They thought it was a joke message - sent accidentally.

That was the reaction of some officers in the Pentagon when they received what's called a "bent spear" message last week.

Jim Olson has more on that...

"Bent Spear" is the term reserved for significant nuclear weapons incidents and the message sent out last Thursday was real - alerting them of the fact that Minot Air Force Base munitions crews could not account for six nuclear warheads.

Those bombs had been mistakenly left attached to cruise missiles that were loaded onto the wings of a B-52 bomber and flown across the country to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

But even after the three-and-a-half hour flight, it wasn't until much later that the warheads were finally secured and removed from the bomber.

Air Force Major General Daniel Darnell reported on the timeline of the incident to Congress yesterday.

Sources in Congress say the timeline shows the six nuclear warheads were not retrieved or even identified as being nuclear munitions for almost ten hours after their arrival at Barksdale.

Sources in the Air Force say it took that long because the airmen who first discovered the bombs could not believe what they were seeing and had a hard time convincing superiors that the missiles on the bomber were, in fact, carrying nuclear weapons.

The incident has led the Air Force to relieve the commander of the 5th Munitions Wing at Minot Air Force Base of his duties.

According to records from the Air Force, the commander's name is Lieutenant Colonel Paul Wheeless. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list