---
tags:
  - Organization
  - Military
  - USA
category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "Task Force 157 was a small, undercover U.S. Navy intelligence unit. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, operating in the waters of the Bosporus off Turkey, it relayed data to Washington D.C."
start: 1966
end: 1977
---
Task Force 157 was a small, undercover U.S. Navy intelligence unit. During the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], operating in the waters of the [[Bosporus]] off [[Turkey]], it relayed data to [[Washington, D.C.]] suggesting that one of the Soviet ships leaving the [[Black Sea]] en route to the [[Mediterranean]] was carrying radioactive material. This report swept through the American intelligence community and the White House, contributing to the heightened alert status during the crisis.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.