'Incident at Mars Bluff' reignited on S.C. ETV

By: Local reports | SCNow
Published: November 12, 2009

For the Gregg Family, the afternoon of March 11, 1958, was really no different than most. Mrs. Gregg sat sewing in the front parlor, while her husband and their son tended to one of the many chores on their farm in the tiny town of Mars Bluff. Six-year-old Helen Gregg, her sister, 9-year-old Frances, and their cousin, 9-year-old Ella Davies were busy in their tiny playhouse. But at about 4 p.m. their simple decision to find another place to play, proved to be a fateful one.
Nineteen minutes later, a U.S. Air Force plane bomber accidentally released its deadly payload, a three-ton nuclear bomb, over the Gregg farm. Within seconds, the bomb hit the ground and detonated, tearing a large crater in the ground that measured 50 feet across and 35 feet deep. All that remained of the playhouse were mangled shards of the tin roof. Cousin Ella Davies sustained the worst injuries from the explosion, requiring 33 stitches and an overnight stay in the hospital.
Amazingly, no one was killed.
At the moment of impact, history was made. The Gregg family had survived the first nuclear blunder of its kind, and for a few short days Mars Bluff became the epicenter of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Although the excitement about the near-catastrophe died out almost as quickly as it began, the flames will be rekindled on Thursday at 9 p.m. when ETV-HD premieres “Incident at Mars Bluff.”
The 30-minute Carolina Stories documentary captures the details of this event in more depth and includes interviews with the surviving members of the Gregg family who reveal how the incident affected them then and now. Additional questions will be answered by surviving crewmembers, Air Force personnel, Mars Bluff residents and Cold War historians as they shed light on the incident and provide local, national and international perspectives on the world’s first nuclear accident.