1
00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:23,520
Speaker 1: And we returned to our American stories. Up next, the

2
00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:27,480
Speaker 1: story of a forgotten nuclear mishap in Arkansas that could

3
00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: have blown the state off the map. Here to tell

4
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:34,160
Speaker 1: the story is former newsman Randy Dixon, director of News,

5
00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:38,680
Speaker 1: Archives and Media at the Center for Arkansas's Oral and

6
00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:43,160
Speaker 1: Visual History at the University of Arkansas. Take it away, Randy.

7
00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:49,280
Speaker 2: It was a normal day. We were in the newsroom.

8
00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:54,720
Speaker 2: I worked the night schedule. So we got word that

9
00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:59,160
Speaker 2: there was a fuel leak at a silo. And we

10
00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:03,240
Speaker 2: would hear about the silos because they were close to

11
00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:08,560
Speaker 2: a dozen in Arkansas, and this one was outside of Damascus,

12
00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:12,720
Speaker 2: which is near Conway, and it's about a forty five

13
00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:15,720
Speaker 2: minute drive from Little Rock. So we heard about this

14
00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,840
Speaker 2: fuel leak. So a reporter and I hop in the

15
00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:24,880
Speaker 2: car and we drive up there and it's the regular military,

16
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,360
Speaker 2: have the roadblocks up, the flashing lights, and we get

17
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,479
Speaker 2: our video on our pictures and we needed to get

18
00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:35,839
Speaker 2: something back for the next morning, and ABC Good Morning

19
00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:39,640
Speaker 2: America had called saying they wanted a report, so we

20
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,880
Speaker 2: left and we started working on this story for Good

21
00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:46,560
Speaker 2: Morning America. Well, it was about two o'clock in the morning.

22
00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:49,640
Speaker 2: We're still working on the story, and there were no

23
00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:55,320
Speaker 2: cell phones because this was nineteen eighty, and we hear

24
00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:58,560
Speaker 2: on the two way radio the reporter who had replaced

25
00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:02,520
Speaker 2: us was you could tell in the voice he was panicked,

26
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:10,240
Speaker 2: and he said it blew up, and we said repeat

27
00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:15,440
Speaker 2: and he said the da da da da blew up.

28
00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,600
Speaker 2: So we knew that, well, that story we were working

29
00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:25,200
Speaker 2: on was no longer valid, and it turned into a

30
00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:31,840
Speaker 2: giant story. Well, there was a leak, which is what

31
00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,680
Speaker 2: we first covered, and they had workmen in there in

32
00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:44,200
Speaker 2: suits and one of the airmen dropped a wrench and

33
00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:48,040
Speaker 2: it dropped down the silo and started to bounce off

34
00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:52,359
Speaker 2: the sides and it hit the side of the missile

35
00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:58,720
Speaker 2: and punctured it, and a spark caused it to blow up,

36
00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:04,520
Speaker 2: and it was you know, the doors were closed and

37
00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:08,320
Speaker 2: they are designed to take a nuclear blast, but from

38
00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:13,840
Speaker 2: the outside. This was a huge explosion on the inside

39
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:17,240
Speaker 2: and it just popped the doors off, sort of like

40
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,160
Speaker 2: I guess squeezing a bottle and it pops the top

41
00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:25,160
Speaker 2: off of it. That's what happened with the silo. There

42
00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,640
Speaker 2: was missile. There was nothing left of the missile. It

43
00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:32,000
Speaker 2: was just that warhead that came to fly it out.

44
00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:37,920
Speaker 2: At the time, we didn't realize exactly how big of

45
00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:44,160
Speaker 2: a story, because the Air Force wouldn't confirm that there

46
00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:50,000
Speaker 2: was a nuclear warhead on top of that missile, because

47
00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:54,720
Speaker 2: sometimes there was, sometimes there wasn't. And we also didn't

48
00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:59,280
Speaker 2: know that it had been blown out of the silo

49
00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,440
Speaker 2: and had gone into a ditch on the side of

50
00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:09,720
Speaker 2: the highway. And it wasn't until later that we heard

51
00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,200
Speaker 2: that it happened and we could have been obliterated. That

52
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:23,200
Speaker 2: size warhead would have pretty much destroyed the entire state

53
00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:29,200
Speaker 2: And even now to this day, you would not be

54
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:31,640
Speaker 2: because of the radiation. You wouldn't be able to come

55
00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:40,080
Speaker 2: anywhere near Arkansas because of that explosion. But what we

56
00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:43,520
Speaker 2: found out a week later, I was sitting on the

57
00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:47,119
Speaker 2: assignment desk on the weekend and we got a phone

58
00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:52,159
Speaker 2: call from a guy who was sounding very nervous, very guarded,

59
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,839
Speaker 2: and he was what we call a scanner freak. He

60
00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,039
Speaker 2: was a guy that would listen to scanners and he

61
00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,039
Speaker 2: could tune them all in well. He said that he

62
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:08,320
Speaker 2: had a recording. He had found the Air Force frequency

63
00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:13,400
Speaker 2: and had recorded the radio traffic from that night. So

64
00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:20,960
Speaker 2: I talked to him, and he seemed legitimate. So I

65
00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:24,480
Speaker 2: met him in a little diner in a town called

66
00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,200
Speaker 2: ford Ice, which is in South Arkansas, and he handed me,

67
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:35,839
Speaker 2: never told me his name. It handed me just an envelope,

68
00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,600
Speaker 2: slid it across the table and high tailed it out

69
00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:44,000
Speaker 2: of the diner. And I had a cassette tape.

70
00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:47,360
Speaker 3: Come on, boss, uh, this is a command one. If

71
00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:48,880
Speaker 3: we can't get in touch with the chopper, we want

72
00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:53,480
Speaker 3: to move out with these guys. George Conway, that's Roger.

73
00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,359
Speaker 3: Let me try to get dolphin. Charlie one again, break

74
00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:02,280
Speaker 3: a command post, adulphin Charlie one. Uh tell me right

75
00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:06,799
Speaker 3: here on the road, it's Rogers. Roger, your own team commander.

76
00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:11,800
Speaker 3: The team UH went to the unit. They now they're

77
00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:14,080
Speaker 3: own their way out to give 'em a full report.

78
00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:17,920
Speaker 3: Team commander, command post. What the unit are you talking about? Sir,

79
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:24,040
Speaker 3: Let's don't talk about that. Future traffic please, let's say

80
00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:31,040
Speaker 3: let's don't talk about that. That's Rogers. I wish I

81
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:35,560
Speaker 3: had uh something secure, but right now, Uh, our people

82
00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:39,240
Speaker 3: tell us that a forklift can go in and uh

83
00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:43,320
Speaker 3: and do its job and return and without any difficulty.

84
00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:49,279
Speaker 3: And that's the EOD people talking and uh, the it's

85
00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:51,880
Speaker 3: laying in the ditch beside you know, it's it's not

86
00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:54,000
Speaker 3: even up close. It blew it out and it's laying

87
00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:54,520
Speaker 3: in the ditch.

88
00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:58,240
Speaker 2: It's all exposed, and uh, all that he is doing,

89
00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:03,680
Speaker 2: it's itch and the commanding officer says to cover it

90
00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:04,520
Speaker 2: up with a tarp.

91
00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:08,600
Speaker 3: They've located what they want to locate, and right now

92
00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:12,400
Speaker 3: where it's laying out there, we're just concerned about the

93
00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:14,280
Speaker 3: airplane flying or were taking pictures.

94
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:16,000
Speaker 1: Should we go cover with the tarp.

95
00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,480
Speaker 2: That At that point I realized that we could have

96
00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:30,520
Speaker 2: all been killed. We've played that on the air. ABC

97
00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:34,560
Speaker 2: wouldn't run it because they were afraid of the recording

98
00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,920
Speaker 2: being made of the Air Force. And I believe there

99
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:46,040
Speaker 2: is an FCC law now that does not allow rebroadcast

100
00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:49,040
Speaker 2: of certain radio traffic.

101
00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:51,440
Speaker 3: But it was.

102
00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:56,000
Speaker 2: It was a big story for months because there were

103
00:07:56,040 --> 00:08:01,240
Speaker 2: investigations and we had to wait three days at the

104
00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:05,400
Speaker 2: gate outside. We had someone stationed out there to get

105
00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:08,560
Speaker 2: that one shot of the flatbed truck pulling out with

106
00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:10,760
Speaker 2: the warhead on top of it, because they were taking

107
00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:14,840
Speaker 2: it down to Texas. And that was when CNN first

108
00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:19,200
Speaker 2: went on the air and they brought a giant flatbed

109
00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:25,040
Speaker 2: with a satellite dish and they were on twenty four

110
00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,560
Speaker 2: hours a day from there, and that was the birth

111
00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:30,320
Speaker 2: of CNN.

112
00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:36,199
Speaker 1: That story and a terrific job on the storytelling, editing,

113
00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:39,680
Speaker 1: and production by our own Monty Montgomery, and a special

114
00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:43,160
Speaker 1: thanks to Randy Dixon, director of News, Archives and Media

115
00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:46,600
Speaker 1: at the Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History at

116
00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:49,320
Speaker 1: the University of Arkansas. And by the way, we do

117
00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,160
Speaker 1: our show in Oxford, Mississippi, and that's home of Ole,

118
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:56,040
Speaker 1: miss So it's a fellow SEC school doing the storytelling

119
00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:58,960
Speaker 1: the story of how a nuke almost blew up the

120
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:03,880
Speaker 1: state of Arkansas and started CNN here on our American

121
00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:09,400
Speaker 1: story