Everything was routine until the attempted refueling.
Moran did her research well, including flying with a KC-135 tanker crew to experience an in-flight refueling so that she was cognizant of exactly what might have taken place that day. Her account of the accident holds the reader's attention, and, at the same time, seems purely objective.
Since the pilots of the B52 survived the disaster, along with the B52 navigator and spare pilot, her telling of the story comes first-hand -- at least the B52 crew's version since all aboard the KC-135 were killed. And, despite the vast differences between what the pilots told her and the results of the investigation board after the accident, Moran holds to an unbiased account of both.
She draws no conclusions other than repeating what the investigative board ruled. While the pilots described only a sudden explosion occurring at the rear of the B52 causing the accident, investigators later claimed that the B52 did pitch up and contact the tanker, ripping a hole in it and causing massive fuel spillage over the B52, which then ignited from the rear forward engulfing the tanker as well. B52 crewmembers all have ejection seats; KC135 crewmembers do not. Thus, the reason the only survivors were from the B52.
I think it is the detail Moran spends detailing the local villager's and fishermen's reactions and response to the crash that is the most touching...
The author obviously spent many hours, weeks, and months talking to them, learning about their families and background, and how and why they responded the way they did. Her description of the fishing boats picking up survivors and of the farmers locating the radar navigator of the B52 still in his seat and barely alive, are handled sensitively and not overdrawn with dramatics.
Then Moran spends the next 280 pages discussing the follow-up to the accident with the same detail, thoroughness, and riveting description that she did with the accident itself. Some of the U.S. government response is humorous; at other points in the follow-on cleanup and discovery of the fourth bomb the reader wonders whether anyone with half a brain was in charge.
The only criticism I might have of this book is that it follows in the footsteps of several books written soon after the accident occurred. This one is 40 years removed. And Moran might have discovered a new angle or viewpoint that would separate it from the previous descriptive tales which were also well-written. Perhaps a bigger picture focus with the author's talent for research, analysis and detail, would have provided a "lessons for today" aspect to her story.
Bibliography
Moran, B. The day we lost the h-bomb: Cold war, hot nukes, and the worst nuclear weapons disaster in history. New York: Random House, 2009.
