The nuclear incident in Palomares - Page 2

I think maybe you are missing the point; that being that this is Spain.  Foreigners that live here, pay taxes and support the local economy are still foreigners.  Spain belongs to the Spanish and ultimately it will be a Spanish authority making that decision, hence my query asking why Spanish citizens would agree.....

Well my wife is Spanish and I don't regard my self as a "foreigner" as you infer.... You would think that Spanish people would appreciate democracy and the people who died to achieve that especially after the Franco regime and didn't you support the Axis powers cause during the 2nd World War? If it wasn't for the guys who died then and recently you would be talking German or Russian now....

Was also rumoured that the Spanish and it's Armada might have succeeded in 1588 to invade England but it was two o clock and everyone stopped for a siesta till 5 ....😁

It was a difficult time.  Fascists aided by German Condor Legion put Franco in power in 1938; Spain took no active part in the war, but sympathies were generally with Germany. Had the allies not prevailed, would Spain be speaking German now? No. That is a nonsense.  Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, edged out by English only because English is a second language to many many people worldwide - but there are more native Spanish speakers than native English speakers ... so perhaps had the allies not prevailed, UK would be speaking Spanish .... who can say?

But the question of whether “freedom” was protected by having nuclear armed bombers airborne at all times is debatable ... was freedom defended, or did the world creep closer to midnight on the Doomsday clock? 

We’ll never know, the world has moved on and grown up (well, mostly grown up ...) and now the European project seeks to maintain that peace, but it seems some in the U.K. would want to tear that apart

An interesting subject but I think it’s descending into a bit of a UK/ES squabble which would be a pity 

I remember over 30 years ago driving along the back road from the new roundabout by the infant school ( the roundabout wasn’t there then) over the hill to Vera (no golf course just oranges)and going past the monitoring station that the Americans set up 

There are a couple of good books about the crash that are worth reading if you can get them one by Tad Sluck and another that I can’t find anymore Must have leant it to someone 

I don’t think Palomares is any the worse for the incident and I haven’t heard of any abnormal increase in the incidence of cancers in the area 

If I’m ever in Madrid I’ll try and make time to go to the aircraft museum and I think a plaque may be a good idea, maybe on the wall in Calle 17 Enero 1966?

I'd like to add to what Dario was saying in his excellent English, that every year a group of residents who lived or were since born by the land where the bombs fell in Palomares, have to travel to Madrid for a their annual health check up, all expenses paid.  Ask yourselves why. 

One bomb was never recovered and is somewhere in the sea off the coast of Palomares,  still.  It is too deep in that part of the deal bed to be able to recover it safely.  Nobody knows what state it is in.  The new property in the area is about the cheapest you'll find as close to  the beach.  Wonder why?  

The US government were going to clean up the contaminated area but never did and I imagine that the Spanish government did'nt want to push to much at that time. Almeria province was very poor before the plastic greenhouse boom, and was referred to as ' El culo' of Spain , which translates is the equivalent  of a---e hole!  Less than 15 years ago (l think it was when Hilary Clinton was foreign secretary), once again the US promised to remove tons and tons of soil (and take it to some nuclear dumping ground in the Nevada desert) from the area where the 3 bombs fell, one if which was damaged.  The land which was somebody's  farming land ,  to this day is still fenced off.as the American government so far had done nothing. 

In view of all of this, I think that it is a bit of a cheek to even contemplate memorials on foreign soil for a botched up operation which should never have happened , a collision in the air due a badly calculated  refuelling attempt.

Let the  Americans remember their own dead in their own country.  They probably don't want to to glorify a bad bit of flying anyway.  Remember, the dirt poor peasants and fishermen who were never warned about the bombs being up dangerous and let their children touch them and play in the contaminated fiield where they fell.  The US government got away without any outcry for compensation against possible consequences which there might have been had it happened anywhere else.  It's all been very hushed up by property speculators and local politicians for very obvious reasons.

All 4 bombs were recovered eventually. .

I live in the village too....

Biggles, you are quite right.  I've checked and the fourth bomb was recovered after 81 days.  However if you look up the Incident on Wikipedia, it gives a few statistics as regards the plutonium contamination where the other bombs fell.

If you look at my photograph on my original posting it shows where the bombs fell and contamination areas were/ still are...