A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber, used by the United States Air Force that usually carries nuclear weapons.
In his book “Duty – memoirs of a secretary at war”, by Robert M. Gates, former Secretary of Defense, under the Bush and Obama Administration – he describes, what is called a “Bent Spear” event.
A “Bent Spear” event is one involving the blatant mishandling of nuclear weapons or war head components. In this case cruise missiles.
He describes the incident as follows in a chapter called: “One Damn Thing After Another”:
“The most significant related to the Air Force’s responsibility for our nuclear armed bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
On August 30, 2007, a B-52 bomber took off from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota at 8:40 am, carrying six air launched cruise missiles, each armed with a nuclear weapon capable of explosive power more than ten times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The plane landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana at 11:23 am.
It was parked there without any stringent security measures required for such weapons.
At ten that evening, a member of the munitions crew at Barksdale discovered that the warheads were not mock training rounds, but actual nuclear weapons that had been loaded in error.
Air Force Chief of Staff General Mike Moseley (who later was asked to resign) reported the incident to me on August 31.
I was incredulous at such a monumental screw up.
I immediately called Hadley and the president to inform them. With a justified edge to his voice, Bush told me to get to the bottom of this mistake and keep him informed…” Chapter 7, pg. 239-240
See video: The case of the missing nukes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3hW5FB1DKY
See related report: 2007 US Air Force nuclear weapons incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_States_Air_Force_nuclear_weapons_incident