The first Titan II missile in Arkansas was installed in a silo near Searcy in 1963. 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. Titan II | Missile Threat The chances of all this happening were so remote, David Stumpf, the author of .css-3wjtm9{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-decoration-color:#1c6a65;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-3wjtm9:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program, tells Popular Mechanics. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. At about 1 p.m. the launch duct was suddenly filled with intense heat and billowing smoke." This photograph is considered public domain and has been cleared for release. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The nuclear warhead was also ejected from the missile silo. Three of the Arkansas launch sites--in White, Van Buren, and Faulkner counties--have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The aerozine 50 fuel immediately began leaking into the launch duct. 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. It was sitting there at a moments notice, and putting the enemy on notice that they couldnt win the war.. They dont know where the warhead is, King recalls being told. President Reagan announced plans to retire the Titan II program in September 1981, only one year after the Damascus disaster. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. Dig for Fossils in Northeast Texas. The countdown to launch started and thenright before the signal to ignite the rocket would have been givenit was stopped. Using decades-old U.S. Air Force training footage, re-enactments and drone . She believes magic can be found in life and books, loves to watch the stars appear, and still dreams of backpacking the world. ICBM Missile Silos - Newsthink Human error in a nuclear facility nearly destroyed Arkansas Airbnb feels you, so now you can for $324 a night. China is building a sprawling network of missile silos, satellite - CNN The most common sites have been the . But spend any amount of time here and you'll forget that you're underground," he said. The large underground facility at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New All three floors of the LCC do not actually connect to the walls and are instead suspended from the ceiling, reminiscent of a giant birdcage. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. After getting the last fly out of the car, we hoped, everything went as planned. Walking across the gangplank feels something like a sci-fi movie, and my childrens insistence on bringing Star Wars costumes was rather apropos. Sound good? What Happens to Pilots That Defect to the U.S.? In Arkansas, three launch sites remain with both launch pads and control centers. Titan II rockets were adapted to use in the space program and launched the first Gemini manned missions in the early 1960s. The steel structure needed to be able to move within the concrete silo and dome, in order to remain operational regardless of what was occurring outside. The site is also booked for a wedding later this year. The lake was blue and beautiful and we parked about 25 yards away and opened the hatch of our SUV intent on a nice, tailgate lunch. Minuteman Missiles on the Great Plains - National Park Service Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, National Register of Historic Places listings in Van Buren County, Arkansas, "Titan II Missile Explosion (1980) Encyclopedia of Arkansas", "Missile silo blast kills 1, hurts 21; no radiation leak", "Colonel Replaced in Action Linked to Fatal Titan Explosion", "Command and Control American Experience WGBH PBS", "Air Force truck removes damaged warhead", "Titan warhead flown to nuclear arms plant", "Season 4, Episode 4 Nuke Kids on the Block", "The night we almost lost Arkansas a 1980 nuclear Armageddon that almost was", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion&oldid=1137032445, National Register of Historic Places in Van Buren County, Arkansas, September 1980 events in the United States, Nuclear accidents and incidents in the United States, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 February 2023, at 12:19. The site was closed, and President Ronald Reagan chose to retire the Titan II missile program, announcing his decision a year after the Damascus Titan II missile explosion. locate [2] The entire missile launch complex was destroyed. Why are there so many nuclear missiles in Montana? It had happened before. Titan Ranch is now a converted nuclear missile facility on Airbnb The Air Force decided to take measures to improve security within the launch complexes. His 4-year-old great-granddaughter held the calf in the passenger seat, trying to hug it back to . The silo which housed the Gemini missile is sealed off and still remains destroyed. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); We select one featured photo per week, but we show many more in our gallery. There was a lot of white smoke, Ayala tells Popular Mechanics, but it was hydrazine.. The Strategic Air Command facility of Little Rock Air Force Base was one of eighteen silos in the command of the 308th Strategic Missile Wing (308th SMW), specifically one of the nine silos within its 374th Strategic Missile Squadron (374th SMS), at the time of the explosion. Nodak, based in Grand Forks, served 55 missile silos around the region. King and Phillips arrived at the site at the same time as Van Buren County Sheriff Gus Anglin, and they were all greeted by military security personnel, who told them no evacuation of the area was necessary at that point. Construction on the Minuteman II structures began in 1946. [5], A 1988 television film, Disaster at Silo 7, is based on this event. The Doomsday Clock is at 100 seconds to midnight., The odds of a city being destroyed are probably the highest since World War II, says Schlosser. It was morning in America, and the Ronald Reagan administration undertook massive military spendingincluding missiles to supplant the Titan II. He gave us a key to Room 20. After finally reaching Limon we discovered that two of the three motels in town had shut down and the only one open, the KS Motel, was it. Incredible Active Missile Silos In Arkansas Ideas. The land is now under private ownership. From there, we watched a video all about the missile base, the history, and the long and difficult renovation. The demon core that killed two scientists, the underground test that didnt stay that way, One man died and more than 20 others were injured. Two years earlier, a trailer at Damascus leaked oxidizer, the component that mixes with rocket fuel to propel a rocket into space or toward a strategic target. At the end of the 1950s, the United States military began developing the Titans as part of its growing supply of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Today, theres still a giant hole in the ground, now overgrown and given over to wild animals. President Ronald Reagan announced the retirement of the Titan II program, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It took six years to retire the missiles, demolish the launch ducts and fill in the silos with debris. And around 3:05 a.m., all hell broke loose, he tells Popular Mechanics. An airman dropped a wrench socket and it fell 80 feet and pierced the thin skin of the rockets first stage fuel tank. Designed by The Twiggs Group. What you may not know is that at one time, there were 18 ICBM (intercontinental nuclear missile) silos surrounding the Little Rock area. Missile Guidance Speed Image AIM-7 Sparrow: Semi-active radar homing: Mach 4: AIM-9 Sidewinder: Infrared homing: Unverified (Mach 2.7) AIM-120 AMRAAM: Active radar homing: The silos launch door was propelled over 600 feet from the launch complex. 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. Hill said he had no plans to excavate the silo in the immediate future. These were giant rockets, designed to fly long distances while carrying nuclear weapons. Perhaps most famously, as the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser recounts in his book Command and Control, in 1980, a Titan II missile exploded in its silo in Damascus, Arkansas, while carrying a nuclear warhead. The nitrogen tetroxide is kept in a second tank in the rocket's first stage, directly above the fuel tank and below the second stage and its nine-megaton W-53 nuclear warhead. He called the station, and word spread. 7 . Don't go passed the gate without permission! The missile was not armed at the time. The land was sold back to the owners for as little as $600 to as much as $12,000. Kimberly S. Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. So every minute counted.". These missiles had a range of 5,500 miles, but they required a high level of upkeep. To this day, those Titan II targets remain classified, he said. Two More Titan II Nuclear Missile Silos Blast Onto the Market in Arizona 2023 Atlas Obscura. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. "When it came to mutually assured destruction, the U.S might only have 30 minutes to respond to a Soviet nuclear attack. List of active missiles of the United States military - Wikipedia Delta- 09 was believed to be assigned the name "Cassandra's Missile . [2][12] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 2000. Two airmen were performing maintenance at Missile Complex 374-7, located 3 miles north of Damascus, the evening of September 18th. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. "So you work on things when you can. The first launch complex completed was situated near Pangburn northwest of Searcy, going operational on July 31, 1962. [6] There was concern for the possible collapse of the now empty first-stage fuel tank, which could cause the rest of the 8-story missile to fall and rupture, allowing the oxidizer to contact the fuel already in the silo. Each launch complex contained underground operational offices as well as living quarters for a staff of four. God, help me! This was the first missile site to become operational in Arkansas in 1963. 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. The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. But the newly constructed test facility was so badly damaged it wasnt worth salvaging. Greg Devlin and his wife, Annette, in 1980. Enjoy a Luxury Stay in an Underground Missile Silo in Arkansas Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems were . Nuclear Missile Silos Hidden Across Arizona Desert - OnlyInYourState The aim was to bring the weapon right up to the point where it could be launched, without actually sending it off: They needed to know the missile would be ready to use in attack, if needed. All that was left to do was return the missile back to its silo and remove the dangerous oxidizer. The fire started whena high-pressure hydraulic line was cut by anoxyacetylene torch. After a decommissioned Titan II missile silo in Arizona was sold in just two weeks late last year, two more desert silos . The entire process of the opening, cleaning, renovation and updating is documented on his largely followed Titan Ranch YouTube channel, and I highly recommend checking it out. The facility's master bedroom, on Level 1, features a king-sizedbed and remote controlled fireplace. They realized it was way worse, not worse than we felt it would be, but probably worse than a lot of other people thought, Devlin says. Level 3 also contains the facility's emergency escape tunnel and ladder. The weapons here in Montana are intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs. Titan Ranch, located at 23 Missile Base Road in Vilonia, Arkansas, offers renters the chance to spend a night underground in a converted intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) facility. "Some people get a little nervous down here. We were so used to it that it didnt scare us.. We drove maybe 10 miles before we said anything to each other, King recalls. The film was broadcast by PBS as part of its American Experience series. 634: Human Error in Volatile Situations - This American Life The unique Cold War-era relic is part of an 11-acre Kansas lot on the market for $380,000. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com. 2010 Native Sun News. Nukes in the Heartland: Remnants of Cold War Missile Sites Remain 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. Its worth it, I promise. The last active duty Titan II silo, she went off alert 5/5/87: 373-9 This site is currently for sale for $85K according to www.missilebases.com: 373-7 "The Four Side" In his official statement in the investigation, Kennedy said it didnt make sense: Why would you energize an electrical circuit in a fuel leak? Livingston flipped the switch and then came topside. They were Titan II missile silos that housed nuclear weapons on a Gemini rocket, designed to be launched into space in under one minute. For us, there were two, queen size beds set up for my children. Offer subject to change without notice. For a one-night stay, I would recommend bringing all of your own food. But now, the socket fell all the way down the missile shaft66 feetbounced off the shaft mount ring, and hit the side of the missile, puncturing its eighth-inch hull. It turned out a worker doing routine maintenance on one of the missiles had dropped a nine-pound socket. 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. Be sure to fill out all the fields in order to have yours selected. All too soon, it was time to check out. Of course, thats just as true on purpose as it is on accident. Where are all the missile silos in the US? - Quora "This was a half-a-million project, and I didn't have half-a-million," Hill said. She has hiked the Inca Trail, walked into Panama on a rickety wooden bridge and once missed the last train of the night in Paris and walked several miles home (with friends). The blaze occurred while the 750-ton silo lid was closed, which contributed to a reduced oxygen level for the men who survived the initial fire. Cleaning Up America's Worst Nuclear Waste Dump, Why Russian Hybrid Warfare Failed in Ukraine, Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Wed been there for a while, and we were like, Send us in or send us home, Devlin recalls. The two airmen had just left the missile silo to await further orders when the rocket exploded at 3 a.m. We hurriedly put our food away, closed the hatchback and put some distance between ourselves and the pasture. The silos were of necessity deep, about 150 feet. The man behind the counter actually looked like a street person, a homeless man. Fuel vapor started to fill the silo. Robert Rhodus, the test conductor for the company that had built the missile, watched in fascination as the elevator, carrying a missile fully loaded with propellants, plummeted to the bottom of the silo, Stumpf writes. Visitors to Titan Ranch stay inside the former ICBM facility's launch control center (LCC), located 50 feet underground. The elevator structure and the launchertons and tons of steel that one witness later likened to red spaghetticame flying from the silo as the test team ran for cover. The next, they were bracing against an explosion that destroyed the facility beyond repair. Active Missile Silos In The Us From Level 2, visitors may climb a spiral staircase to Level 1which previously served as the crew's sleeping quarters and kitchen or descend to Level 3, which housed the communication equipment that kept the facility connected to the larger world. "When power failed in the launch duct," Mark Christ has noted, "the air-conditioning turned off, raising temperatures in the silo and creating conditions that could lead to an explosion of the oxidizer within the missile, which had a boiling point of 70 degrees." Now she writes adventures to send her characters on journeys, too. By then, a lot of the documents detailing just how bad the incident wasand how close wed come before to accidental nuclear explosions had been declassified. The police facilitating the movement of the population in Little Rock following the explosion at Damascus. which pertains to intellectual property restrictions (e.g., copyright and
While these missiles were retired in 1987, the company that made them, Martin-Marietta (by then Lockheed Martin) took them back and reconditioned them for space use. The Reagan Administration decided to . The Titan II ICBM Missile Silo 374-7 Site, located west of U.S. 65, 1.7 miles north of intersection with Arkansas Highway 124 near Southside in Van Buren County, is nationally significant by virtue of its unique and exceptionally important history within the Titan II program: it was the site of a September 1980 accident that severely damaged . Just as they sat down on the concrete edge of the access portal, the missile exploded, blowing the 740-ton launch duct closure doors 200 feet into the air and some 600 feet northeast of the launch complex. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. Had the Cold War ever turned hot, it was capable of being launched in one minute and could deliverits 9 megaton warhead to a target 9,000 miles away. The Titan II missiles were located near three air force bases around the country: Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas and Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. America's Nuclear Triad - U.S. Department of Defense I was living out of state at the time, but the disaster was covered in depth by the national press. But the investigative crew was in a holding position for a while, and finally, around 1 a.m., Devlin and Hukle went into the silo. While researching what was going to be a book about warfare in space, journalist Eric Schlosser heard the story of the Damascus explosion. Along with bombers and sea-launched ballistic missiles, the Titan II missile program was a bulwark in the nation's three pronged-response to threats posed by the Soviet Union's large nuclear warfare capacity. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. After the missiles were retired, they were again used as space launchcraft until the last one was launched in 2003. A total of 21 people were injured. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. After a half hourthey could only stay in the silo that long because of their oxygen tanksthey came back up. file size: 5 MB. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. The explosion scattered debris across 400 acres of farmland. Heres what the terrifying incident was like, from those who were there. Deactivated silos were located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced the retirement of the Titan II program. As if they didn't have enough to worry about. Its a lot of heavy information in a short time, but worth absorbing every minute of it. That's a multimillion dollar project to do anything with it," he said. The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. Here's what the terrifying incident . By 1986 these sites were all decommissioned and destroyed. The air turned white and chunks of steel-reinforced concrete fell out of the sky after the fuel ignited. The facility was one of 18 underground Titan II missile silos in Arkansas that helped formthe backbone of the United States' nuclear arsenal from the 1960s until the 1980s. Decommissioning the former missile silos included destroying the top 25 feet of each silo and the access portal and elevator to the LCC. All the guys that walked down with their RHFCO suits, I just assumed they were all killed.. 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. However, thanks to the ingenuity and tenacity of one person with a unique determination, one of those missile sites have been renovated into a luxury rental that you can stay in! We stopped at Rockyford, Colorado about 6 p.m. and walked into the lobby of the only motel in town. Misiles 46 views. Missiles were programmed with three potential targets. The first disaster occurred on August 9, 1965 at launch complex 373-4, located near Searcy. 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. I turned to Sergeant Green and said, Man, aint that pretty, before I realized what it was, Roberts said in a statement during the investigation. But it doesn't come cheap at $600 a night but only if you can . We were joined by GT himself, who gave us an incredible tour, along with stories about the restoration effort and a few SNAFU moments during the massive project. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. The state is armed with 150 nuclear missile silos that form a . Devlin and Hukle werent certified to work a hydraulic pump, Devlin recalls, and were unsuccessful in trying to manually open a blast lock door. Aerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, such that they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. Sid King had just sat down to dinner on September 18, 1980 when he got the call. Nuclear Ukraine: Inside The Missile Base That Could Have Changed History Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Former Minuteman II Missile Sites - Missouri The former disaster took far more lives, but the Damascus explosion posed a far greater potential threat because the missile was armed with its warhead at the time. They told of groping around in total darkness, hearing the screams of co-workers: "Men were screaming and crying. The nuclear missile next door - MSN Missile Site 8 in Green Valley, Arizona, is a national historic landmark and the home of the Titan Missile Museum. Nobodys saying its from that, but nobody else in my family has a thyroid condition.. The team had met its goal. The 308th SMW was the last active titan wing, but after 23 years of continuous service, the ICBM mission at Little Rock AFB was over. Airbnb in New Mexico is a missile silo from Cold War - The Sacramento Bee "This whole facility was designed to shake to survive in case of war," Hill said. The only thought I had at that point was, I know Im a dead man. Slumbering just beneath the earth, a silent army of nuclear warheads waited for the outbreak of armageddon during the Cold War. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space in 1957, it made the idea of long-range nuclear bombers obsolete. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. The large master bed appears to be floating above the floor, thanks to a creatively designed cantilever. They were ordered to leave the launch duct when the measurements proved alarmingly high. Dickinson County's North Star Missile Silo hits the market for $989K Jimmy Roberts and Donald Green saw the explosion. 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What Happens When a Giant Nuclear Missile Accidentally Falls Back Into Little Rock, Conway, Searcy, Benton, Heber Springs, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, West Memphis, Batesville, Mountain View, Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, Texarkana, Arkadelphia. 6. "It was designed to remain intact enough to retaliate if necessary.". Oh yes, Jackie's checkup, despite her MS, showed her to be in excellent health. Itll be in a port in a shipping container or something like that.. You may know that theres an Air Force base there. The main theory is that when the vent switch was pushed, it sparked the explosion, Devlin says. The Titan II missiles were the largest intercontinental ballistic missiles ever developed. Should the missile need to be fired in anger, launch instructions would indicate that either Target 1, Target 2, or Target 3 was in the crosshairs; the men firing the ICBMs never knew what the targets actually were. The 308th Strategic Missile Wing was created and operated from the base, overseeing the missiles, [], Your email address will not be published. Matthew Kroenig, a Defense Department adviser during the Trump administration, suggested in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that "the Pentagon should . Today, the area is home to one of the most mind-blowing destinations in the state. Theres a unique history surrounding Little Rock, Arkansas that you may not know about. This wasnt the first time; in most instances, it hit the platform. More than 600 miles to the south, the F.E. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. Ayala said Livingston, a native of Heath, a small town in central Ohio, would let him use his ham radio to talk to people in his hometown in the Bronx.