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Nuclear missile allegedly damaged



Nuclear missile allegedly damaged

Web site says Navy called 'broken arrow' aboard Bangor sub

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/164280_nuke11.html



By MIKE BARBER

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER



Was it a "broken arrow" at the Trident submarine base in Bangor

in November that led to the firing a month later of the Navy

leadership overseeing nuclear weapons there?



The code words used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the most

severe level of a nuclear weapon mishap reportedly were invoked

Nov. 7 when a Trident I C4 missile was damaged while being

removed from the submarine USS Georgia in Bangor. 



   

The allegation was raised over the weekend at a watchdog Web

site, jaghunters.blogspot.com, run by a former Navy officer, Walt

Fitzpatrick of Bremerton. Fitzpatrick has had a significant beef

with the military justice system for 16 years, which the Seattle

Post-Intelligencer has reported previously. Fitzpatrick yesterday

said he drew upon Navy sources for his information about the

missile incident, which has drawn the interest of U.S. Rep. Norm

Dicks.



As the P-I reported in December, the top leadership of the

Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific -- responsible for handling

intercontinental ballistic missiles at Bangor -- was sacked on

the spot. Three officers have been reassigned and three enlisted

men face courts-martial on lesser charges.



According to Fitzpatrick, the Nov. 7 incident happened when the

missile from tube No. 16 was hauled up and smacked into an access

ladder that had been left in the tube, slicing a 9-inch hole in

the missile's nose cone. 



The ladder is placed inside the silo after the tube hatch is

opened so a sailor can climb inside to attach a hoist to lift the

intercontinental ballistic missile out of the tube. After

attaching the hoist, the sailor climbs out and the ladder is to

be removed before the missile is lifted out. 



The crew members reportedly took a break, and when they returned,

they began to hoist out the missile without removing the ladder,

damaging the nose cone. Although there would not have been a

nuclear explosion, a radiation release or non-nuclear explosion

was possible, Fitzpatrick claims.



That didn't happen, though the base's civilian emergency services

allies yesterday wanted to know more.



Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer said yesterday that his office

was not notified of any incident involving nuclear-tipped

missiles last fall. Boyer was surprised yesterday when he heard

of the incident from a reporter. He described cooperation with

the Navy as excellent, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist

attacks.



  

 

Phyllis Mann, who as director of Kitsap County's Emergency

Management Division works with the Navy and monitors Navy

incidents, said county and state records show no "broken arrow"

was reported as is required. Defense Department directives

require the FBI as lead civilian agency to be notified, as well

as local and state emergency services.



"Based upon our relationships with the bases, we would expect to

be notified if there was a public safety health threat," Mann

said. 



She's not surprised, however. If the missile was banged up but

nothing was released, reporting of the incident might not be

required. 



Navy officials here and in Washington, D.C., refused to discuss

the allegations, citing a strict Defense Department "neither

confirm nor deny" directive concerning nuclear weapons to keep

potential or real enemies guessing.



Regarding the disciplinary action meted out in December and the

reasons behind it, Pam Sims, spokeswoman for the Strategic

Systems Program in Washington, D.C., that oversees the strategic

weapons units on each coast, could say little.



"Safety is paramount in everything we do in the Navy and a

primary focus for our leadership at every level of command," she

said.



The neither-confirm-nor-deny policy, however, handcuffs the Navy

from explaining the incident, and stirred up questions from Dicks

and activists who have been monitoring the base for years.



"We are working with the Navy to see what may have happened and

to see what guidelines they have" for weapons accidents, said

George Behan, spokesman for Dicks, who sits on key defense

committees. 



Dicks' office yesterday contacted Rear Adm. Charles Young, head

of the Strategic Systems Program in the Washington, D.C.,

headquarters of the nation's "nuclear Navy." 



The issue echoes concerns raised in January by Glen Milner, 52, a

peace activist and member of Ground Zero, a citizens group that

has protested outside Bangor over the nuclear weapons issue for

years and filed lawsuits over safety concerns.



"What would happen in a missile loading accident at the wharf?"

Milner asked in a letter to the P-I early this year. 



Ground Zero recently won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit

that showed 53 less severe "incidents" prior to 1986 involving

submarine-launched missiles. Sixteen were classified as

potentially serious. Even if it's unlikely a nuclear warhead

would be detonated, the potential remains for a plutonium release

or an explosion from the Trident's missile propellant.



Adding Fitzpatrick's concerns to his own, Milner said, "What is

most outrageous is that while on Nov. 7 when this ladder is

impaled into this nose cone of this missile, imagine the sailors

not knowing how far in, or whether it would blow up" creating an

instant "dirty" bomb. 



"It's shocking that the Navy didn't reveal anything," he said.



So strict are the Navy's protocols for handling nuclear weapons

that overlooking the smallest details results in discipline. The

accident immediately shut down the strategic weapons facility.

Fitzpatrick said the unit's failure to pass a subsequent

inspection resulted in the firings.



As the P-I reported in December, Capt. Keith Lyles, commander of

Bangor's strategic weapons unit was fired on the spot Dec. 19. 



Also relieved of duty in what Fitzpatrick says has been coined

the "royal flush" were Lyle's executive officer, Cmdr. Phillip

Jackson, and Cmdr. Marshall Millett, weapons officer. 



Young, the admiral in charge of strategic systems, cited only a

"loss of confidence" as the reasons. Three enlisted men in the

missile handling team face courts-martial involving less severe

alleged offenses. 



Those who could be reached declined to comment.



Young replaced Lyles with Capt. Lawrence Lehman. Lehman, who had

led a 40-man inspection of the facility, replaced Lyles on the

spot. The facility reopened after passing inspection Jan. 9.



Although defense officials are mum on nuclear weapons, the P-I in

April 1998 reported on a Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources

Defense Council report that said base closures and realignments

meant Washington state by 2003 could house 1,685 such weapons,

more than any other state and bigger than the nuclear forces of

Great Britain, France or China. 



Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has been a thorn in the Navy's side for

years, trying to clear his name from a court-martial conviction

that fellow officers and some congressmen say is a case of

military justice gone wrong. 



Fitzpatrick was executive officer of the USS Mars when he

received a career-destroying reprimand in 1988 for failing to

properly supervise the spending of his ship's morale, welfare and

recreation money. The non-governmental funds pay for

non-government gear such as entertainment or recreational

equipment for the crew and are raised through the ship's retail

store. 



The incident grew out of a terror attack. Fitzpatrick allowed the

money to be used to help Capt. Mike Nordeen, the ship's

commanding officer, when his brother, Navy Capt. William Nordeen,

was murdered in Greece by terrorists in 1988. Though the ship's

crew voted to use the money to send a contingent to the funeral,

the Navy came down on Fitzpatrick for misusing the funds.



P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky contributed to this report. P-I

reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or

mikebarber@seattlepi.com









----------



BROKEN ARROW: Hood Canal, WA.

http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/



Never handle nuclear weapons on a Monday or Friday

By Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III

March 7, 2004



SILVERDALE, WA. . A Navy Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific

handling crew came within inches of impacting a live Trident I C4

missile nuclear warhead during a Nov. 7, 2003 daylight dockside

offload of the USS GEORGIA (SSBN - 729) at Submarine Base,

Bangor, WA.



Subase Bangor is located on the Puget Sound.s Hood Canal, near

Silverdale, WA.



President Bush was notified immediately of the .BROKEN ARROW,. a

military code word alerting military governors of a nuclear

weapons accident. SWFPAC was shut down instantly, prohibited from

continued weapons handling evolutions. SWFPAC.s de-certification

seriously limited essential stateside military operations. 



The submarine.s missile was hoisted up into an access ladder left

installed in tube #16 slicing a 9-inch hole in the nosecone. The

lift was stopped inches from one of the missiles multiple

warheads, a distance measured between thumb and forefinger. 



Impact concussion, impalement, or crushing a nuclear warhead can

cause deadly plutonium air and water radiation contamination,

non-nuclear explosion, sympathetic non-nuclear explosions (other

warheads), and missile propulsion fueled fires.



Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation ruled out

terrorist involvement or connections.



Captain Lawrence Lehman relieved SWFPAC.s former CO, Captain

Keith Lyles, on Dec. 19, 2003. Citing .loss of confidence. in

Lyles, Navy officials gave no other details in their Christmas

press release.



Rear Admiral Charles Young ordered Captain Lyles' relief for

cause . Young is responsible for the care and feeding of all

fleet ballistic missile submarine nuclear weapons. 



Enlisted men on the handling team face court-martial or less

severe disciplinary action. Petty officers Robert Steel was

topside supervisor, Mark Hammock - topside team leader, and

Christopher Hamilton a topside team member. 



CDR Phillip Jackson (SWFPAC.s executive officer), and CDR

Marshall Millett (weapons officer) were also canned in what.s

been coined the .royal flush.. 



A lift fitting must be attached to a missile before it.s hoisted

up and out of the submarine silo. The tube hatch is opened, an

access ladder affixed inside the silo above the nosecone. A

sailor climbs down the ladder, attaches the lift fitting to the

ICBM, then after connecting the hoist to the lift fitting, climbs

back up on deck.



The access ladder must be removed from above the nosecone before

the missile is lifted skyward. 



On Nov. 7 2003, it wasn.t. 



The handling crew took a break after making the bird in tube #16

ready for lift, leaving the access ladder in place. The sailors

returned and began the hoist. The missile was lifted into the

ladder slicing a large hole in the nosecone. The lift was stopped

a instant before warhead impact. 



The accident occurred late morning after one missile had been

successfully offloaded, and another made ready for extraction.



SWFPAC failed a weeklong nuclear weapons acceptance inspection

(NWAI), ending Dec. 16, 2003, attempting new certification after

corrective measures were implemented. Capt. Lehman led the 40-man

inspection team. 



Lehman was ordered to relieve the fired Capt. Lyles on the spot -

Dec. 19.



SWFPAC passed its second NWAI on Jan. 9, 2004 ending a 9-week

shut down of the nuclear weapons handling facility. 



Navy seniors have issued a gag order to all military and civilian

personnel familiar with the accident that threatens court-martial

or other federal punitive action if violated.



Prevailing winds that day blew at 5 to 10 mph over courthouses in

Kitsap, Mason, and Thurston counties, and over the state house

and government campus in Olympia. Also downwind the Belfair, WA.

home of Congressman Norm Dicks.



No one was injured during the mishap or emergency response.



Other links:



SWFPAC, USS GEORGIA, and SUBASE Bangor are all situated within

Navy Region Northwest, RMDL Len Hering commanding. 



USS GEORGIA is assigned to Submarine Group NINE, RADM Melvin G.

Williams, Jr. commanding. 



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