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10 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
The fifth person through the door behind Vice President Pence in this video is his military aide carrying his duplicate nuclear "Football," which—just like the briefcase that follows the president 24/7—follows the vice president everywhere s/he goes.
Earlier that afternoon, a C-SPAN camera captured a glimpse of a different military aide carrying Pence's "Football" through Statuary Hall after the Joint Session of Congress adjourned to consider Republican objections to counting Arizona's electoral votes:
This article has the clearest video yet of Vice President Pence's military aide carrying his duplicate nuclear "Football" while hurriedly evacuating the Senate chamber ahead of the rapidly advancing insurrectionist mob on January 6: washingtonpost.com/investigations…
Having closely reviewed the footage on the Washington Post website, I can definitively say the military aide walking through Statuary Hall and later evacuating the Senate chamber with Pence are the same person: a female officer, most likely US Air Force. ImageImageImage

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Stephen Schwartz Profile picture
13 Feb
Today in 1950, the crew of a B-36 bomber on a 24-hour nonstop simulated nuclear strike combat mission from Eielson AFB, Alaska, to Carswell AFB, Texas, suffered engine trouble off western British Columbia and jettisoned an unarmed Mk-4 atomic bomb before abandoning the aircraft. ImageImage
The bomb, which contained 5,000 pounds of conventional high explosives but not its plutonium capsule, was set to detonate at 1,400 meters. The crew later reported they saw it explode above the ocean, about 50 miles north of the town of Bella Bella on Hunter Island. Image
At five minutes past midnight (Feb. 14), as the aircraft flew over Princess Royal Island, the 16 crewmembers and one passenger bailed out. Despite three of six engines being shut down, the plane flew on autopilot another 350 kilometers before crashing inland into Mount Kologet.
Read 5 tweets
Stephen Schwartz Profile picture
24 Jan
OTD 60 years ago—less than four days after President John F. Kennedy's inauguration—a B-52G bomber on airborne alert over North Carolina suffered a massive fuel leak, caught fire, and exploded approaching Seymour Johnson AFB. As it broke up, two 3.8-Mt B39 Mod 2 H-bombs fell out.
As the weapons broke free, three of four arming safety devices in one of the bombs were activated, causing it to run through all but one step of the arming sequence as it plunged to earth.
Only a single "simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch" kept it from detonating.
Read 12 tweets
Stephen Schwartz Profile picture
19 Jan
THREAD: Tomorrow afternoon—unlike in 1953, 1957, and 1961—nuclear weapons will not be featured in the post-inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. And that's as it should be. But let's go to the wayback machine for a look at those past displays of firepower.
In 1953, a demonstration model of the massive M65 280-millimeter atomic cannon rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue and in front of the White House for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's inaugural parade. It was tested four months later at the Nevada Proving Ground.
Eisenhower's 1957 inaugural parade featured the Air Force's Matador and Snark cruise missiles as well as the Army's Corporal short-range ballistic missile.
Read 6 tweets
Stephen Schwartz Profile picture
19 Jan
Between them, Wyoming and Texas have 34 Minuteman III ICBMs and about 100 warheads (plus 20,000 plutonium cores from retired warheads stored at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo). What would happen to these if secession actually happened? rawstory.com/republicans-se…
ICBMs can't be relocated and moving 20,000 plutonium cores anywhere else would be a logistical and security nightmare, if not altogether impractical. Plus, Pantex is the only US facility for assembling, disassembling, and maintaining nuclear bombs and warheads.
In fact, In fact, except for 44 ICBMs in Colorado and 72 in Nebraska, all US land-based and air-based nuclear weapons are in solid "red" states: Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, and North Dakota have 600 warheads/bombs, 300 Minuteman III ICBMs, 200 ALCMs, 46 B-52Hs, and 20 B-2As.
Read 6 tweets
Stephen Schwartz Profile picture
18 Jan
Okay boys and girls, it's time to play "Who Will Be the 2020 Inauguration's Designated Survivor?" If protocol from 2017 is followed, as I expect it will, there will actually be two. The first will be 87-year-old Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), president pro tempore of the Senate.
But wait, you say. The Democrats control the Senate now, so why isn't Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the longest-serving Democratic member, president pro tem? Because the Democrats don't actually control the Senate yet. That will happen after Georgia officially certifies ...
the results of the January 5 runoff election, won by Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and they are formally sworn in, making the count 50-50, with Vice President Harris breaking the tie in the Democrats' favor. Certification isn't likely to happen until later on Wednesday, ...
Read 7 tweets
Stephen Schwartz Profile picture
11 Jan
OTD in 1975, a USAF board of inquiry ruled 38-year-old Maj. Harold Hering, a decorated pilot with 20 years of service, be discharged because two years earlier—during ICBM combat crew training at Vandenberg AFB—he asked how he would know a launch order came from a sane president.
After Hering sought that assurance from from superiors in 1973, the Air Force disqualified him from missileer duty, citing the rules of its personnel reliability program. In March 1974, it moved to discharge him for, inter alia, "having a defective attitude toward his duties."
Hering was ultimately forced out of the Air Force in November 1975. He subsequently became a long-distance truck driver before spending 19 years with the Salvation Army counseling and helping the indigent and unhoused. You can read more about him here: washingtonpost.com/history/2021/0…
Read 5 tweets

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