40 Years Ago, We Almost Blew Up Arkansas. This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. It was sitting there at a moments notice, and putting the enemy on notice that they couldnt win the war.. It took a while to locate the nine-megaton nuclear warhead in the dark and gloom; it was still intact and not leaking. A far more deadly disaster struck a Titan launch site near Searcy in White County on Aug. 9, 1965, resulting in the deaths of 53 men. The first Titan II missile in Arkansas was installed in a silo near Searcy in 1963. The Titan II's earth-shattering payload was 30 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Please try viewing this website in Edge, Mozilla, Chrome, or another modern browser. On May 22, 1958, a crew was servicing Nike missiles at a site in Middletown, N.J. One missile exploded, starting a chain reaction that set off seven others, causing what the Associated Press . Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the START Treaty in 1991. Once through the blast doors, visitors enter Level 2, which is the former operations center where the officers would initiate the order to launch the ICBM. Of course, thats just as true on purpose as it is on accident. Active Weapons; Russia: 6,490: 4,490: United States: 6,185: 3,800: France: 300: 300: China: 290: 290: Where are the missile silos in the United States? Ultimately, the Titan system was declared to be essentially reliable, though minor changes were recommended. The missile was more than 100 feet in length and 10 feet wide. When I needed a break from writing the series, I found myself scrolling around Nebraska and Colorado, looking for silos and . Sequential photographs showing the launching of the Titan II ICBM weapon firing from underground silos, circa 1965. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. Jan 14, 2020. Layer by Layer: A Mexico City Culinary Adventure, Sacred Granaries, Kasbahs and Feasts in Morocco, Monster of the Month: The Hopkinsville Goblins, Writing the Food Memoir: A Workshop With Gina Rae La Cerva, Reading the Urban Landscape With Annie Novak, How to Grow a Dye Garden With Aaron Sanders Head, Making Scents: Experimental Perfumery With Saskia Wilson-Brown, Indigenous Desserts of Turtle Island With Mariah Gladstone, University of Massachusetts Entomology Collection, The Frozen Banana Stands of Balboa Island, The Paratethys Sea Was the Largest Lake in Earths History, How Communities Are Uncovering Untold Black Histories, The Medieval Thieves Who Used Cats, Apes, and Turtles as Accomplices. Kimberly S. Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. Ten years ago, Hill purchased the site that Titan Ranch sits on. What Happens When a Giant Nuclear Missile Accidentally Falls Back Into Its Silo. He's the author of two books, and his byline has appeared in Deadspin, Jalopnik, CityLab and POLITICO, among other places. The team was then ordered to reenter the silo to turn on an exhaust fan. In 1978, six months after the trailer leak in Arkansas, two airmen died after a leak in Kansas. Titan II rockets were adapted to use in the space program and launched the first Gemini manned missions in the early 1960s. The initial PTS team was sent home. 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. The second fuel tank, sitting just above the first, contained a different fuel that could spontaneously ignite if a collapse occurred and it came into contact with the aerozine 50 already in the launch duct. They would meet at the Air Force base in the morning and drive to the missile launch control silo to begin their work day. Devlin, now retired in Florida and a childrens book author, says he has osteoporosis and believes the hydrazine he inhaled caused it. It turned out a worker doing routine maintenance on one of the missiles had dropped a nine-pound socket. We always take Highway 71 South taking us through Kimball, Nebraska and Limon, Colorado coming out at Highway 25 at Trinidad, Colorado. There were tons of movie options for children and my kids had a blast watching Paddington on the huge white walls of the silo. "Every bullet and bomb used in World War II including the two atomic bombs was only half the yield of what a Titan II was capable of," said Titan Ranch owner GT Hill, who doubles as the facility's historian and tour guide. 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. 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. Itll be in a port in a shipping container or something like that.. These sites stayed active until President George H.W. Using decades-old U.S. Air Force training footage, re-enactments and drone . regarding use of images of identifiable personnel, appearance of endorsement, and related matters. Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We were so used to it that it didnt scare us.. Warren Air Force Base oversees ICBM fields that cover parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. During the 25-year period of operations, Arkansas experienced two disasters connected to the missiles. An airman dropped a wrench socket and it fell 80 feet and pierced the thin skin of the rockets first stage fuel tank. "It's all illuminated. Where's this story? Missiles were programmed with three potential targets. The silos were of necessity deep, about 150 feet. The Air Force-owned property houses the only remaining Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile complex left of the 54 that were active during the Cold War. 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. [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. Nodak, based in Grand Forks, served 55 missile silos around the region. "Then there was the water.". View of the nose of a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile sitting in its 150-foot deep underground launch pad at McConnell Air Force Base near Wichita, Kansas, circa 1965. The fuels so volatile, it could explode on its own, Greg Devlin, who was a 21-year old Airman in the U.S. Air Force at Damascus on the night of the explosion, tells Popular Mechanics. If you saw footage from the massive explosion in Beirut this past August, King says, you saw what he saw that morning. 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. They were simple-looking white canisters. During the mapping of the missile sites in South Dakota, Delta- 01 was assigned the name of "Mike and Beth's Launch Control Center" after Mike Sprong and Beth Preheim, peace activists that mapped the Delta Flight and directed the mapping project in South Dakota. It's time for your real estate portfolio to go ballistic! I can recall vividly the September 1980 explosion which destroyed a missile in its silo located near Damascus on the Faulkner-Van Buren County line. This released a cloud of noxious gas, leaving a few people sick and eager to file lawsuits. Don't go passed the gate without permission! All the guys that walked down with their RHFCO suits, I just assumed they were all killed.. "Thank you" will n, We were so proud to be awarded New Boston's Busine, Do you have home improvements planned for this spr, Were counting down the days until the Arkansas, Congratulations to Lairie Kincaid on his well-dese, SAU Trap Team Takes Top Prize at 3rd Annual South Arkansas Outdoor Social, Farmers Bank & Trust Announces NCAA Name, Image, Likeness Student-Athletes, Farmers Bank Foundation Grants $125,000 to the Hope Public Schools, Farmers Bank & Trust to Acquire Community First Trust Company, Farmers Bank & Trust Opens New Full-Service Branch in Bryant, AR, Farmers Bank & Trust Opens New Full-Service Branch in Paris, TX, AR Governor appoints Chris Gosnell to Arkansas Economic Development Council, Prescott Donation to Benefit Families in Need, Shark Teeth in the Sulphur River? 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: A piece of Cold War history is now available as an Airbnbproperty. "It's a little weird," Hill said. The first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos arrived on the Great Plains in 1959 when Atlas sites were constructed in Wyoming. Required fields are marked *. by Tom Dillard | May 19, 2019 at 1:45 a.m. Two of the most serious disasters to plague the Titan II missile program during the Cold War occurred in Arkansas. The SALT I Treaty, signed in 1972 by the U.S. and Soviet Union, allowed for the Titans to be traded for more missile submarines, but Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev wouldnt sign the treaty without assurances the trade wouldnt happen. It was time-consuming and costly, but thanks to GTs determination to recover and preserve some history, you can experience it firsthand by touring or staying the night at Titan Ranch. "Two officers would each turn a key, and 58 seconds later the Titan II would be out the door," Hill said. 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. A socket like the one that punctured the missiles hull. A 1961 decommissioned Atlas-F intercontinental ballistic missile silo complex is for sale. Many were built in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Lieutenant General Lloyd R. Leavitt Jr., the Vice Commander of the Strategic Air Command, commanded the effort to save the launch complex. U.S. "If we built rooms, it would kind of take away from it.". First Security Bank, Member FDIC. Unsettling as that history may be, its worth it just to say you did it. Reports in the Arkansas Gazette described the devastation: "The inside of the 155-foot-deep silo was reduced to rubble and its concrete doors which weigh 740 tons were blown to pieces. Out of 55 workers, only two survived. 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. "Some people feel that the missile had a little bit of a bad omen, if you will.". 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. 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 United States quickly developed a second model of ICBMs called Titan. [5], A 1988 television film, Disaster at Silo 7, is based on this event. You think things will take a year, but they really take five years.". The Reagan Administration decided to . 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. Titan Ranch began hosting conferences and meetings in 2019, and added its AirBnB listing in November 2020. If the Soviets had missiles, then the Americans needed them, too. Soviet Ukraine held around one-third of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear arsenal, most of . We didnt want to leave, but I understand why they wanted us to leave.. Construction on the Minuteman II structures began in 1946. 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! The explosion blew the silo blast doors off and sent chunks of debris flying everywhere, including the nine-megaton nuclear warhead that sat atop the missile. The Hami missile silo field is in a much earlier . It took six years to retire the missiles, demolish the launch ducts and fill in the silos with debris. [2] The entire missile launch complex was destroyed. On Feb. 6, 1963, the first Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile assigned to the 308th Strategic Missile Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base arrived. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems were . Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. How far is it from Rockyford to Limon? But the effects of the explosion and working with the potentially toxic fuel linger for many of the airmen who were on site. NORTHERN WELD COUNTY If it weren't for the 184-foot tall antenna tower stretching far above the prairie, many . The last of the Titan launch sites in Arkansas, located near Quitman in Cleburne County, was demolished on Nov. 19, 1986. He excavated the entrance to the LCC, opening the door to the facility in October 2010. The main theory is that when the vent switch was pushed, it sparked the explosion, Devlin says. Titan Ranch, located just northeast of Conway, Arkansas, is one of these nuclear missile bases. 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. And Mondale then refused to confirm or deny when he was asked about it at the state convention. If a rocket could be launched into space, it could also be launched at something, and far faster than bombers could fly to targets to drop their payloads. You have to try it to see what I mean. I retreated upstairs to enjoy the incredible shower in the master suite and stayed up entirely too late reading a book in bed. The two airmen had just left the missile silo to await further orders when the rocket exploded at 3 a.m. The 390th Strategic Missile Wing, headquartered at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, was active from 1962-84 and had command of the 18 sites in Southern Arizona. Theyd heard on the scanner there was something going on at Missile Complex 374-7, the Titan II Missile installation in nearby Damascus. "From a weapon of mass destruction to hosting birthday parties and weddings, that's pretty wild ride," Hill said. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com. 2010 Native Sun News. While researching what was going to be a book about warfare in space, journalist Eric Schlosser heard the story of the Damascus explosion. Entering the next space, where the computers and control units would have been, you can still see the places on the floor where the desks with the key slots sat when it was an active site. In southeastern Wyoming, portions of the silo field are . The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. All rights reserved. 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. 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. 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. The control room space sits on level two of an internal, solid steel birdcage structure. When the socket fell, it plunged 70 feet to pierce the side of the . A look inside Level 2 of the Titan Ranch in Vilonia, a decommissioned Titan II nuclear missile facility, featuring two-queen sized beds and a spiral staircase. The military continued to use Titan rockets as part of its intercontinental ballistic missile program through the 1980s, and this was not the only dramatic incident involving them. Despite the size of the explosion, no one was hurt in the accident: The second-set of recently reinforced blast doors held. Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. 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. Fueled and ready to go 24 hours a day, Titan IIs could be ready to go at a moment's notice. The only thought I had at that point was, I know Im a dead man. By 1986 these sites were all decommissioned and destroyed. The team started running the procedure for readying the missile for liftoff. Airmen Jeffrey Plumb and David Powell were in the silo working on the missile. From 1963 to 1987, crews maintained the missiles on 24-hour alert and were ready to initiate launch within minutes after receipt of authenticated orders from the National Command Authorities. 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. My son was absolutely thrilled to learn how to use the tablet to control the lights in the room. 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 . Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Little Rock, Conway, Searcy, Benton, Heber Springs, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, West Memphis, Batesville, Mountain View, Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, Texarkana, Arkadelphia. It was used for the Gemini project, which launched men like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Jim Lovell into space in the 1960s. Fortunately, its safety mechanisms prevented any loss of nuclear material. The blast and thermal effects within a dozen miles or so of each of these silo's will be deadly, and the fallout radiation will . 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. The Titan II missile was the tallest ICBM used by the U.S. military. 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. We need your stories about the city's hidden corners and unusual places. Two of the most serious disasters to plague the Titan II missile program during the Cold War occurred in Arkansas. In the early morning hours of September 19th, two airmen entered the complex to measure the airborne fuel concentration. Top: Vanderberg Air Force Base, for reference. 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. Three years later the Pangburn launch site was rocked by an explosion which killed 53 of the 55 contract workers doing maintenance work. "TheThree Side" 373-1: 373-3: 373-2 . The station called King while he was eating at sales representative Tom Phillipss home. On the way up, Livingston and Kennedy were told to turn an exhaust fan on. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. Eric Ayala was topside, at ground level near the silo. The countdown to launch started and thenright before the signal to ignite the rocket would have been givenit was stopped. Rex Peters was up to get a blood pressure pill. As if they didn't have enough to worry about. Dig for Fossils in Northeast Texas. He started the radio station after his previous employer, Dogpatch, a Li'l Abner theme park, went belly-up. The incident occurred on September 1819, 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 inside its silo.[2]. A concussion of wind hit me like a truck, and I slid 60 feet, and every foot, it felt like I was going faster. Deactivated silos were located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Created with Sketch. Its worth it, I promise. Arkansas, and involved the missile exploding after the first-stage Aerozine fuel tank was punctured by a tool which fell from a maintenance platform near the top of the missile. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. but I couldn't see him." Jimmy Roberts and Donald Green saw the explosion. He was also the station manager and news reporter. 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 takes a certain mental toughness. These ICBMs were fueled with Aerozine 50, which allowed the fuel to stay in the missile while stored in its silo. Bottom: Damascus after the explosion. The warhead was found 100 feet from the launch complex. Misiles 46 views. 6. The Titan II entered active service with the U.S. Air Force in 1963. These shortcomings led to the rapid development of the Titan II missiles, which would become part of the three-pronged nuclear strategy the U.S. military used for the next 25 years. 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. Why the Air Force Wants a Stealthy Tanker by 2040, Why Runaway Mines Are Detonating in the Black Sea, How This Humble Drone Shrugs Off Russian Jamming. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. "We never wanted to build rooms," Hill said, referring to the circular layout and feel to the LCC. For us, there were two, queen size beds set up for my children. After the missiles were retired, they were again used as space launchcraft until the last one was launched in 2003. Aerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, such that they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. Lucky for us, Nick was very knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. The silos cover, made of hundreds of tons of concrete, was half destroyed. A piece of Cold War history is now available as an Airbnb property.. 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.The facility was one of 18 underground Titan II missile silos in Arkansas that helped form the backbone of the United States' nuclear . The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. Both areas were then filled in with concrete, scrap iron, gravel and dirt, and the property wasreturned to the previous landowners. The Titans sat fueled and ready to go at a moments noticebut that meant constant monitoring and maintenance. https://www.dimoc.mil/resources/limitations, We drove past these remnants of the cold war toward Brush, Colorado where we intended to stop at a small lake near Brush just off of the highway and have our picnic. (AP) For about 10 hours in 1980, the United States faced a nuclear threat of its own making after an airman performing maintenance on a Titan II missile dropped a 9-pound socket 70 feet, ripping a hole in a fuel tank and leading to an explosion that propelled a 9-megaton warhead out of the ground.