1658

RARE ATOMIC BOMB ASSOCIATED 8460TH SPECIAL WEAPONS

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 800.00 USD
RARE ATOMIC BOMB ASSOCIATED 8460TH SPECIAL WEAPONS

GROUP FLAG. 3’ x 4’ double applique embroidered on sky blue field, circa 1948. This unit is tied in with atomic weapons under the auspices of the U.S. Army.
Major General Leslie Groves, who commanded the Manhattan Project under which the United States developed atomic weapons including the two dropped on Japan in August 1945, was retained in command of post-war nuclear weapons development and safe storage. With the world still a hostile place and the massive demobilization of U.S. armed forces after the war, Groves still believed that having the most atomic weapons would help keep world peace as did some members of the Truman Administration. Yet, many of the scientists that helped develop the bombs returned to civilian pursuits and the nation only retained a handful of core components from which to make new weapons.
This changed in 1946 when Groves sent a staff officer to Sandia, New Mexico to survey a site where these weapons could be built and from which they could be tested. Sandia had been an older Army Air Force base but Groves took it over and reached out for dozens of officers with engineering degrees to help build the new bombs. The complexities of building such weapons, it was believed, was far above the abilities of these officers to handle. Colonel Gilbert Dorland, the officer sent by Groves, created the 2761st Engineer Battalion (Special) in August 1946. Instead of having each officer be an expert on all aspects of assembly, Dorland formed them into electrical, mechanical, and nuclear teams. With assistance from technicians from the Los Alamos Laboratory’s Ordnance Division, the officers learned their specialties. By year’s end they had loaded one aboard a B-29. This decentralized manner in working on the bomb’s components, Dorland’s officers completed the entire task in hours compared to the two days it had taken on Tinian to build the “Fat Man” bomb in 1945.
In May 1947, the unit was redesignated as the 38th Engineer Battalion (Special) and they were tasked with making several atomic bombs as soon as possible and so senior enlisted were added to the unit and trained in bomb production. By mid-1947, six of these weapons had been assembled and were ready for simulated testing which would prove (or not) the ability to make weapons at overseas bases if needed. To test an inert bomb, the 509th Bombardment Group of the 8th U.S. Air Force, was brought in to handle the delivery. In November, the bomb test by a B-29 of this command dropped its test bomb at Inyokern, California, a naval testing center. The test was a huge success.
Officers of the command soon assisted the Navy in configuring some of its aircraft carriers for atomic operations as well as advising the British Royal Air Force in the same manner. In 1948 the three atomic tests at Eniwetok Island in the Pacific were begun with the Atomic Energy Commission using some of the officers and men from the special battalion. Schools had now been set up to train even more personnel in bomb assembly. In the aftermath of these tests, Col. Dorland began field exercises lasting well into 1949 and added more trained men to his command through the Training Division established at Sandia Base for this purpose. This base would be greatly expanded during this time frame.
Soon Dorland had enough so that four Army Special Weapons Units (111th, 122nd, 133rd and 144th) could be formed. The Navy even had its own unit of trained officers and men as did the Air Force. The Air Force’s 502d and 508th Aviation Squadrons were activated in September 1948 to handle airborne testing. Dorland’s command was now truly a combined services operation and on December 22nd, the command was redesignated as the 8460th Special Weapons Group. The group itself only had 21 officers but under its control were these subordinate units: 471st Navy Special Weapons Unit; the two Air Force squadrons already mentioned and the 1140th Special Reporting Wing, Detachment B.
The operations at Sandia and subordinate sites were merged with Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque in 1971. The base remains the home Air Force Material Command’s Nuclear Weapons Center which continues the mission begun at Sandia Base in the 1940s.
The unique flag does not seem to have a historical color basis. The central device was also the unit patch for personnel attached to it and represents the splitting of the atom for nuclear energy.
CONDITION: very good overall. (02-17547-24/JS). $600-800.