[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 19 (Monday, January 29, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO EARL SMITH

  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the legacy and 
heroic service of Mr. Earl Smith. An Alabama native and unsung American 
hero, Smith's willingness to put himself in harm's way saved an untold 
number of lives.
  More than 50 years ago, as a young officer in the U.S. Air Force, 
Smith was the on-call explosive ordnance disposal, EOD, technician at 
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, NC. Nothing out of the 
ordinary had occurred throughout his shift on the evening of January 
23, 1961, when the 24-year-old Smith received an alarming phone call. 
He was informed that two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs had broken loose from a 
B-52 bomber and landed in a field just outside of Goldsboro. He was 
told the general location of the bombs, but other details were unknown.
  Upon arriving to the crash site, Smith and other EOD technicians 
found that one bomb had crashed at such a speed that it was buried 
underground, but the other was visible and appeared to be intact. 
Although the protocol was to alert the Atomic Energy Commission before 
inspecting the bomb, Smith's instinct was to act quickly. Dr. Ralph 
Lapp, a physicist involved in developing America's first nuclear bombs 
as part of the Manhattan Project, stated in his review of the Goldsboro 
incident that ``one simple, dynamo-technology low voltage switch stood 
between the United States and a major catastrophe.''
  Smith graduated from the U.S. Navy's EOD school just 9 months prior 
to the incident. However, his training, combined with his immense 
bravery, allowed him and other EOD technicians to successfully disarm 
the bomb over several days of harrowing work. Experts estimate that, if 
detonated, the bombs were powerful enough to destroy everything within 
an 8.5 mile radius. When asked in a recent interview why the bomb did 
not go off, Smith replied, ``the Lord Jesus Christ only knows.''
  Such incidents prove that the security we enjoy every day as 
Americans is because of courageous individuals like Earl Smith. Smith's 
willingness to risk his life, along with his ability to maintain the 
secrecy of this formerly classified event for half a century, serve as 
distinct and sobering reminders that there are American men and women 
serving tirelessly throughout the world to maintain the way of life we 
hold dear.
  It is my honor to offer my sincere appreciation and gratitude to Earl 
Smith and the countless others like him who diligently, and often 
thanklessly, work to provide safety and security to all Americans. I 
hope that my colleagues in the Senate will join me in thanking them for 
their selfless service to this Nation.

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