Missile Day 1982

In this extract from The American Years; Dunoon & the US Navy, Terry Sinsheimer, then a 19-year-old serviceman from Statten Island New York, recounts a remarkable day forty years ago.

An American sailor returning to USS Proteus steps over closely packed anti-Polaris demonstrators at Ardnadam Pier, Holy Loch, May 1961

I remember the day I saw a nuclear bomb. I was stationed at the US Submarine Base, Holy Loch, Scotland. There were eight nuclear bombs, or warheads arranged in a nest atop a Poseidon Missile. I was reminded of a toothpick dispenser, tubular in shape, with a stem in the middle that is lifted to dispense assorted toothpicks.

These were MIRVs that I saw. Multi-Targetable, Independent, Reentry, Vehicles, that is. Warheads, frosty white in colour and shaped like ink cartridges as found in a quality pen, with stencil writing on the sides; writing that no recipient would ever read. The submarine had sixteen such MIRV nests atop sixteen such missiles, this being a Lafayette class submarine of Squadron 14, also known as a ‘Boomer Sub’.

This particular submarine was berthed on the starboard side of the USS Hunley. I was standing by the rail on the main deck looking down at the open missile hatch. The cap had been removed. Often, a curtain shrouded these activities, but not on this occasion. I looked at the open MIRV nest for half a minute. I am sure I was mesmerized, or transfixed, or at least momentarily stunned.

I didn’t at first see the US Marine, standing watch and armed with an M-16 to my left. When I did, I said to him, ‘Holy shit man, you see this crazy shit?’ Or something like that.

‘Move,’ ordered the Jarhead.

He was poised to club me in the gut with a thrust of a rifle butt, sharp and sudden. After inflicting a prerequisite injury, the sentry would blow a whistle and a response to a security violation would commence. All unnecessary activity on the USS Hunley would stop. The 1MC would sound off with the excited voice of the messenger of the watch. Any watch stander with an M1911 would draw the pistol and bang in a clip. ‘Security violation, security violation, all hands stand fast, stand clear the passageways and ladder wells.’

What actually happened was I didn’t notice the sentry, and the sentry didn’t notice me. He was well camouflaged in the Northern European Forest camo pattern of that time. This Marine looked so much like a tree I didn’t notice him standing there with an assault rifle, until he turned to his right and brandished the weapon and told me to move. It was an order and an entreaty, I think, because I wasn’t insulted by his tone, and therefore tempted to say something back. I was fortunate that this Marine wasn’t a fanatic.

After that I ate at the salad bar. I must have pondered the incongruity of lettuce and tomatoes, onion and bacon bits, with an outlaw dollop of US government salad cream atop, set against a recent encounter with those MIRVs nesting atop a Poseidon missile.

Mostly I preferred not to think about it. Except to say, that was the real deal. The design is to launch the missile from a depth of around 16ft. The vehicle is forced out of the tube using high pressure steam. The missile breaks the surface of the water perfectly dry. The missile leans to one side like the Tower of Pisa before the first stage rocket motor fires at a height of 10 metres. The missile boosts the payload high into the atmosphere. High above our beautiful planet, the missile goes ballistic. The MIRVs leave the nest and continue on their ballistic trajectory. Each were addressed to a city in Russia, or some strategic location determined by technocrats and militarists. The warhead will arrive at its destination at supersonic speeds. Nothing can stop it once it has been launched.

In the fullness of time, I have concluded that man wants the power of God. This explains the compulsion for having nuclear weapons. Now more useable by miniaturization and hypersonic delivery systems. Do they know what they are doing? If so, then why are they still doing it? Is it possible to stop? Yes, eventually. All bleeding stops eventually.