2023 Atlas Obscura. Part of HuffPost Wellness. Frustrated, Mondale had to call Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and pull rank, saying, Goddammit, Harold, Im the vice president of the United States, to find out it was, in fact, carrying a nuclear warhead. The missile was not armed at the time. When the socket fell, it plunged 70 feet to pierce the side of the . You can see the locations of all silos on the ICBM History page. It was the same warhead that had been atop the missile during the deadly Searcy fire 15 years earlier. The last of the Titan launch sites in Arkansas, located near Quitman in Cleburne County, was demolished on Nov. 19, 1986. I was living out of state at the time, but the disaster was covered in depth by the national press. Titan II Missiles in Arkansas - Only In Arkansas Deactivated silos were located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. Pieces of debris were taken away from the 400 acres (1.6km2) surrounding the facility, and the site was buried under a mound of gravel, soil, and small concrete debris. They dont know where the warhead is, King recalls being told. Mondale and Jimmy Carter lost their bid for re-election in 1980. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. Visitors to the site first descend down the 50 feet to a concrete pad, where they are greeted by the first of two 6,000-pound blast doors, one of which was kept closed at all times during the Cold War. At around 6:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, September 18, 1980, two airmen from a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) team were checking the pressure on the oxidizer tank of a USAF Titan II missile at Little Rock AFB's Launch Complex 374-7. More adventurous souls can use the escape hatch to leave the facility when they check out. Mark Christ set the stage: "Senior Airman David Livingston and Sergeant Jeff K. Kennedy then entered the launch complex early on the morning of Sept. 19 to get readings on airborne fuel concentrations, which they found to be at their maximum. The missiles were housed in 54 launch sites located in three states; Arkansas had 18 launch complexes located in Faulkner, Conway, White, Van Buren, and Cleburne counties. What Happens When a Giant Nuclear Missile Accidentally Falls Back Into The four men at the silo were blown off their feet. This isnt ancient history, Schlosser, who wrote Command and Control, the seminal book about the Damascus incident and the history of nuclear weapons in America, tells Popular Mechanics. But the effects of the explosion and working with the potentially toxic fuel linger for many of the airmen who were on site. The silos were of necessity deep, about 150 feet. NORTH DAKOTA MISSILE SITES: Living in a nuclear world We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. Sid King had just sat down to dinner on September 18, 1980 when he got the call. USS Cyclops Is the Navys Last Missing Big Ship, Russias New Warhead Is an Engine of Destruction, How Drones and Sats Have Given Ukraine a Chance. Oh yes, Jackie's checkup, despite her MS, showed her to be in excellent health. Aerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, such that they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. Meanwhile, as a countermeasure, the silo was filling with water to douse potential flames and dilute the vapor. Moving down from level two is the kitchen and entertainment space on level one. Your email address will not be published. The first thing that makes this particular route interesting is the still active missile silos that dot the highway from Kimball to the Colorado border. All that was left to do was return the missile back to its silo and remove the dangerous oxidizer. Christ explained that the deaths were not caused by the explosion itself, but by the rapid loss of oxygen. [2], Kennedy, initially praised as a hero, later received an official letter of reprimand for his first entry into the complex, as it later transpired that he had disregarded an order to stay away. The first missile launch facility was located in jersey shore,. You knew it was 10 million people, but you didn't know where.". Fuel vapor started to fill the silo. Kimberly S. Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. [1][15][16] A documentary film titled Command and Control from director Robert Kenner, based on Schlosser's book, was released on January 10, 2017. Sequential photographs showing the launching of the Titan II ICBM weapon firing from underground silos, circa 1965. The process was eye-opening, and a great history lesson. During the next year, the other 18 missile silos in central Arkansas received ICBMs, and Jan. 1, 1964, all silos in Arkansas were active and on alert status. [8][17], Jeff Plumb's account of his role in the incident was featured in a 2017 episode of WBEZ's This American Life. Possibly a fuel leak. The Cold War was over, and with it the threat of annihilation right? The nuclear missile next door - MSN Accepted file types: jpg, png, Max. The incident occurred on September 18-19, 1980, at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas when a U.S. Air Force LGM-25C Titan II ICBM loaded with a 9-megaton W-53 nuclear warhead experienced a liquid fuel explosion . There are not many food options close by, and besides, who else can say they cooked themselves dinner in a missile silo launch control center? Since that time there have been hundreds of Atlas, Titan, Minuteman and Peacekeeper sites constructed all the way from Texas to North Dakota, New Mexico to Montana. The discovery follows the report earlier this month that China appears to be constructing 120 missile silos near Yumen in Gansu province. Rachel Silva, who organized the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program's history walk Sept. 12, shows a photo of a typical missile control room during a tour on the site of the 1980 missile . Deactivation of Arkansas' Titan II missile silos began in May 1985 and ended May 5, 1987, with the state's last missile, located near Judsonia, Arkansas, being deactivated. It turned out a worker doing routine maintenance on one of the missiles had dropped a nine-pound socket. It was forecast as a beautiful day so we decided to pack a lunch, find a nice spot along the highway and enjoy our lunch. "From a weapon of mass destruction to hosting birthday parties and weddings, that's pretty wild ride," Hill said. At about 6:30 p.m. Sept. 18, 1980, an airman working on the missile dropped a wrench socket, which fell 80 feet before hitting and piercing the rocket's first-stage fuel tank, causing a leak, but not an immediate explosion. Suddenly the flies began to land on everything and in the process they flew by the hundreds into the back of our SUV. And around 3:05 a.m., all hell broke loose, he tells Popular Mechanics. In a Sept. 12, 2014 photo, Teri Kramer points out an escape hatch over from www.washingtontimes.com. The initial PTS team was sent home. "It's a little weird," Hill said. Before the unit inactivated, a Mark VI re-entry vehicle from the last Titan II ICBM on alert status in Strategic Air Command was dedicated in Heritage Park. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. [1] It focused on the explosion, as well as other Broken Arrow incidents during the Cold War. Heres what the terrifying incident was like, from those who were there. tercontinental ballistic missile wing, has the largest number of active fense Council (NRDC) and Hans M. Krisair force weapons. Arkansas was home to 18 Titan II ICBMs in a missile field located north of Conway. Three years later the Pangburn launch site was rocked by an explosion which killed 53 of the 55 contract workers doing maintenance work. Hed worked on the Manhattan Project and had retired to Damascus after years in Los Alamos, New Mexico. A socket from a large socket wrench rolled off a platform and punctured the missile's lower-stage fuel tank, starting a fuel leak that eventually led to the explosion a few hours later. Titan Ranch missile control center comes with a full kitchen, stocked with drinks refrigerator, and a massive projector equipped with multiple movie streaming options along with some saved movies. Lately, many have been closed and the . At about 1 p.m. the launch duct was suddenly filled with intense heat and billowing smoke." There are only a few places in the United States where you can tour a former nuclear missile silo, but only one with luxury accommodations where you can also host a party, and its only a few hours away. Livingston died of his injuries [later] that day." The silos cover, made of hundreds of tons of concrete, was half destroyed. Further, any commercial or non-commercial use of this photograph or any other Using decades-old U.S. Air Force training footage, re-enactments and drone . So the Titans stayed in placeand demonstrated time and again their peril. (By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was around 15 kilotons, and the one dropped on Nagasaki was around 21 kilotons. While the Polaris, a solid-fuel missile, was developed at the same time as the Titan missiles for use in submarines, the military was attached to the Titan II for diplomatic reasons. So every minute counted.". How far is it from Rockyford to Limon? Will China Give Lethal Support to Russia? The first Titan II missile in Arkansas was installed in a silo near Searcy in 1963. The control room space sits on level two of an internal, solid steel birdcage structure. Locked into a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, the United States developed the Titan II rocket system in the 1960s to be the nation'sfirst missile that could be launched from an underground silo. The team had met its goal. What you may not know is that at one time, there were 18 ICBM (intercontinental nuclear missile) silos surrounding the Little Rock area. The story behind Colorado's Minuteman missiles and the people at the controls.
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