active missile silos in arkansas

Livingston died of his injuries [later] that day." Then we realized what it was and started grabbing for masks.. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com. King decided to hang around. I enjoyed a cup of coffee in the master suite thanks to the in-room coffee bar and read a few more chapters. 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. [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. You may also know that it was an important location during the Cold War, a difficult time in the US and World History. Slumbering just beneath the earth, a silent army of nuclear warheads waited for the outbreak of armageddon during the Cold War. "But that was part of the psychological training. 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. Titan II rockets were adapted to use in the space program and launched the first Gemini manned missions in the early 1960s. 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. Within a couple hours, there was a crowd of about 25 to 30 journalists and law enforcement personnel gathered just outside the gate. 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]. And Mondale then refused to confirm or deny when he was asked about it at the state convention. The Cold War was over, and with it the threat of annihilation right? The aerozine 50 fuel immediately began leaking into the launch duct. Owen Sims, a cattle farmer, says he is breathing easier now that the last Titan 2 nuclear missile silo, situated over a ridge less than 2,000 feet from his home, has been dismantled. This photograph is considered public domain and has been cleared for release. An airman dropped a wrench socket and it fell 80 . However, a new threat arose from the growing heat inside the silo. 6. 2023 Farmers Bank & Trust. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. More than half of the potential arsenal is in Amarillo, Texas, at the Pantex plant, which will dismantle them. Jackie and I set out from Rapid City to Albuquerque for two reasons. Two airmen were performing maintenance at Missile Complex 374-7, located 3 miles north of Damascus, the evening of September 18th. The Damascus Titan missile explosion (also called the Damascus accident) was a 1980 U.S. nuclear weapons incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). In 1965, dozens of people died after a fire started in a Titan II silo in Arkansas. The Damascus missile complex was at the Southside location, indicated by the red star on the map above. Inside the super-hardened silo, meant to be protected from nuclear attacks, the team loaded the rocket with oxidizer, a key ingredient for blast-off, and sent it up to the surface. For a one-night stay, I would recommend bringing all of your own food. He was a 19-year-old missile technician, a new trainee, riding with another guy, David Powell, who was showing Plumb the ropes. Illustration: Ada Amer/Background image: Public Domain. There was a lot of white smoke, Ayala tells Popular Mechanics, but it was hydrazine.. The Titan II missiles were the largest intercontinental ballistic missiles ever developed. 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" 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? U.S. Of course, thats just as true on purpose as it is on accident. In 1981, by Presidential order, all 54 of these missile silos were to be dismantled and abandoned by 1987. Devlin and Hukle werent certified to work a hydraulic pump, Devlin recalls, and were unsuccessful in trying to manually open a blast lock door. 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! Theyd heard on the scanner there was something going on at Missile Complex 374-7, the Titan II Missile installation in nearby Damascus. Created with Sketch. They were situated in north-central Arkansas to ensure ready access to Little Rock Air Force Base, where the 308th Strategic Missile Wing coordinated the work in Arkansas. So the Titans stayed in placeand demonstrated time and again their peril. A 1961 decommissioned Atlas-F intercontinental ballistic missile silo complex is for sale. Jan 14, 2020. Powell was working on a Titan II missile fitted with a thermonuclear warhead, tucked away underground in Damascus, Arkansas. 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. 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 . Lucky for us, Nick was very knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. 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. Meanwhile, as a countermeasure, the silo was filling with water to douse potential flames and dilute the vapor. The Titan II missile was the tallest ICBM used by the U.S. military. So every minute counted.". (By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was around 15 kilotons, and the one dropped on Nagasaki was around 21 kilotons. 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. The first missile silo was listed in november 2019 for $395,000, and sold for $420,000. It was the same warhead that had been atop the missile during the deadly Searcy fire 15 years earlier. but I couldn't see him." This released a cloud of noxious gas, leaving a few people sick and eager to file lawsuits. On the way up, Livingston and Kennedy were told to turn an exhaust fan on. I heard somebody yelling "Help me! It is a long and lonely route. The state is armed with 150 nuclear missile silos that form a . One of the strangest things about the master suite is the domed concrete ceiling. 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. Originally, the launch control center had standard steps to reach multiple levels. 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. It has a maximum range of 8,700 miles and a maximum speed of Mach 23 . 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. The master suite is on the very top floor of the birdcage and is housed in what used to be crew quarters. These ICBMs were fueled with Aerozine 50, which allowed the fuel to stay in the missile while stored in its silo. That's a multimillion dollar project to do anything with it," he said. Also some used to be in Arkansasthe Titan or Atlas missilesuntil one blew its fuel loadbecause of a dropped wrenchand threw its payload quite a distance. Vince Guerrieri is a writer based in the Cleveland area. His 4-year-old great-granddaughter held the calf in the passenger seat, trying to hug it back to . The control room space sits on level two of an internal, solid steel birdcage structure. The Air Force decided to take measures to improve security within the launch complexes. Is Russias Only Aircraft Carrier Cursed? 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. Eric Ayala was topside, at ground level near the silo. Over its 25 years in the service, the Titan II series had it share of accidents, two of the most well-known occurring in Arkansas. "This whole facility was designed to shake to survive in case of war," Hill said. Despite the size of the explosion, no one was hurt in the accident: The second-set of recently reinforced blast doors held. King remembers sitting on the hood of a sheriffs car, aimlessly slipping his shoes on and off. Warren Air Force Base oversees ICBM fields that cover parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. A WWII Bomb Has Been Found at the Fukushima Nuclear Site, Dozens of Previously Hidden Nuclear Test Videos Declassified, Uploaded to YouTube, In the 1960s, Telegraph Poles Were Equipped With Nuclear Bomb Alarms, Decades Ago, the U.S. Military Set Off a Nuke Underwater, And It Went Very Badly. (February 2011) Air-to-air missiles. Air Force personnel were evacuated, and a civilian evacuation soon followed as concerns grew that the empty fuel tank could collapse and bring the rest of the rocket and missile down on top of it. Each of the mammoth doors can withstand 1,000 psi of pressure, Hill said. It takes a certain mental toughness. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. Only two men escaped the silo, both telling stories of horror. After nearly being run over by the sheriff, King and Phillips jumped in their car and took off. They were simple-looking white canisters. After a half hourthey could only stay in the silo that long because of their oxygen tanksthey came back up. All rights reserved. A civilian crew was working throughout all nine floors of the missile silo, which plunged 150 into the ground. Misiles 46 views. If you would like to republish please give the photographer appropriate credit. We always take Highway 71 South taking us through Kimball, Nebraska and Limon, Colorado coming out at Highway 25 at Trinidad, Colorado. The man behind the counter actually looked like a street person, a homeless man. The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. The missile survived the fires and was not damaged. Lieutenant General Lloyd R. Leavitt Jr., the Vice Commander of the Strategic Air Command, commanded the effort to save the launch complex. At a station that small, King couldnt afford to specialize. 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. Titan Ranch is located in Vilonia, Arkansas, just northeast of Conway. But somethinglater determined to be an elevator malfunctionwent wrong. Feeling very unwelcome we decided to try reaching Limon, Colorado, before dark. 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. On September 19, 1980, a second tragedy struck the 308th Strategic Missile Wing. trademark, including the use of official emblems, insignia, names and slogans), warnings LITTLE ROCK, Ark. We drove maybe 10 miles before we said anything to each other, King recalls. Today they are still used, although . This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. Nuclear weapons are just ideal for that., The next nuclear bomb to go off will not be delivered by a missile. "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. Today, theres still a giant hole in the ground, now overgrown and given over to wild animals. "So you work on things when you can. I was living out of state at the time, but the disaster was covered in depth by the national press. There are no windows in the space and no inclination that the sun had retreated and the moon was up. About a half-mile down the road, Sgts. Please try viewing this website in Edge, Mozilla, Chrome, or another modern browser. As was the case with the Pangburn disaster, the explosion at the Damascus launch site resulted from routine maintenance work. Thats why a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) crew was in the silo in the early evening of September 18, 1980, at the end of a long day, pressurizing the fuel tank of the missile (which, in a morbid coincidence, was the same one that 15 years earlier was in the silo that caught fire). That's how far it is from Rockyford to Limon. And around 3:05 a.m., all hell broke loose, he tells Popular Mechanics. It's time for your real estate portfolio to go ballistic! The triad, along with assigned . Deactivated silos were located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. "People who stay here do so willingly, and they have a blast.". [5] Powell later claimed that he was already below ground in his safety suit when he realized he had brought the wrong wrench, so he chose to continue rather than turn back. The situation was critical. Shannon Seidler, a mechanic near Garrison, North Dakota, has lived on family land housing a nuclear missile silo for his entire life. 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. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. One can visualize men in uniform going about their business far below the surface of the earth, manning and maintaining the silos with their guided missiles armed with nuclear warheads smack in the middle of Colorado while cattle graze peacefully just outside of the wire fences enclosing the silos. Air Force crews reacted quickly to the disaster, putting out fires and searching for survivors. Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. What Happens to Pilots That Defect to the U.S.? 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. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the editor and publisher of Native Sun News. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused! The Titan II entered active service with the U.S. Air Force in 1963. The next, they were bracing against an explosion that destroyed the facility beyond repair. 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. You know you're definitely in someplace different, but we wanted to make it nice enough that you didn't think you were in a silo.". We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Take the time to ask questions and hear the stories. Three of the Arkansas launch sites--in White, Van Buren, and Faulkner counties--have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The missile not only survived the explosion in 1965, it was the same missile which exploded in 1980 near Damascus. tercontinental ballistic missile wing, has the largest number of active fense Council (NRDC) and Hans M. Krisair force weapons. By 1986 these sites were all decommissioned and destroyed. But we dealt with hydrazine [the fuel] and nitrogen tetroxide [the oxidizer] every day. "We never wanted to build rooms," Hill said, referring to the circular layout and feel to the LCC. 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. When I needed a break from writing the series, I found myself scrolling around Nebraska and Colorado, looking for silos and . The entire motel was quite ramshackled and we entered number 20 with trepidation. locate At about 3 a.m., the two men returned to the surface to await further instructions. "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? The rental space is inside what was once the crew quarters and missile launch control center. The team had met its goal. Further, any commercial or non-commercial use of this photograph or any other The Pentagon plans to spend $264 billion on its next-generation ICBM program, which . 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. The second missile silo field is located 380 kilometers (240 miles) northwest of the Yumen field near the prefecture-level city of Hami in Eastern Xinjiang. That made the trip well worth the bumps along the way. An airman dropped a wrench socket and it fell 80 feet and pierced the thin skin of the rockets first stage fuel tank. The missile was not armed at the time. "That way if there was a nuclear explosion, they always wanted to have one door closed to protect the facility," Hill said. He saw the explosion, and he told the New York Times his first thought was, It kind of reminded me of the old days. 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 land was sold back to the owners for as little as $600 to as much as $12,000. He Ended Up With A Titan Ii Missile Silo That Was Decommissioned In Spring Of 1986. While I wouldnt recommend this for small children, its certainly a bucket list-worthy experience for adults and older children. By the evening of December 3, 1960, eight tests had already failed because of minor equipment malfunctions, Stumpf writes. He excavated the entrance to the LCC, opening the door to the facility in October 2010. He started the radio station after his previous employer, Dogpatch, a Li'l Abner theme park, went belly-up. 75) of Scorpion is largely based on this event. 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. 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. You can see the locations of all silos on the ICBM History page. Delta- 09 was believed to be assigned the name "Cassandra's Missile . It never bounced into the missile.. She believes magic can be found in life and books, loves to watch the stars appear, and still dreams of backpacking the world. Offer subject to change without notice. Titan I missiles were stored in silo lifts and had to be raised to the surface to be fueled before launch. All missiles in the silos are currently Minuteman III (LGM-30G). As my stepdaughter Sarah, a rodeo girl, used to say about the distance between Rapid City and Faith, South Dakota when asked the distance, "About as far as you can drive and 20 miles more." The Reagan Administration decided to . 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. They told of groping around in total darkness, hearing the screams of co-workers: "Men were screaming and crying. A total of 21 people were injured. (Not coincidentally, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee at the time the missiles were installed was Arkansas Democrat Wilbur Mills.) 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. All the guys that walked down with their RHFCO suits, I just assumed they were all killed.. The United States quickly developed a second model of ICBMs called Titan. All that was left to do was return the missile back to its silo and remove the dangerous oxidizer. This area now serves as a bedroom with two queen-sized beds or can be rearranged to be used a conference/presentation area with chairs and two interactive whiteboards. He called the station, and word spread. Fuel vapor started to fill the silo. If you saw footage from the massive explosion in Beirut this past August, King says, you saw what he saw that morning. 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. 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. The W53 thermonuclear warhead landed about 100 feet (30m) from the launch complex's entry gate. Nobodys saying its from that, but nobody else in my family has a thyroid condition.. This left the powerful nuclear warheads exposed to attack. It was dank and smelled of fresh vomit. God. Placed on the western edges of the Soviet Union due to their limited range of 2,000 kilometers, the Sandals could . "It's all illuminated. DoD image must be made in compliance with guidance found at The blast completely destroyed the silo and sent the 750-ton silo door . Tell Us About the Most Amazing Parts of Tulsa, Oklahoma! A compilation of platforms and weapons, the three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad serve as the backbone of America's national security. Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. What you may not know is that at one time, there were 18 ICBM (intercontinental nuclear missile) silos surrounding the Little Rock area. But the effects of the explosion and working with the potentially toxic fuel linger for many of the airmen who were on site. As Jackie waved her hands around my head trying to chase the flies out of the window, cars passing us must have thought she was a woman gone mad who was assaulting the driver. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. We always take Highway 71 South taking us through Kimball, Nebraska and Limon, Colorado coming out at Highway 25 at Trinidad, Colorado. 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. I just hope it doesnt hurt., After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Kennedy could be heard on the radio saying, Im dying.. Fortunately, the situation stabilized and the grim task of removing the bodies began. There do remain some active missile silos, in Montana, North Dakota, and at Warren Air Force Base, which is in both Colorado and Wyoming. GT has renovated the second level to be a multipurpose space, complete with projectors, a sound system, party lights, multiple whiteboards, and tables and chairs if needed. Now she writes adventures to send her characters on journeys, too. 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 missile silo near Pervomaysk is the only intact remainder of what was once an array of nuclear bases in Ukraine. 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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. Level 3 also contains the facility's emergency escape tunnel and ladder. In 1978, six months after the trailer leak in Arkansas, two airmen died after a leak in Kansas. Both areas were then filled in with concrete, scrap iron, gravel and dirt, and the property wasreturned to the previous landowners. "It's a little weird," Hill said. It took six years to retire the missiles, demolish the launch ducts and fill in the silos with debris. Amazingly, we all slept wonderfully. Pen & Quin: International Agents of Intrigue - The Mystery of the Painted Book is her debut novel. The explosion scattered debris across 400 acres of farmland. 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? 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. 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. The second airmen survived his injuries, while 21 others suffered injuries from the blast and following rescue operation and cleanup. Civilian construction workers were working in all nine levels of the launch duct, painting and flushing the hydraulic systems that operated the steel platforms beside the missile. 2023 Atlas Obscura. Two of the most serious disasters to plague the Titan II missile program during the Cold War occurred in Arkansas. The first Titan II missile in Arkansas was installed in a silo near Searcy in 1963. [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.

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