officers.

Agreed.  The biggest mistake in this whole mess was made by the lead B52 pilot for not personally checking out ALL the missles on BOTH wings.  This should have been caught before that BUFF was airborne!

The other thing that astounds me is the fact that they stored the nukes and the conventional missiles in the same bunkers?  What was the leadership thinking here?  Kind of like me storing the blanks I use for training and regular ammo in the same magazine.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I will throw in this, I have a very good friend who retired after 22 years in the AF as a crew chief on a KC-135, his bird was assigned to plenty of B-52's carring nukes, and he does not see how this was possible. it was obviously possible.  It happened.   He figures the security mesures that were in place in the past have just been done away with, you think that is the case? No they haven't.  This was a f-up of grand proportions, with Airmen up and down the chain showing complaincancy and disregard for procedure. There are officers involved in the process too, several officers. Agreed.  The biggest mistake in this whole mess was made by the lead B52 pilot for not personally checking out ALL the missles on BOTH wings.  This should have been caught before that BUFF was airborne! The other thing that astounds me is the fact that they stored the nukes and the conventional missiles in the same bunkers?  What was the leadership thinking here?  Kind of like me storing the blanks I use for training and regular ammo in the same magazine.

 You give aircrew far too much credit.  They were in a long line of FU's.

Quoted: What's a "Special forces weather commando"?

they're the ones that operate the haliburton weather machine.  

Quoted: Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

No.

Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

A bunch of careers are OVER.

Another Minot B-52 pilot, 20-year-old Adam Barrs, died on July 5 in Minot when a car he was riding in, driven by another Minot airman, Stephen Garrett, went off the road, hit a tree, and caught fire. Airman Garrett was brought to the hospital in critical condition and has since been charged with negligent homicide.

20 year old pilot?  If they can't get a simple fact like this straight, the whole article is suspect.  

Quoted: What's a "Special forces weather commando"?

 Duh !

They run the Haliburton Hurricane Generators(R) He must have been feeling guilty for killing all the black people George Bush didn't like during Katrina.

-Try to keep up !

quote]Quoted:
Are there really any 20 year old B52 pilots in the Air Force?

No there are not. That is definitely wrong. They probably meant 20 yrs flying a B-52.