Rademacher, Fredericka

Fredericka married Schreier, Frederick 12 Feb 1900. Frederick (son of Schreier, Peter and Schaaf, Christina) was born 26 Nov 1875; died 11 Sep 1953. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Military Service: Bef 1950
• Biography: Aft 14 Feb 1950
• News Mention: 4 Dec 2010; LaCrosse Tribune

Notes:

Biography:
Captain, U.S. Air Force. Parachuted out of a crippled B-36B bomber over the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of Princess Royal Island, British Columbia, February 13, 1950. Twelve other crewmembers survived the bailout but Capt. Schreier, along with four others, were never found. The wreck of the giant bomber was discovered some three years later, but no trace of any crewmembers. This was the U.S.'s first "Broken Arrow" incident involving an atomic bomb. The plane was returning from Alaska to Texas when the accident occurred

News Mention:
Cashton native at center of 'great mystery of the nuke age'
A memorial for Ted Schreier was erected in St. Bernard's Cemetery in Middleton, Wis.
MADISON - One of the great stories almost nobody knows involves a man named Ted Schreier and the world's first atomic weapons accident.
It happened 60 years ago - February 1950 - and it's still percolating.
The author of a recent book on the episode, "Broken Arrow #1: The World's First Lost Atomic Bomb," said in an interview that while he feels confident about most of what happened that day, there's a piece of the puzzle - concerning Schreier, a military pilot and weaponeer who lived in Madison - that may never be solved.
"It is one of the great mysteries of the nuke age," said Canadian author John M. Clearwater, an expert on nuclear weapons doctrine.
Theodore F. Schreier was born in Cashton. He attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison and settled there after serving in the Army Air Force during World War II.
Clearwater, in his book, writes that in 1946 Schreier was working for American Airlines: "Post-war life seemed good as he and his wife Jean began civilian life in Madison."
But in 1947, according to Clearwater, Schreier was recalled to active duty. He was given training with the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and taught to arm a Mk-4 atomic weapon. It was top-secret work. Schreier's family thought he was piloting transport planes.
On the night of Feb. 13, 1950, Schreier was part of a 17-man crew that was scheduled to fly a B-36 aircraft - the world's first intercontinental bomber - from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Texas on what was billed a routine training exercise.
It was not. Instead, the crew was to carry out a simulated nuclear attack on San Francisco. On board was an Mk-4 atomic bomb. Whether the bomb's plutonium core also was on board remains in some dispute - crew members later said it was not, and Clearwater concurs - but even without the core, the bomb contained uranium and thousands of pounds of high explosives.
Things went wrong almost immediately. Shortly after takeoff, the plane encountered heavy rain, and it soon got worse, as Clearwater writes:
"The plane began to build up ice on the wings, tail, engines and propellers, and then started to lose altitude."
Three of the plane's six engines caught fire. Subsequent interviews with the crew indicate they managed to jettison the bomb - rigged to explode in mid-air - over water and then parachute out themselves.
Twelve crew members were found alive by fishing boats and the Canadian Navy. The other five, including Schreier, were presumed drowned - at least until three years later, when the story took a very strange turn.
In the summer of 1953, a rescue team searching the mountains of British Columbia for a lost civilian plane discovered the wreck of the B-36.
The confounding thing was the wreck was found 300 miles north - back toward Alaska - and at a higher altitude than when the crew abandoned it, headed south, crippled and seemingly about to crash.
A theory surfaced that Schreier - who was the only pilot among the missing crew members, and the only one nobody saw parachute out - had stayed with the plane and turned it around to the north.
It makes more sense if the bomb's plutonium core was on board, and Schreier was attempting to keep it out of unfriendly hands.
Canadian filmmaker Michael Jorgensen advanced that theory in his 2004 documentary, "Lost Nuke," going so far as to call Schreier a hero.
Jorgensen said at the time he thought Schreier had crashed into the Canadian mountains with the plutonium, which he believes was taken out (along with Schreier's remains) when the American military swooped in shortly after the wreck's discovery.
Clearwater, who cooperated with the documentary and visited the crash site with the filmmaker, did not agree with Jorgensen's conclusions.
Clearwater's book - and his participation in a subsequent National Geographic documentary on the subject - reflect his belief overwhelming evidence indicates plutonium never was on the plane.
Plutonium or not, it remains a significant event - the first lost bomb of the atomic age.
As for Schreier, Clearwater writes that there's a "slim possibility" he stayed with the plane and flew it north into the Canadian mountains. Clearwater thinks it far more likely Schreier bailed out and drowned.
When Clearwater was asked how he thought the plane got to where it ended up, "I cannot explain it," he said.
Shortly after the plane went down, Schreier's family put up a stone in his honor in St. Bernard's cemetery in Middleton, Wis.
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