On this episode of Our American Stories, it started with a dropped wrench. Moments later, a missile exploded inside its silo, launching a nuclear warhead into a roadside ditch outside Damascus, Arkansas. For hours, few people understood just how close the country had come to catastrophe.

Former Arkansas newsman Randy Dixon was there from the beginning. He shares how one of America's most forgotten nuclear accidents unfolded, the secret recording that revealed what really happened that night, and why the story became one of CNN's first major live news events.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)