The secret US soldiers who trained for WWIII by free-falling with a NUKE between their legs
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It was a warm, clear night in 1983 when about a dozen elite Green Berets jumped down from the back of a two-and a-half-ton truck at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina.
They were met by two mysterious men in black flight suits. No patches or insignia indicated what branch of the military they represented, but they were clearly in charge
‘This is a classified operation,’ one of them told the special ops team. ‘From this point forward, we have command and control.’
As they finished briefing the group, another vehicle pulled up, containing a box the men were more than familiar with.
They had been training for one like it for many hours; or at least, an inert version of it. This time, however, they were about to use the real thing.
The SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) was a top secret nuclear weapon no different from the one dropped on Hiroshima, but with one crucial difference: it was small enough to fit inside a rucksack.
In his new book We Defy, about the lost chapters of Special Forces history, Jack Murphy reveals the US military's special nuclear program - called Green Light - was developed in 1962, in preparation for World War III, and remained an active part of its training until 1986.
Three hours into their flight, the Green Berets were informed of their target: one of the largest hydroelectric dams in Cuba. Its destruction was intended to disrupt the country’s power supply, cripple the economy and cause widespread chaos.
Soldiers may have played it down as a mere ‘backpack nuke’ but, after various iterations, it weighed close to 70 pounds and was extremely unwieldy
The weapon was no different from the one dropped on Hiroshima, but with one crucial difference: it was small enough to fit inside a rucksack
Only once they had parachuted to the target and were preparing to detonate the bomb were they suddenly informed this was just a training exercise.
It turned out they were on a drop zone somewhere in New Mexico, more than a thousand miles from Cuba.
‘The Green Berets were still reeling, their adrenaline pumping,’ writes Murphy. ‘They had assumed they were deep behind enemy lines until moments previously.
‘“It was absolutely real,” a team member said.’
Jumping with the SADM was no easy task. Its operators may have played it down as a mere ‘backpack nuke’ but, after various iterations, it weighed in at close to 70 pounds and was extremely unwieldy.
‘Really experienced jumpers had a really hard time flying that bomb properly,’ said Tommy Shook, a team sergeant in the mid-1970s.
‘You didn't jump the bomb; it jumped you.’
Murphy writes: ‘In about 90 percent of his team’s freefall jumps with the weapon, [Shook] and his teammates missed the drop zone and ended up in the woods.’
Add to that the complicated logistics and it was not a mission for the faint hearted.
‘When infiltrating the SADM by parachute, one man jumped in with the bomb and another jumped in with the planewave generator that would detonate it,’ writes Murphy.
‘A third team member carried a conventional shaped explosive charge to destroy the SADM to prevent it from falling into enemy hands if the team were compromised.
The freefall team's patch (left) and dark humor from the Green Light scuba unit
‘Each Green Light team also had to carry a 23-pound shaped charge to destroy the SADM before it could fall into enemy hands,’ he writes.
‘Using the emergency destruction charge would spread uranium and plutonium across the environment, causing a far greater ecological disaster than a low-yield nuclear detonation.’
Don Alexander, who spent a decade training on the program, told Murphy: ‘It was so in-extremis, that their concern was more the destruction of the technology than the localized contamination that would happen.’
Many of those involved also believed they were being trained for a one-way mission - they saw no plans for their escape to safety after detonating the bomb and, as one member said: ‘You were under the impression that you were expendable.’
One conspiracy theory had it that the timer didn't work, and at the moment it was detonated, it would wipe out the Special Forces team with it.
Some even joked, darkly, that, when they unlocked the SADM to arm it for real, along with the bomb they would find 12 Medals of Honor and a bottle of Jack Daniels inside.
‘The rationale for this theory was that the US government would not want a handful of operators who could be captured running around behind enemy lines with knowledge about a nuclear bomb that was ticking down.’
If they survived, their orders were to ‘remain behind enemy lines, attempt to recruit Soviet military deserters, raise a guerrilla army and wage unconventional warfare.’
The SADM went into development in 1960, writes Murphy, ‘but the specifications were amended the following year to include a waterproof pressure case so that the device could be emplaced by frogmen.'
It entered military service in April 1963 with the Army eventually stockpiling nearly 300 by the mid 1960s.
Highly trained soldiers practiced swimming, kayaking and skiing with the nuke.
The most dreaded training exercises were those that combined both parachuting and scuba - requiring the soldier to jump not just with the weapon but also carrying two oxygen tanks.
And, while no SADM was ever activated, almost all of those involved said that, at times, they fully believed their training exercises were genuine.
Former NCO Mike Taylor recalled one particular episode that occurred during the Reagan administration.
‘His team got called in and put into an isolation facility to begin planning for a mission to Europe, parachuting in straight from a flight from the United States,’ writes Murphy.
‘They were not told what country they were going to. The entire team thought it was the real deal, but after four days the team was sent home with no explanation.’
A Green Light swimmer suits up for SADM delivery
'I always thought that this was a psychological tool... to let the Russkies know that they had weird dudes and Green Berets running around with a nuke in their pocket'
The most dreaded training exercises were those that combined both parachuting and scuba - requiring the soldier to jump not just with the weapon but also carrying two oxygen tanks
Did the DoD ever really intend to use nuclear weapons on key targets during the Cold War?
At least one person close to the program was convinced he would never see active combat.
‘I always thought that this was a psychological tool that was used at much higher levels just to let the Russkies know that they had weird dudes and Green Berets running around with a nuke in their pocket,’ said Captain Bill Flavin.
Others, though, were not so sure, pointing to the detailed targets outside Europe as evidence that the US was targeting enemies closer to home than Russia.
One veteran said his team would regularly review slide decks and aerial photography of targets in Latin America.
‘I can tell you where every intersection on the Cuba highway, where every military base, where every naval port was, where every dam was,’ he told Murphy.
Another suggested that the Panama Canal had been in their sights.
‘I'm just glad we never had to do it for real,’ said Scott Wimberley, who swam the bomb into position during an exercise in the mid-1970s. ‘It was going to be a suicide mission.’
Decades on, some of those who served on Green Light are still convinced that was the case.
Mike Adams, who was a young sergeant when he took part in a mission in 1985, retired as a Sergeant Major and was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 50.
He believes he was exposed to radiological material during his service, and filed a claim with Veterans Affairs only to have it denied.
‘My doctor at Yale wrote a letter [to Veteran's Affairs] stating that there is no reason on planet Earth why a person as young and healthy as you are,’ should have certain types of cancer, Adams told Murphy.
‘He was adamant that we should have known to tie that to [Green Light].’
After a decade long fight with cancer, Mike Adams died on August 18, 2024.
Edited from We Defy: The Lost Chapters of Special Forces History by Jack Murphy
