ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
I might believe it too. But I don't know.
I spent three years on a nuclear-weapon-capable sub. I never saw one. I once saw reentry bodies on a "bus" when an A-weaps let me peek behind the curtain on a maintenance op. (He shouldn't have; I didn't have enough clearance.) But for all I know those bullets were full of candy, piñata-style.
The US never confirms or denies. Has been so since the 1950s. The only time I recall there was an official (sort of) confirm was when we took the tac nukes off the skimmers. ASROC. I believe the president confirmed himself. That wasn't an accident though; it was an official backhand message to the USSR.
FAS historically has had great sources. I read a lot of their stuff back in the 90s, and it agreed with stuff I knew first-hand. But they don't "know" where the nukes are. And where there may have been nukes in the past does not mean they're there today, or might not be back next week. It's a shell game.
There you and I must differ, as I ALWAYS knew where the Nukes were in the Navy. Where ever there were armed Marines. And when ever you saw Marines in armored personnel carriers escorting trailers, you KNEW where the Nukes where. Whenever I was at Kings Bay , or Bangor WA , I knew EXACTLY where the nukes where. They sure as hell were NOT guarding the Admiral's crispy crème shipment! [:D]
The USAF have a particular security troop that does the same thing. The only other things they guard are flag officer an certain "specialized" aircraft (particularly certain boxes on those aircraft).
Besides , I'd much rather believe that they are storing mini nukes at a Long term friend and established base , then at a newly gained ally (who is a former enemy) at a bare bones base within waking distance of Russia. It's just the romantic in me. [:D]
By the way , I never carried actual nukes...but I for some incredibly stupid reason I was on a "load team", practicing with "shapes". For less than a week. As we were loading a "shape" into a plane in the hanger, the skipper dropped over to say hello. As he'd just started up the ladder to topside , he came to a complete freeze , and visibly cringed. I think it had something to do with the God-awful clang ringing throughout the hangar, reverberating off the metal walls. There was a whole new team assigned immediately , with us all being found other "collateral duties". But we could honestly say that we "dropped a nuke (shape). Unfortunately , we dropped it on the hangar floor. [X(] [:(][:D]
