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US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
A report says the United States keeps about 70 B61 nuclear bombs at a military base in southern Turkey.
According to a recent report published by the Arabic Nakhel news agency, Turkish sources said the bombs are kept at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in Adana province.
The thermonuclear bomb, which is 3.53 meters long and weighs 320 kilograms, is considered as one of the most strategic weapons of the US.
Between 10 to 20 of the bombs were stored at Turkey’s Balikesir and Ekinci airbases before they were transferred to Incirlik, the report said.
Turkey is also home to a controversial NATO radar base manned by US forces, which is part of a larger US-led missile system.
The missile system became operational in Turkey’s eastern province of Malatya in early 2012.
Some leading Turkish politicians and lawmakers have cautioned that the system will not be beneficial to Turkey and will only serve the interests of the Israeli regime.
The stationing of the US-sponsored radar system in Turkey was hailed by American officials as the most significant military cooperation between Washington and Ankara since 2003, when Turkey refused to allow a US armored division to cross Turkish territory to join the military invasion of Iraq from the north.
Source: Press TV, 28 Oct 2012
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Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
They have been there since 1963, and were one factor in the Cuban missile crisis. The USSR said, “If you have nukes in Turkey, ready to use against us, then why can’t we have nukes in Cuba?”
I worked on this particular weapon when I was in the US Air Force. I did not go to Turkey, but my roommate in Tech School did. I got stuck in North Dakota. When I pushed to get out of that dreary place, the Air Force said, “Fine, you can go work on nuclear missile warheads,” and they stuck me in Montana, which was just as bad.
I don’t know what “one of the most strategic weapons” means. The USA still has 450 of the Minuteman III missiles, plus 335 Trident II nuclear missiles (with up to eight warheads each). Plus nuclear weapons carried by aircraft. Plus cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. Is one system more “strategic” than the other?
The U.S. plan to station missiles in Europe didn’t work out, so the U.S. went with Turkey instead. These missiles, aimed at Russia, are ostensibly to protect against “rogue states” like Iran.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
Yes, it's a strange way to describe this particular bomb, as it isn't the bomb that counts but the aircraft. It would only be considered strategic if it was carried by a heavy bomber, that is, one with an operational range greater than 8,000 kilometers or about 5000 miles.
The Trident II as submarine-launched ballistic missile would certainly be considered strategic even if it were not launchable from a submarine, as it has a range of 11,300km (approx 7000 miles). The Minuteman III with an operational range of over 13,000km or over 8000 miles would also be considered strategic.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
Trivia: When I say, “I worked on this particular weapon when I was in the US Air Force,” I mean my job was AFSC 46350, Nuclear Weapons Specialist. Other guys (AFSC 46230 Munitions Loaders) unloaded bombs, nuclear tipped missiles, and nuclear tipped rockets from aircraft, and loaded them back up when I was done with them. My job was to hook up the nukes to various gadgets and run sophisticated tests on them to make sure they would detonate if used. Sometimes I opened up the H-bombs to do this. This was no more technical than the job of an everyday automotive mechanic. In some ways it was less technical, because on the rare occasion when I could not trace down a technical problem in a nuke (usually an electronic problem), I called in a specialist from Sandia Labs or, in the case of missile warheads, Livermore Labs or General Electric. I was also responsible for storing the weapons. After I had tested and repaired a weapon, I called the other guys to come get it and load it back on the aircraft, or else I put it into a storage bay. Checklists had to be followed to the letter. No deviation was permitted, however trivial.
When I was moved from working on bombs and the AIR-2a rocket (which had a nuclear warhead) to working on ICBMs (Mark-12 reentry vehicle with W62 warhead) I learned to my dismay that I not only had to run tests and perform maintenance, I also had to go to the missile silos, remove the warheads, and bring them back for maintenance. I considered this to be monkey work. My first station was Minot AFB, North Dakota. Horrible place. Then I was moved to Malmstrom AFB near Great Falls Montana. Not much better, but at least that area had a few trees. In the winter it was 80 degrees below zero, when the wind chill was factored in. I was always a little anxious about was radiation. The weapons emit alpha particles. However this was far, far less dangerous than working with nuclear waste, for example. The W62 warhead was replaced by the W78/Mk-12A warhead after I left the Air Force. Over the years, the blast yield of U.S. nukes has become smaller and smaller, since the weapons have become more and more accurate. Today’s nukes have a tiny fraction of the explosive power of previous nukes, yet, when properly used, are more destructive. Anyone can make a huge explosion. Causing huge damage is another matter.
Ironically the nuclear weapons storage areas were the third most secure areas in a typical air force base. More secure were regular munitions depots. Even more secure were fuel depots, since the latter two would be very easy for someone to blow up, whereas detonating a stolen nuke would be just about impossible, for reasons I won’t go into unless someone asks me to. There were several ways to steal a nuke, but setting it off? No. The US military has done tests where they gave live weapons to the men who designed the weapons and told them, “You are terrorists. This is a stolen nuke. Figure out a way to detonate it independently of the system it is normally part of.” They couldn’t do it. Put it in a giant fire. Shoot canons into it. It didn’t matter. For technical reasons that would be boring to explain, it can’t be done. At least, not with actual military weapons in the US Air Force arsenal. As for Navy nukes (e.g. Trident II missiles) I don’t know, since I never worked on them.
I mentioned that I was stationed at Malmstrom AFB, scene of an alleged UFO incident in which UFOs supposedly deactivated ten missiles. I researched this case thoroughly, and must put it into the bullshit category. It never happened. Same with the famous “Roswell incident.” Not that I don’t believe in UFOs. I have seen UFOs myself on three separate occasions. They were not conventional aircraft, or natural phenomena. Not what I saw. No way. One of them was so bizarre that no one would believe me if I recounted it, even though I had two witnesses with me. (I have never seen any aliens or space critters.) Were there conventional prosaic explanations for what I saw? I supposed it’s possible, but I’d like to see someone try.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
Interesting stuff, Heydrich. My granny and I witnessed something fly by overhead one evening. Low enough to seem close but way too fast to see clearly. We looked at each other and said, "Did you see that?" We always referred to it as the "fireball" later.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
Could it have been a meteor? I once saw a meteor so close that I heard it as it broke up in mid air. I then learned that unless it was truly close, it would have been impossible to hear, since it was probably much higher in the atmosphere then I thought. But no, I heard the damned thing. It made a hissing sound. I friend of mine heard it too. He was standing next to me.
The reality is that falling meteors generate electromagnetic radiation that we normally cannot hear. But under certain circumstances, we can hear it with our brains. We think we hear it with our ears, but that is not so.
For this same reason, people can sometimes "hear" auroras, which likewise involve electromagnetic radiation (from the sun). It sounds like rice crispies ("snap-crackle-pop") interspersed with weird whistling sounds. Everyone says this is nonsense...until it happens to them. It's a natural phenomenon. It's also the reason for the various forms of "Taos hum." Sometimes we can "hear" EM radiation.
That said, the UFOs I saw were no meteors.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
Hey Fester, check this out. This is not one of the UFOs I saw. I think this had a natural explanation.
The picture below is 122 N Ridgewood Place, Los Angeles California. I lived here with my parents from 1969-1973. I got the image just now from Google maps.
The incident was 1972, and it was at night. My grandmother had visited us, and I carried some things to her car, which was parked where the blue car is in the photo below (taken this year).
My grandmother drove away, and I stood in front of the house looking up at the night sky. I drew the black silhouetted figure to show where I was standing. Suddenly, just behind me, there was a bizarre ball of electricity from nowhere. It was as brilliant as the light from a huge arc welder, and it lit up all the houses across the street, making a loud hissing noise. I whirled around and saw it as it moved. Notice how I have drawn the white streak in an arc. That’s the way it moved, like a ball swinging on a pendulum. It moved from right to left in this photo, and then vanished. It looked like a TV screen tuned to a dead channel. A bunch of sparks.
Freaked out, I dashed inside the house and told my brother what happened. He said I was lying.
There are no electrical lines or telephone poles anywhere near this spot.
My hypothesis is as follows. Los Angeles is an earthquake zone. Earthquakes are as much electromagnetic events as physical ones. That’s why animals sense them before they happen. Tremors are usually preceded by an EM pulse. People have reported seeing strange balls of light in earthquake zones just before an earthquake. Balls of light also appear around volcanoes. This particular incident was NOT followed by an earthquake, although I did personally experience an earthquake one year before this incident.
I think this was an electromagnetic phenomenon caused by subsurface tectonics in an earthquake zone. If I am wrong, then I have no idea what I saw.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
I just remembered this. In that photo above, do you see the driveway to the right of the house? There’s a black trash can or something in the driveway. That gate did not exist when I lived in this house with my parents and three siblings, forty years ago.
In those days I had a bicycle with a bent chain guard, such that the chain made a distinct noise when I rode the bike. I kept the bike outside, in back of the house. Many, many times I heard someone stealing my bike and riding it down the driveway into the street. It was loud and clear. There was no mistaking that chain sound. But whenever I ran outside, my bike was always sitting where I had left it. This only happened at night, and I was always wide awake, watching TV when it occurred. Loud and clear.
I said nothing about this to anyone, knowing they would all call me a liar. But one day my sister mentioned it. I was shocked, and said, “You’ve heard that too?” In fact EVERYONE in my family had heard it, and quite often, but no one dared say anything about it, for fear of ridicule.
So it seems we had a ghost.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
If the bedrock contains quartz, then it is quite likely to be a piezo-electric effect. When under compression quartz will produce an electrical potential, severe compression can produce significant electrical potential that could manifest as ball lightning.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
Yes, that is my hypothesis, since piezoelectricity is not limited to quartz. When such phenomena occur in conjunction with earthquakes, they are colloquially known as “earthlights.”
What I described may seem like a mild curiosity, but at the time it frightened me a great deal, because I was very young and had no idea what was happening. I was feeling relaxed when this thing suddenly materialized out of nowhere, and it was the last thing in the world I expected. It was not meteorological. There were no clouds in the night sky. Also there were no ambient electrical effects. Despite the ball of energy being only three feet away from me, the hair on my head and forearms did not stand up, nor did I smell ozone in the air.
Just now I watched a video that purported to show earthlights in Peru during an earthquake yesterday, but I know it wasn’t earthlights, because the flash of light was blue-green in color. This signifies a transformer blowing up, which is rather common during electrical storms or, in this case, earthquakes. I’ve seen this many times myself.
Anyone interested in another weird incident? This one is far more bizarre, and will make you roll your eyes, thinking “Oh now, he is REALLY reaching!” But I swear this happened. The picture below is 4125 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles. I took the image just now off Google maps.
This happened in 1970. In those days the building on the left looked very different. (I estimate it was built in the 1920s, like many buildings on this street.) There were no signs for any businesses. The windows were all painted solid (white-washed). The building looked like it has been vacant for years.
The steel roll-up doors in the recent photo below did not exist. Nor were there any glass fronts. There were only regular doors. The building is quite old.
The three white figures are me, my brother, and his twin sister. (I myself also have a twin sister, but she was not with us at the time.) The weather was sunny like this photo. It was a Sunday morning about 10:00 am. We were bored and had nothing to do, so we were walking down this street from the background toward you. This is only half a mile from the house where I saw that ball of energy.
As I walked past the vacant “shops” with painted-over windows, and no signs on the building, I tried the handles on each door. All were locked until I came to one door that I indicated with the red arrow in the photo above. That glass front did not exist in those days. There was just a door.
Curious (and still bored), I stepped inside, expecting to find an empty room, but found a strange “parlor” for want of a better term. It had strange tapestries on the wall, plus a Persian-time carpet on the floor. My brother and sister stepped in after me. No one was present, and the room was silent enough that I could hear traffic continue to pass by outside. This building turned out to have two stories (two floors).
There was a stairway on the rear wall. On the upper right was a passageway that led somewhere to the rear of the building. As we stood looking around, not saying anything, suddenly at the top of the stairs, floating in mid-air, was a glowing “devil face” about four feet tall, not human, but more than a mask. It was incandescent orange, and shimmered like flame as it glared down at us with a fierce expression. For a second the three is us stood in shock. Then the apparition started floating down the stairs sideways, i.e. continuing to face us. It made no sound at any time.
The three of us bolted outside in terror, and we ran all the way home.
Now get this: many years later I asked my brother what he thought we had seen. He had no memory of the event! However, in 2008 I was visiting my sister in California, and her daughter said something like, “Yeah right, Mom. You’re lying. Just like that devil thing you supposedly saw, or whatever it was.”
I looked at my sister. “You REMEMBER that?”
“Of course,” she answered,. “How could I forget?”
I told her daughter Gabrielle, “That actually happened! I was there!”
To this day I have no idea what it was.
Re: US keeps nearly 70 nuclear bombs in southern Turkey
Heydrich, thanks for the story. The thing we saw was moving north to south and didn't appear to be changing altitutde. Fiery light. Couldn't safely describe the colors at this point. Do remember listening for a sound of a crash.