| Bomb loader with Mk-53 thermonuclear weapon at the beginning of the Tet
Offensive, 1968. This was the only time during my stay on Guam that a "Special
Weapon" was brought to the flightline. As I recall, the bomb was uploaded and on
alert for a few days before being returned to storage. The Mk-53 was, and is, the largest nuclear weapon in the US arsenal. With a yield equivalent to 9 million tons of TNT, it had the explosive power of 500 Hiroshima bombs. This single H-bomb was far more powerful than all of the conventional iron bombs that had been dropped on Vietnam up to that point in time. Below: H-bomb on its way back to the storage bunker. |
