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NukeJACKSONVILLE, Ark. (AP) -State, local and county officials met with the No. 2 man in the Air Force on Tuesday and worked out an agreement detailing how the Air Force will transport nuclear materials in Arkansas.The meeting with Gen. Robert C. Mathis, Air Force vice chief of staff, was one of a series the Air Force has been having with Arkansas officials from areas where Titan II missile silos are located.The meetings began after a Sept. 19 explosion at a Titan II missile silo near Damascus in which one Air Force crew member was killed and 21 others were injured.“This particular accident brought forth to us that we did not have adequate communications,” Mathis said. That realization has led to an overall study of the safety aspects of the entire Titan IImissile system, he said.* More meetings are planned. The next step will be to hammer out an evacuation plan in the event of another incident like the explosion.The sheriffs of Van Buren, Conway and Faulkner counties said after Tuesday’s 212-hour closed meeting that they were generally satisfied with the meeting.Accord Nailed Down“It’s a beginning,” said Van Buren County Sheriff Gus Anglin. “If everything that they said will be done is done, we will be satisfied.” Anglin has been critical in the past of what he calls the lack of communication between the Air Force and agencies responsible for the safety of people where the missile silos as located.“Their failure to communicate left us in a terrible bind,” agreed Sheriff Carl Stobaugh of Conway County.Details of the agreement outlining how the Air Force will transport nuclear materials on Arkansas highways were not released. Sam Tatom, director of the state Department of Public Safety, saidthe agreement would be sent to the governor before details are made public.Mathis conceded the Air Force is at least partially to blame for some of the complaints local officials had after the explosion at Damascus.4We had a plan . . . that did not function adequately/’ he said. “We though we were communicating pretty well.”Mathis said the Air Force is reviewing safety and other procedures at the other Titan II missile silo sites around the country as well. He said one change already has been made: sockets and wrenches will be tethered at work places within silos so they cannot fall.Pot Probe Targets AirmenJACKSONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A number of Air force personnel from the 308th Security Police Squadron and other organizations assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base are under investigation for the off-duty use and sale of marijuana and other controlled substances.Master Sgt. Larry Vales of the public affairs office at LRAFB madethe short announcement today.“Personnel in sensitive positions have been suspended from such duties pending the results,” the statement said.“Because the investigation conducted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigation is still under way, additional information is not available at this time,” Vales said.The Sept. 19 explosion was triggered by a fuel leak that began when a worker dropped a six-pound wrench socket, the Air Force said.Mathis repeated the Air Force’s position that the explosion “did no damage to anybody or any property.”Residents in communities near the explosion site have been complaining of respiratory problems, headaches and fatigue since the explosion occurred. Many of them have been examined bv Dr. RichardVHinkle of Quitman, several miles east of Damascus.Mathis said an Air Force flight surgeon would meet with Hinkle to discuss those complaints.The meeting Tuesday at Little Rock Air Force Base was described by U.S. Hep. Ed Bethune as a “brainstorming session.” He said it was a follow-up to a meeting held in Washington about two weeks ago.The first meeting followed a decision by state and local officials that their first consideration should be the formulation of an evacuation plan. They decided to forego placing blame for the Sept. 19 explosion, and the question of whether Titan II missiles are needed. Bethune said.
Newspaper Details
Blytheville Courier News
Blytheville, Arkansas, US
Wed, Oct 15, 1980
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 25 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Blytheville, Arkansas
Blytheville Army Air Corps News
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