A Little Lowry Lesson

Did you know that Denver had an Atomic Weapons School?

"0800069 - Atomic Weapons Orientation Part Three - Special Weapons Orientation: Weapons Family; Atomic Weapons Orientation Part Four - Atomic Weapons Support Operations - 1961 - 18:54 - Black & White and Color - Two Films on One Video

Atomic Weapons Orientation Part Three - Special Weapons Orientation: Weapons Family - 6:32 - This video shows U.S. stockpiles nuclear weapons up to 1961. The stockpile includes early airdrop fission weapons, Mark (Mk)-3, Mk-4, Mk-5, Mk-6, Mk-6/18, Mk-7, Mk-8, Mk-12, and Mark-9, the artillery atomic projectile. A live test of the Mk-9 fired from a 280mm cannon is shown. This was the 15-kiloton GRABLE test conducted on May 25, 1953, as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole.

Atomic Weapons Orientation Part Four - Atomic Weapons Support Operations - 12:22 - The special contributions of nuclear weapons technicians are featured in this video. They inspected, maintained, modified and modernized nuclear weapons at various storage and operation field sites. The video shows training conducted at the Defense Atomic Support Agency's nuclear weapons school in Albuquerque and the U.S. Air Force's weapons school at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado. Technicians are shown conducting "fire test set" inspections on all branches of the armed services.

The narrator explains that the storage, maintenance, inspection and modification of nuclear weapons is part of the "mine to stockpile sequence." Also, the video shows that the technicians are a vital part of the "stockpile to target sequence" as they prepare weapons for shipment, load weapons onto strike aircraft, and maintain and modify weapons at forward field sites.

Footage is shown of weapons being loaded on a B-52 and a smaller attack aircraft. The narrator explains that the major function of a technician was to 'make the weapon ready for the day when by Presidential decree, nuclear weapons would be sent out on intercontinental bombers, tactical aircraft, missiles, and carrier-deployed aircraft to the target areas.' "

NOTE: This video and the description quoted above were posted by "ancjr" at this site. However, this clip cuts off 42 seconds into the video, and therefore does not include the segment described in the text where training activities involving Lowry personnel are noted to have occurred. RMPJC has contacted "ancjr" to see if the missing video segment including Part 4 can be reposted to the site.

RMPJC's Nuclear Nexus Project is currently investigating the historical activities and environmental impact of the Nuclear Weapons Training School which was conducted at Lowry Air Force Base.

According to the Wings Over the Rockies Museum at Lowry, "In 1962, the Department of Weapons Training offered sixty courses in conventional munitions, disaster control, armament, nuclear weapons, and weapons loading. The Nuclear Weapons branch became the only Air Force organization that instructed in storing, maintaining, assembling, testing, and handling nuclear components. By 1964, the 3415th Technical School was graduating more than 10,000 people annually."

The top secret training occurred in Building 1499, known as the "Black Hangar." Today, it is the site of the Big Bear Ice Rink, a public skating and hockey arena which is in the center of the area which has been redeveloped into a residential community since the Lowry Air Force Base closed in 1994.

Where did the radioactive wastes from the Lowry Air Force Base go?

RMPJC has been investigating. It appears that as far back as the 1950's radioactive wastes were dumped into a landfill on the base along Alameda Avenue, which closed in 1989. Now, a private risk management group wants to turn the dump into a residential and commercial development to be called "Lowry Vista."

RMPJC's Nuclear Nexus Project has been investigating documents related to this area's former use and radioactive contamination, and has obtained documents confirming that there are high levels of radioactivity in the groundwater surrounding this dump, including Strontium 90 and numerous other manmade radionuclides that do not occur naturally.

Based on this evidence, RMPJC opposes any plan to develop this site and is urging that the radioactive waste dump at Lowry be excavated and its radioactive contents removed, and not just covered up, literally, with a pile of dirt.

Stay tuned for more on this hot topic.

Adrienne Anderson, Coordinator, The Nuclear Nexus Project

Contact: adrienne@rmpjc.org