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Goldsboro Flight Nearly Armed A Bomb
- A B-52 broke up over eastern North Carolina carrying two Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs during a January 1961 alert flight.
- One of those bombs progressed through arming steps and came within "one signal" of detonating, revealing extreme fragility in Cold War procedures.
Broken Arrow Is The Official Term
- Major accidents involving U.S. nuclear weapons are officially called "broken arrow."
- The Department of Defense disclosed 32 broken arrow incidents from 1950–1980, showing accidents were not rare.
A Plaque Masks How Close It Was
- Local memory of the Goldsboro incident is small and understated, reduced to a roadside plaque reading, "Widespread disaster averted."
- That minimalist public marker masks how narrowly catastrophe was avoided and how communities witnessed the event.