Trucks Carrying Nuclear Weapons Around The Country Revealed
September 4th, 2009I was nearly killed by U.S. Marines when I worked for FedEx in the 1990s. I was attempting to make a delivery to the part of a Marine Corps Air Station that, I later found out, housed nuclear weapons. Hint: If you’re ever trying to deliver a package on a military base and you see this sign, believe me, they’re not kidding about the, “Use of deadly force” part.
I went around a corner and saw a bunch of sandbags and razor wire. Perhaps four or six marines scrambled around and pulled the charging handles on their M16 rifles. Once locked and loaded, they aimed their weapons at me. As I slammed on the breaks, I thought, “Oh shit, I’m dead.” I particularly remember looking at an unblinking blue eye in a rifle scope that was aimed at my head. The person in charge held his rifle in one hand and a bullhorn in the other.
Seconds passed. The engine idled. They didn’t say anything to me. They just aimed their weapons at my head. I put my hands out the window and yelled, “What do you want me to do?”
Eventually, the bullhorn voice boomed, “Turn the engine off. Step out of the vehicle with your hands clasped behind your head.”
I did it.
“What are you doing here?” the bullhorn asked.
“I was trying to deliver a FedEx letter.”
The blue eye didn’t blink. I could see it even more clearly standing outside my truck.
“Standby.” Bullhorn man got on one of those field radio packs with a telephone handset looking thing.
“No deliveries today. Or ever,” the bullhorn said. “Get in your vehicle and back away. Do not drive toward the gate. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
I got back in the truck, put my foot on the brake and started the engine. I dropped it into reverse and checked three times that it was in “R”. As I backed away, they kept their weapons aimed at me. I don’t know if the blue eye ever did blink.
After I backed around the corner. I was shaking pretty bad. I got out of the truck and went down on one knee to puke, but somehow I didn’t.
When I got back to the FedEx station I talked to a former U.S. Marine Lieutenant who had been stationed at that base.
“It’s nukes. Those guys are always running at a higher threat condition than the rest of the base.”
What’s the point of telling the story?
I’m trying to reconcile the reality of what almost happened to me with the information below, that seems to indicate that nuclear weapons are driven around in nondescript tractor trailers without any guards. Maybe there are civilian looking chase vehicles packed with armed guards that follow those trucks around. Maybe those tractor trailers have seating arrangements for armed people in black ninja outfits… I have no idea.
Hopefully, someone who knows more about this can shed a bit of light on the subject for the rest of us.
Via: Huffington Post:
The idea of nuclear weapons being carted around in our highways, cities and neighborhoods doesn’t really put one’s mind at ease. However, the government has been transporting seriously dangerous stuff like enriched uranium and plutonium secretly without public warning. Friends of the Earth through the Freedom of Information Act has forced the Department Of Energy to release color photos of the trucks used to transport weapons. According to FOE, these are the first of such pictures that have been released in many years.
Tom Clements, Southeastern Nuclear Campaign Coordinator with Friends of the Earth in Columbia, South Carolina made the following statement about the importance of the release of the photos.
“The trucks carrying nuclear weapons and dangerous materials such as plutonium pass through cities and neighborhoods all the time and the public should be aware of what they look like. Release of these photos will help inform the public about secretive shipments of dangerous nuclear material that are taking place in plain view.”
I had a similar (but not quite as deadly) experience. I was running low on gas, and saw a turn off a highway with buildings, so I figured there would be a gas station or someone I could ask where to find one. I made the turn, and found myself facing a back gate of a military base. The MP at the gate had me move the car into a holding area. It was very clear that I really didn’t belong there. They spent the next 15 minutes questioning me and my passenger about where were we going, why did we end up here, etc, etc. Once they were satisfied that we were really lost and really needed gas, we were directed back out the gate and 20 miles down the road to the nearest gas station.
It wasn’t quite as sensitive an area, but still, it could have been ugly if we hadn’t made a full stop immediately.
Now, for the phantom shipments, that’s one of the safest ways to move something sensitive. Either you can put it in a big obvious vehicle that screams “I Have Nukes!” or you can put it in a regular truck where there are thousands of identical ones on the road. Good luck intercepting the right one. I’m sure even the released photos are decoys.
They would have been stupid to release photos with the license plate visible (US Gov’t E-20857). Oddly enough, if you look very closely (like GIMP at 3200% zoom), you’ll find the license plate is amazingly squared to the photo. No perspective distortion. No misalignment. It’s perfect. Very perfect. 🙂
The scene looks very similar to other Peterbilt 386 stock photos, but I couldn’t track down that particular one. It looks to be just a couple model years old, but I’m not a truck expert. I couldn’t find an online photo with that exact headlight configuration, but the cab configuration matches the current models.
Ha. Don’t worry about Castor-Transport. Worry about the Chlorine Transport around on rails with old equipment and underpaid staff. Just one glitch on a track could derail one of them and rendering a whole city dead.