PU-238 On The Summit

A couple of months ago I read an article that caught my interest.  Having been raised during the cold war along with the accompanying promise and threat of nuclear technology, secret agent espionage and as an avid reader of National Geographic Magazine for almost six and a half decades you would understand.

In response to Communist Red China's nuclear ambitions and tensions between India and China - in 1965 a joint US-India mission conceived by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched Operation Blue Mountain.  The objective was to monitor telemetry collected from Chinese missile tests conducted from the Xinjiang region. 

To do so, it was proposed to install a surveillance (listening) device on the summit of Nanda Devi, India's second-highest peak with a commanding view of China from India's northern border.  Expert mountaineers from the US, India and Nepal would carry a long-range listening antenna powered by a SNAP-19C radioisotope thermoelectric generator.  The generator was fueled with seven capsules of plutonium-238, roughly one-third the amount used in the Nagasaki bomb.

Nuclear-powered device that was installed by CIA climbers on another mountain near Nanda Devi. It’s the same as the model that is still missing.

Rob Schaller, via Pete Takeda collection

It is useful to note that in the mid 1960s compact nuclear power generation had proven itself in space and undersea exploration and in the absence of readily available and robust solar technology a portable nuclear power generation set-up that could power the station remotely for years was considered a near perfect solution.

Arriving in mid September it was already the close of climbing season yet the CIA rushed to complete deployment of the listening station.  Without sufficient time to acclimate the team of climbers and Sherpas were already suffering from altitude sickness at 15,000 feet.  They faced a climb of an additional 10,000 vertical feet requiring the establishment of four camps along a dangerous ridge line.  The mission was led by Indian Captain, and expert climber, M.S. Kohli.  High winds, near constant snow, a shortage of food and frostbite hampered progress as the team struggled to attain the summit.  Finally, out of water and out of food, on October 16 a sudden and violent blizzard near the summit forced the small expedition to withdraw.  Abandoning the mission the team secured the heavy equipment, including the nuclear power generator, to an ice ledge and descended the mountain.  The plan was to retrieve it in the spring.

Returning in May 1966, the team discovered that the entire ledge where everything was cached had been swept-away by an avalanche.  

The nuclear device was gone.

Subsequent searches using heat detectors, metal detectors, infrared detectors and radiation detectors failed to locate it.  Presumably, it had been buried somewhere within the Nanda Devi glaciers.  

For decades both the US and Indian governments had an official policy of neither confirming or denying the mission citing intelligence security.  But that did not deny the reality of the device being out there, possibly sinking deeper into the ice from heat generated by plutonium decay, in a melting, shifting glacier that supplied the headwaters of the Ganges River.  Millions of people down stream could be impacted by contamination risks.

Whoa!

This is excellent journalism on the part of the Times revealing the CIA's loss of a nuclear device sixty years ago.  I unblocked the paywall as it's a terrific read.  I wonder how many more US Government and CIA misadventures/debacles remain to be discovered?  Probably enough to keep investigative journalists busy for decades.

If they're found out.

Read the article in its entirety here.

And, by the way, I'm still reading National Geographic Magazine each and every month... 

On This Day In History

During World War II a class of small coastal and inter-island freighters were constructed  for the Army Transportation Corps.  This was a steel-hulled, diesel-powered ship, 177 feet in length and equipped with two hatches and central booms.  On April 16, 1944, Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation launched a small coastal freighter at its yard in Kewaunee, Wisconsin. She was originally designated FP-344, but that was later changed to FS-344.  

click on images for a closer look

Photo above is fitting out of FP-344 at the Kewaunee Shipbuilding & Engineering Corp. Shipyard, Kewaunee, Wisconsin circa July 1944. 

Photo below is her sister ship FP-343 underway.

In 1966 FS-344 was transferred to the Navy and renamed USS PUEBLO.  Refitted at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard she was crammed with sophisticated electronic gear and converted to an Auxiliary General Environmental Research (AGER) vessel – a class recognized by few naval officers.  PUEBLO (AGER-2) was a signals intelligence collector – a spy ship.  Jointly operated by the National Security Agency and Naval Intelligence, she carried a crew of 83, 30 of whom were communication technicians.

PUEBLO’s first mission, off the coast of North Korea, was considered low risk. She was to monitor electronic transmissions and observe naval activity around North Korean ports. Orders required her to remain in international waters at least one mile beyond the 12-mile territorial limit. Thus far the North Koreans had not interfered with similar missions.

However, on January 23, 1968, North Korean patrol boats surrounded PUEBLO intent on capturing the lightly armed vessel.  With a top speed of 13 knots, she could not escape. Her captain could only stall for time as the crew worked furiously to destroy documents and equipment. Despite urgent requests, neither the Navy nor Air Force sent help. After about two hours, the North Koreans were able to board PUEBLO.  One crewman lay dying and several were injured.

The North Koreans took their prize to the port city of Wonsan. The crew was taken prisoner. They were beaten and tortured. 

President Johnson considered and rejected a military response. He was unwilling to sacrifice the crew. So their release was negotiated. 

The USS PUEBLO was never returned. It is currently on display at the Victorious War Museum in Pyongyang, North Korea. However, she remains a commissioned vessel in the U.S. Navy.  Commissioned May 13, 1967, PUEBLO is the second oldest in the fleet behind only the USS CONSTITUTION, commissioned October 1, 1797.

Kewaunee Shipbuilding stopped building boats when the war ended.  It did continue doing steel fabrication work.  The company changed its name to Kewaunee Engineering on January 1, 1947.  Oshkosh Truck acquired the business in1999.  What began as the Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering Company is now Kewaunee Fabrications and operates as a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation.

Detailed story linked here. 

Martime Trivia

Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society

I have blogged about this tid-bit before.

On this day in history; April 16, 1944, Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation launched a small coastal freighter at its yard in Kewaunee, Wisconsin. 

Built for the Army Transportation Corps, she was originally designated FP-344, but that was later changed to FS-344. In 1966 FS-344 was transferred to the Navy and renamed USS PUEBLO. 

At the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard she was crammed with sophisticated electronic gear and converted to an Auxiliary General Environmental Research (AGER) vessel – a class recognized by few naval officers. PUEBLO (AGER-2) was a signals intelligence collector – a spy ship. Jointly operated by the National Security Agency and Naval Intelligence, she carried a crew of 83, 30 of which were communication technicians.

Friday Music

Written by PF Sloan and Steve Barri this song was launched into recording history by Johnny Rivers for the opening titles of the American broadcast of Secret Agent from 1964 to 1966.  

The Rivers version of the tune rose to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 making it one of the biggest hits of his career.

Here's PF Sloan himself performing Secret Agent Man.....

The Walls Have Ears

In Medieval times it was said that if you were in someone else's castle beware what you speak.  The walls have ears.  Nowadays, we don't have castles where bad people can eavesdrop on your conversations.  We have devices that can do that and much, much more.  Technology is ubiquitous and data can be swept-up and used for all sorts of noble or nefarious purposes.

If you’ve been following the drama in Washington DC lately this may be of interest. 

Communist Red China is always watching.  And I’m not talking about spy balloons.  

Under the law in China, any company must cooperate with the government.  So if you've got TikTok on your phone, you may want to watch your back.

However, there is an even scarier company out there, it's called META. 

Both companies collect the same data, but Zuckerberg  takes this a step further.  He takes your data, bundles it and sells it to scammers. 

This is video is worth a watch. Less than three minutes….

 

Behind The Curtain

No trip behind what had formerly been a Soviet communist puppet state behind the iron curtain without a trip to the Cold War Museum on Wenceslas Square in historic Old Town Prague.

The Hotel Jalta (Yalta) was erected from 1954 to 1958 on the location of a building destroyed by allied bombing during WWII.  From the 1950s until 1989 the hotel was home to a cold war secret.  20 meters underground is a bunker spread over three floors designed to provide shelter for up to 150 prominent state officials and espionage officers for as long as two months in event a nuclear exchange occurred between Warsaw Pact countries and the West.

The bunker had its own power and water cistern and operating theater.  The concrete walls are two meters thick and include a steel slab designed as a radiation shield.  Two emergency exit tunnels lead to Wenceslas Square and an adjacent building.

Following the Velvet Revolution and return to democratic government the bunker was declassified and turned over to the hotel.  It is now a cold war museum.

If you like espionage and intrigue this is worth a visit.  The Secret Police occupied the space for  four decades creating a listening post to eavesdrop on the hotel's guests who were largely officials of Western countries.

West Germany's embassy was located on the premises in the 1970s and the Secret Police tapped their phones and bugged their offices.  Here you will see how hotel room bugs were hidden in items as innocuous as a shoe brush.

Our guide at the entrance

Soviet era propaganda  

Medical facilities

Air handling equipment (still works)

Telex, communications equipment and switchboard used to listen-in and record bugged hotel rooms 

Show me your papers!

One of the escape tunnels

You can learn more about the museum here