telling
1st Lt. Adam C. Mattocks an escape. stories
mtahattter
The National Museum of the United States Air Force displays a Mark 39 bomb in its
Cold War Gallery.
From the Cape Fear
Region for 22 years
Take a close look at our
magazine and you will
see each issue contains
Stories That Matter. The
quality of the journalism is
unsurpassed; original stories,
beautifully illustrated and
photographed, created for
that particular issue with
journalistic integrity. These
stories matter today and will
still do so 10 and 20 years
from now, which is one
reason libraries from here to
Raleigh have long collected
and archived each issue.
— Pat Bradford, publisher
”
“
28 february 2022
WBM
CRASH
Remnants of the B-52 crashed
over a two square-mile area of tobacco
and cotton farmland along the towns
of Faro, Patetown and Eureka some
12 miles north of Goldsboro. Five
of the eight crewmembers survived
— some with critical injuries. Maj.
Shelton perished in the jump and
Maj. Richards and Tech. Sgt. Barnish
died in the crash. Lt. Mattocks success-fully
parachuted out of a top hatch in
the plummeting plane, the only B-52
pilot ever known to have survived such
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wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com
COURTESY OF REDDIT
EPILOGUE
Today, a serene pond nestled in a Faro forest belies the horror that rained
down that January night. A state historical marker is the sole physical reminder
of the deadly accident that took the lives of three brave U. S. airmen and brought
the North Carolina coast tragically close
to a terrible fate. Nuclear experts estimate
that the blast would have instantly killed
everything within a 15-mile radius,
and lethal radiation fallout could have
traveled throughout the Atlantic seaboard
with devastating consequences.
At the crash site, the sleepy verdant
land has swallowed up any sign of
disaster. The peaceful, rural setting
instills a confidence that the incident was
not all that critical, and the safeguards
were programmed correctly to prevent a
catastrophe. That idea might seem strange
to the commanders at SAC who held their
breath that night as the second bomb
began to arm itself.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE U.S. AIR FORCE
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