US military trained a secret Cold War unit of elite troops to carry backpack nukes behind enemy lines
Top brass believed just a handful of soldiers could destroy scores of tanks and kill tens of thousands of enemy troops
THE US military recruited its own "suicide squad" whose sole mission was to go behind enemy lines carrying nuclear bombs in BACKPACKS, it's been revealed.
The highly-trained Cold War unit was tasked with secretly deploying 'special atomic demolition munitions', otherwise known as SADMs.
The US Army and Marine Corps had dozens of these small nukes during the 1960s and 70s, and an elite group trained to use them against key enemy targets.
Those called up to the unit were fully aware their daring missions could end up costing them their lives, reports
Top brass believed just a handful of soldiers could destroy scores of tanks and kill tens of thousands of troops with just a few targeted strikes.
The 59lb "go anywhere" SADM could be carried inside a special backpack and even dropped into enemy territory via parachute.
We all knew it was a one-way mission, a suicide mission
Mark Bentley, former US military
Each bomb carried a massive one-tonne yield - about 1/16th of the power of the devastating Hiroshima blast.
US Army Special Forces A-teams, specially trained US Marines or Navy Seals were primed to use the bombs as an extreme measure.
One of those recruited to the squad was Mark Bentley, now 68, who lives in De Pere, Wisconsin.
He said: “We all knew it was a one-way mission, a suicide mission.
"The Army is not going to set a bomb like that and run away and leave it, because they don't know if someone else would get ahold of it
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"They have to leave troops there to make sure it's not stolen or compromised, and that would just be collateral damage.
"You didn't go out with the thought that it was anything other than a one-way mission. If you're Bruce Willis, you get away, but I ain't Bruce Willis."
The bombs were officially ditched by the US in 1989, though the SADM platoons were deactivated well before that.
