Jim Winchester

Not quite the book I was expecting, but that might be a comment on the nature of the incident in question, as on December 5, 1965, pilot Douglas Webster rolled tail-first off the carrier "Ticonderoga" while participating in an exercise involving an actual atomic weapon. In barely a minute the pilot, the plane, and the weapon were lost, with the event, as was typical for the period, being suppressed.

From there, Winchester gives you a grab bag of supporting stories, this book being a biography of Webster, a chronicle of the carrier "Ticonderoga" (particularly her war cruise of 1965-66), an examination of the operational theory of the nuclear arsenals carried on the U.S. Navy's carriers, the publicity impact of what happened once the incident was finally uncovered, and a coda about the lingering impact.

As for what the U.S. Navy made of this whole event, it did lead to a certain tightening of procedures in terms of deck-handling of aircraft on carriers. One consistent theme in Winchester's chronicle is the high level of physical menace on a carrier during an operational deployment.

So, not the most scintillating book I've ever read, but it was certainly informative.… (mere)