“Tybee Island Bomb Squad”

 Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, but hardly ever as much fun…! Joe Inglesby and his Tybee Island Bomb Squad are about as much fun as you can have on Tybee, with your clothes on or should I say your bomb squad shirt and hat on.

Sitting at the Tybee Island Bomb Squad headquarters, located at AJ’s Dockside restaurant along theBack Riveron Tybee, I asked Joe to tell me about his organization. “Well it all started”, he said, “from a dream that I had about ten or twelve years ago, there I was wrapped around this 7,600 lb. Mark 15 hydrogen bomb, plunging down towards Tybee. The bomb had been dropped from a U. S. Air Force B-47 Stratojet at 7,200 feet and then right before I was about to hit the water and undoubtedly buried deep into the murky bottom I woke up, to my great relief, realizing that it was only my pillow that I was wrapped around..!”

He told his friend Hugh Mahany about the dream and Hugh told him that when he was a skinny kid of fifteen, back in 1958, there really had been a bomb jettisoned from a B-47 near Tybee and it disappeared, they think, into Wassaw Sound. Thus began Joe’s quest to find out everything he could about the Tybee Island Bomb.

During the past decade, in addition to Joe’s exhaustive scholastic research, others have written books and articles that have appeared in the Times of London, Savannah Morning News, LA Times, Time and too many other newspapers and magazines to list here.

Joe’s enthusiasm about uncovering the mysteries surrounding the Tybee Bomb was, in a word, intoxicating and soon the Tybee Island Bomb Squad was born, along with a band of loyal supporters.

His bomb squad hats and tee-shirts often prompt the question, “is the bomb squad for real…?” “Of course”, he answers, “why do you think I would be selling these trademarked; hats, tee-shirts, sweat-shirts, fleece jackets, windbreakers, koozies and bumper-stickers, if the bomb squad was not for real…!”

Well do you have regular meetings is usually the next question…? “Yes indeed, here at AJ’s on Tybee we have weekly meetings and very often will meet up here between meetings and research the likelihood of ever again, getting bombed on Tybee…!”

On leaving, Joe suggested for everyone to do a Google search for the “Tybee Island Bomb” and follow the links to discover all of the fascinating history of this mysterious Tybee story and he also invited anyone interested in the Tybee Island Bomb Squad to stop by AJ’s and purchase a Tybee Island Bomb Squad hat, tee-shirt or sweatshirt, and bumper-sticker and wear them proudly to show your support for this “stranger than fiction”, Tybee institution…!