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Perhaps most famously, as the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser recounts in his book Command and Control . 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. They were Titan II missile silos that housed nuclear weapons on a Gemini rocket, designed to be launched into space in under one minute. I never knew we were so close to a pasture filled with grazing cattle, and where there is an abundance of cattle there is an abundance of cow pies and where there are cow pies there is an abundance of flies. Where's this story? Today they are still used, although . I heard somebody yelling "Help me! God, help me! During the next year, the other 18 missile silos in central arkansas received icbms, and jan. 5 megaton hydrogen bomb and was likely a target of the soviet nuclear arsenal. Nodak, based in Grand Forks, served 55 missile silos around the region. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. The missile was not armed at the time. A piece of Cold War history is now available as an Airbnbproperty. It is a long and lonely route. Despite the size of the explosion, no one was hurt in the accident: The second-set of recently reinforced blast doors held. Is Russias Only Aircraft Carrier Cursed? Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. Devlin and Hukle werent certified to work a hydraulic pump, Devlin recalls, and were unsuccessful in trying to manually open a blast lock door. which pertains to intellectual property restrictions (e.g., copyright and Airbnb feels you, so now you can for $324 a night. AddThis Utility Frame. By 1986 these sites were all decommissioned and destroyed. 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 . 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. From there, we watched a video all about the missile base, the history, and the long and difficult renovation. The station called King while he was eating at sales representative Tom Phillipss home. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. 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. Theyd heard on the scanner there was something going on at Missile Complex 374-7, the Titan II Missile installation in nearby Damascus. Many features won't work correctly, and functionality can't be guaranteed. All rights reserved. [14], In September 2013, Eric Schlosser published a book titled Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. [8][17], Jeff Plumb's account of his role in the incident was featured in a 2017 episode of WBEZ's This American Life. 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). It took a while to locate the nine-megaton nuclear warhead in the dark and gloom; it was still intact and not leaking. "That's one of the very few things about the Titan IIs that remain classified," he said. 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. Soviet Ukraine held around one-third of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear arsenal, most of . 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. In the early morning hours of September 19th, two airmen entered the complex to measure the airborne fuel concentration. 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. It never bounced into the missile.. As was the case with the Pangburn disaster, the explosion at the Damascus launch site resulted from routine maintenance work. Titan Ranch began hosting conferences and meetings in 2019, and added its AirBnB listing in November 2020. Placed on the western edges of the Soviet Union due to their limited range of 2,000 kilometers, the Sandals could . 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. It was morning in America, and the Ronald Reagan administration undertook massive military spendingincluding missiles to supplant the Titan II. Eventually, the missile combat crew and the PTS team evacuated the launch control center, while military and civilian response teams arrived to tackle the hazardous situation. 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. 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. 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. Created with Sketch. Print Headline: The Titan missile silo disasters. "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." An official website of the United States government, 19th AW InfoSplash & Digital Bulletin Board, Sexual Assault Prevention & Response Office, https://www.dimoc.mil/resources/limitations, Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil. For a minute, it was the same deal as an A-bomb. But Peters realized it wasnt a nuclear explosion, because he had time to think. These were giant rockets, designed to fly long distances while carrying nuclear weapons. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. Three years later the Pangburn launch site was rocked by an explosion which killed 53 of the 55 contract workers doing maintenance work. The Hami missile silo field is in a much earlier . A missile silo during the Cold War is now a popular, and high-rated, short-term vacation rental near Roswell, New Mexico. King was part owner of KGFL-AM in Clinton, Arkansas. Titan Ranch has a little gift shop with some fun coffee mugs and t-shirts and I bought my kids t-shirts. 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]. The Damascus incident was front page news for at least a few days. Of course, thats just as true on purpose as it is on accident. The next morning, my kids enjoyed the donuts Id brought for them and another movie on the projector. The control room space sits on level two of an internal, solid steel birdcage structure. "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. "Basically, what your smart phone can do today, the bottom floor of the launch control center did back then," Hill said. I just hope it doesnt hurt., After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Kennedy could be heard on the radio saying, Im dying.. Lieutenant General Lloyd R. Leavitt Jr., the Vice Commander of the Strategic Air Command, commanded the effort to save the launch complex. In 1965, dozens of people died after a fire started in a Titan II silo in Arkansas. In southeastern Wyoming, portions of the silo field are . Ultimately, the Titan system was declared to be essentially reliable, though minor changes were recommended. 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. 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 missile silo near Pervomaysk is the only intact remainder of what was once an array of nuclear bases in Ukraine. locate We stopped at Rockyford, Colorado about 6 p.m. and walked into the lobby of the only motel in town. While renovating, GT decided to put in a spiral staircase to save space and it adds to the industrial ambiance. You have to try it to see what I mean. Three of the Arkansas launch sites--in White, Van Buren, and Faulkner counties--have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. During the Cold War, Arkansas played a role in the protection of the nation by housing a series of intercontinental ballistic missiles across otherwise peaceful farmland. 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. silo: [noun] a trench, pit, or especially a tall cylinder (as of wood or concrete) usually sealed to exclude air and used for making and storing silage. Fortunately, the situation stabilized and the grim task of removing the bodies began. Sound good? 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. The 308th Strategic Missile Wing was created and operated from the base, overseeing the missiles, [], Your email address will not be published. The other B-52 wing at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana has more than 900 warheads, and White-man AFB in Missouri has more than 130 bombs for its B-2 bombers. 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. "When it came to mutually assured destruction, the U.S might only have 30 minutes to respond to a Soviet nuclear attack. Warren Air Force Base oversees ICBM fields that cover parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. (Not coincidentally, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee at the time the missiles were installed was Arkansas Democrat Wilbur Mills.) Livingston died of his injuries [later] that day." 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. The last of the Titan launch sites in Arkansas, located near Quitman in Cleburne County, was demolished on Nov. 19, 1986. 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. The unique Cold War-era relic is part of an 11-acre Kansas lot on the market for $380,000. 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. [18], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}352451N 922350W / 35.4141N 92.3972W / 35.4141; -92.3972. 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." (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. (By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was around 15 kilotons, and the one dropped on Nagasaki was around 21 kilotons. We need your stories about the city's hidden corners and unusual places. but I couldn't see him." 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? Driving up to the ranch, you would never guess that youre headed to an underground missile silo. We spent the next 300 miles trying to shoo flies out of interior of our vehicle. Unsettling as that history may be, its worth it just to say you did it. Warren Air Force Base In Wyoming. 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. NORTHERN WELD COUNTY If it weren't for the 184-foot tall antenna tower stretching far above the prairie, many . The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. I was living out of state at the time, but the disaster was covered in depth by the national press. On Aug. 9, 1965, a fire and the resulting loss of oxygen in a silo near Searcy, Arkansas, killed 53 people, most of them civilian repairmen doing maintenance on the facility. We always take Highway 71 South taking us through Kimball, Nebraska and Limon, Colorado coming out at Highway 25 at Trinidad, Colorado. Senior Airman David Livingston, one of the two airmen on the scene, died from injuries sustained during the explosion. 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. Kennedy went down into the silo by himself to get readings. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). It took about 15 minutes to load the fuel and move the Titan I into position before firingnot a great selling point when every second might count. A welder accidentally hit a hydraulic fluid line with his welding rod, which sparked a fire that quickly filled the missile shaft and sucked the oxygen out. Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Moving down from level two is the kitchen and entertainment space on level one. What Happens to Pilots That Defect to the U.S.? 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. Rex Peters was up to get a blood pressure pill. 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. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. 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. It was sitting there at a moments notice, and putting the enemy on notice that they couldnt win the war.. A socket like the one that punctured the missiles hull. [7][8], Livingston died at the hospital, and 21 others in the immediate vicinity of the blast sustained various injuries; Kennedy struggled with respiratory issues from inhaling oxidizer but survived. 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. Eventually, it was foundin a ditch about 200 yards away from the silo. Kimberly S. Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. The Titan II missiles were the largest intercontinental ballistic missiles ever developed. Shannon Seidler, a mechanic near Garrison, North Dakota, has lived on family land housing a nuclear missile silo for his entire life. Take the time to ask questions and hear the stories. The Damascus Titan missile explosion (also called the Damascus accident[1]) was a 1980 U.S. nuclear weapons incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Tell Us About the Most Amazing Parts of Tulsa, Oklahoma! 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. The United States quickly developed a second model of ICBMs called Titan. From 1963 to 1987, crews maintained the missiles on 24-hour alert and . The Cold War was over, and with it the threat of annihilation right? trademark, including the use of official emblems, insignia, names and slogans), warnings Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused! Top: Vanderberg Air Force Base, for reference. They were ordered to leave the launch duct when the measurements proved alarmingly high. A total of 21 people were injured. This hidden gem, a former missile silo in Vilonia, Arkansas, was designed not only to survive a nuclear explosion, but also launch a nuclear . But the site King and Phillips were driving to in their company Dodge Omni was worse. 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. A total of 54 Titan II missiles, capable of going from launch to a target 8,000 miles away in about half an hour, were installed in Arizona, Kansas, and Arkansas. [1] It focused on the explosion, as well as other Broken Arrow incidents during the Cold War. Vince Guerrieri is a writer based in the Cleveland area. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. To this day, those Titan II targets remain classified, he said. [5], A 1988 television film, Disaster at Silo 7, is based on this event. Incredible Active Missile Silos In Arkansas Ideas. For us, there were two, queen size beds set up for my children. Livingston lay amid the rubble of the launch duct for some time before security personnel located and evacuated him. It's time for your real estate portfolio to go ballistic! Say what? "If we built rooms, it would kind of take away from it.". Deactivated silos were located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. 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. Lucky for us, Nick was very knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. 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. Senator David Pryor's office had been concerned about the safety of the Titan sites since January 1978 when a cloud of toxic vapor was accidentally released at the Damascus launch site, resulting in four hospitalizations. An airman dropped a wrench socket and it fell 80 . That's a multimillion dollar project to do anything with it," he said. However, a new threat arose from the growing heat inside the silo. Missiles were programmed with three potential targets. 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. Construction on the Minuteman II structures began in 1946. The first launch complex completed was situated near Pangburn northwest of Searcy, going operational on July 31, 1962. Mondale and Jimmy Carter lost their bid for re-election in 1980. 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. 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. The Damascus missile complex was at the Southside location, indicated by the red star on the map above. He Ended Up With A Titan Ii Missile Silo That Was Decommissioned In Spring Of 1986. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. "From a weapon of mass destruction to hosting birthday parties and weddings, that's pretty wild ride," Hill said. The first was for Jackie to have her annual Multiple Sclerosis checkup at the University of New Mexico's Pete Dominici Medical Building and the second was to have dinner with one set of friends and lunch with another. Livingston was posthumously promoted to staff sergeant. Aerial photographs taken Friday morning showed a gaping hole with smoke drifting from it, and debris scattered over hilly pastureland." 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. The missile survived the fires and was not damaged. Fuel vapor started to fill the silo. 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. No purchase necessary. 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. Arkansas' missiles were manned and operated by airmen from the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, Arkansas, with air bases near Tucson, Arizona, and Wichita, Kansas, maintaining nearby Titan II silos there. It was the loudest explosion Id ever heard in my lifebefore or since, Devlin says. Back in September 1980, September 18, Jeff Plumb climbed into his pickup and headed toward the nuclear missile silo near a tiny town in Arkansas called Damascus. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. "It's all illuminated. She believes magic can be found in life and books, loves to watch the stars appear, and still dreams of backpacking the world. A 1961 decommissioned Atlas-F intercontinental ballistic missile silo complex is for sale. 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.