The Day We Lost the H-Bomb: Cold War, Hot Nukes, and the Worst Nuclear Weapons Disaster in History

114 On the morning of April 9, 1963: The background on the Thresher comes from the following sources: George W. Martin, “Lasting Legacies of Thresher” The Submarine Review, July 2003, pp. 77–88; George W. Martin, “The Search for Thresher” The Submarine Review, April 2003, pp. 48–58; Frank A. Andrews, “Search Operations in the Thresher Area—1964, Section I,” Naval Engineers Journal, August 1965, pp. 549–561; Frank A. Andrews, “Search Operations in the Thresher Area—1964, Section II,” Naval Engineers Journal, October 1965, pp. 769–779; Frank A. Andrews, “Searching for the Thresher” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1964, pp. 69–77; E. W. Grenfell, “USS Thresher (SSN-593), 3 August 1961–10 April 1963,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, March 1964, pp. 37–47; and Norman Polmar, The Death of the USS Thresher: The Story behind History's Deadliest Submarine Disaster (Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 1964).

115 “One of the many lessons”: Andrews, “Search Operations in the Thresher Area,” p. 550.

115 the secretary of the Navy formed a committee:Hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Congress of the United States, Eighty-eighth Congress, First and Second Sessions on the Loss of the USS Thresher. June 26, 27, July 23, 1963, and July 1, 1964 (Washington, D.C.: Government Reprints Press, 2001), p. 50; author's interview with John Craven, April 19, 2007.

115 The Stephan Committee released its report: John Peña Craven, The Silent War: The Cold War Battle beneath the Sea (New York: Simon &Schuster, 2001), p. 109; Martin, “Lasting Legacies of Thresher” pp. 85–86.

116 The Deep Submergence Systems Project: Craven, Silent War, pp. 109–111; author's interview with John Craven, April 19, 2007.

116 Senator William Proxmire: Craven, Silent War, p. 125.

116 a conference called “Man's Extension”: “Man's Extension into the Sea,” Symposium Proceedings, January 11–12, 1966 (Washington, D.C.: Marine Technology Society, 1966). The Baldwin quote comes from p. 3.

117 The program called Object Location: U.S. Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Aircraft Salvage Operation Mediterranean (Aircraft Salvops Med), Lessons and Implications for the Navy (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, April 7, 1967), p. 2.

117 We had “almost nothing”: John Craven interview, April 19, 2007.

117 “No assignments had gone on”: J. Bradford (henceforth “Brad”) Mooney interview, March 30, 2007.

117 “The Navy had achieved”:Aircraft Salvops Med, Lessons and Implications for the Navy, p. 2.

CHAPTER 9: THE FISHERMAN'S CLUE

118 he started jotting notes: Notebook shown to author during interview with Joe Ramirez.

119 Maydew had flown to Spain: Maydew arrived in Palomares on January 29. Memo, R. C.

Maydew and W R. Burton to G. A. Fowler, “Chronological Summary of Significant Events in the 9300 Participation in Broken Arrow Operation,” March 29, 1966, Randall Maydew files (SNL).

119 “except for that blue, blue Mediterranean”: Randall Maydew, oral history, conducted by Necah Furman, December 1991, p. 7.

119 he found that Air Force staffers: Randall C. Maydew, America's Lost H-Bomb, Palomares, Spain, 1966 (Manhattan, Kans.: Sunflower University Press, 1997), p. 58.

119 As a navigator in a B-29: Randall C. Maydew, ed., A Kansas Farm Family (Freeman, S.Dak.: Pine Hill Press, 1992), pp. 128–129.