A large number of these had vanished from Soviet stockpiles in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, which had been part of the Soviet union . Pyotr Simonenko, head of the Ukrainian Communist Party, admitted to reporters, “Out of 2,400 nuclear warheads which were on Ukrainian territory, only 2,200 can be accounted for. Nobody,” he said, “has any idea where the other 200 deadly warheads have gone.”
Maybe he didn’t, but we did. Most of them were recovered. But a number of former Soviet nukes found their way to North Korea, where they were being hidden in large underground tunnels.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ door was not a problem. But breaching tunnels fortified with layers of concrete and steel was a completely different challenge.
Upon learning that there were tunnels of similar size and reinforcement throughout Europe, we coordinated training with some of our NATO counterparts. We surveyed their tunnels to test their vulnerability to an attack. This was very valuable information to the host nation and also taught us a great deal about what it would take.
Many of the tunnels had been built during World War II to serve as bomb shelters. In Norway, there was one twenty-six miles long that served as a hydroelectric plant. Another tunnel had been converted into a huge underground ice-skating rink.
I can’t say much more about the WMD program except that it was a success. The team I worked with also helped locate and recover a number of former Soviet nuclear scientists who were selling their bomb-making expertise to other countries.
But not everything at ST-6 was so life and death—or limited to official business. Once I was traveling with a new ST-6 corpsman named Reed to do some Pararescue training with the PJs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
As we checked into the hotel, I noticed some pamphlets on the front desk advertising local activities. One devoted to a balloon festival caught my attention.
I turned to Reed and said, “Hey, Reed, why don’t we go jump out of a balloon this weekend?”
He looked at me like I was crazy and answered, “I don’t know, Don. We don’t even have parachutes.”
“We’ll have to find some.”
First, I had to see if I could find a balloonist who would let us jump from his hot-air balloon. Everybody I contacted said no.
Eventually I located this old hippie with a gray beard and long hair. He said, “Sure, dude. But last time I let a jumper out, I smashed into the mountains and ripped off my kneecap.”
He explained that when someone jumps out of the basket, the balloon loses so much weight that it goes spastic.
But he was a cool guy and willing to try again. He told us that he’d be going aloft early the next morning when the air was thick, which enabled the balloons to get off the ground. We agreed to meet at 0300.
Now Reed and I had to find chutes. At the time all of us at ST-6 were jumping with MT1X parachutes, which were also used by the Air Force. So we went over to the air loft at the USAF base and found the chief rigger. Reed and I were these longhaired guys who didn’t look like normal military. And we didn’t have our jump logs with us, because we hadn’t planned on jumping during the trip.
I went up to the chief rigger and said, “I’m Chief Mann and this is my teammate Reed. We are both SEAL medics going through the PJ course. And we’d like to ask you if we could borrow a couple of MT1X chutes for a balloon jump tomorrow.”
The rigger looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Sorry, Chief, but no way.”
Another rigger who was packing reserve chutes on the other side of the room called us over after the chief rigger left.
He said, “Guys, I’ll be on duty tonight, and see that table over there? The door will probably be unlocked, and there will be two MT1X parachutes lying on that table. If they happen to be gone when I come back, I’ll need them back by tomorrow night.”