Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. You may know that theres an Air Force base there. By the evening of December 3, 1960, eight tests had already failed because of minor equipment malfunctions, Stumpf writes. The state is armed with 150 nuclear missile silos that form a . They were Titan II missile silos that housed nuclear weapons on a Gemini rocket, designed to be launched into space in under one minute. By 9 p.m. the Air Force had a team on site and began evacuating personnel as well as some local residents. There are 1,000 kilotons in a megaton). Using decades-old U.S. Air Force training footage, re-enactments and drone . Level 3 now serves as the living room and kitchen area. In 1965, dozens of people died after a fire started in a Titan II silo in Arkansas. which pertains to intellectual property restrictions (e.g., copyright and 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. [13], Season 4, episode 4 (ep. 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 . It has a maximum range of 8,700 miles and a maximum speed of Mach 23 . The 18 Arkansas Titan II sites were a third of the total Titan II fleet in service from 1963 until 1984. Within a couple hours, there was a crowd of about 25 to 30 journalists and law enforcement personnel gathered just outside the gate. The control room space sits on level two of an internal, solid steel birdcage structure. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. All missiles in the silos are currently Minuteman III (LGM-30G). In 1981, by Presidential order, all 54 of these missile silos were to be dismantled and abandoned by 1987. If you saw footage from the massive explosion in Beirut this past August, King says, you saw what he saw that morning. Your email address will not be published. This left the powerful nuclear warheads exposed to attack. They would meet at the Air Force base in the morning and drive to the missile launch control silo to begin their work day. The unique Cold War-era relic is part of an 11-acre Kansas lot on the market for $380,000. Here are some maps showing the locations of U.S. Minuteman III ICBM silo's along with coordinates. The United States built many missile silos in the Midwest, away from populated areas. The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. It took six years to retire the missiles, demolish the launch ducts and fill in the silos with debris. U.S. 6. Sequential photographs showing the launching of the Titan II ICBM weapon firing from underground silos, circa 1965. As if they didn't have enough to worry about. Where's this story? A high-end master bedroom, spacious living room and stainless steel kitchen gives a visitor the feeling of visiting a supervillain's lair more than a military facility engineered for Armageddon. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Only in Arkansas. More than 600 miles to the south, the F.E. If you would like to republish please give the photographer appropriate credit. The blast completely destroyed the silo and sent the 750-ton silo door . The silo which housed the Gemini missile is sealed off and still remains destroyed. But it doesn't come cheap at $600 a night but only if you can . 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. 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. 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." Unsettling as that history may be, its worth it just to say you did it. The missile not only survived the explosion in 1965, it was the same missile which exploded in 1980 near Damascus. "So you work on things when you can. Find out more at KSMitchell.com. Both areas were then filled in with concrete, scrap iron, gravel and dirt, and the property wasreturned to the previous landowners. After getting the last fly out of the car, we hoped, everything went as planned. Nobodys saying its from that, but nobody else in my family has a thyroid condition.. 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 is a long and lonely route. We hurriedly put our food away, closed the hatchback and put some distance between ourselves and the pasture. 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. The united states built many missile silos in the midwest, away from populated areas. Theres a unique history surrounding Little Rock, Arkansas that you may not know about. The missile base I visited, Foxtrot-01, is right there on Google Maps. The remaining half, the author David K. Stumpf writes in Titan II: A History of the Cold War Missile Program, had launched into the air and spun 180 degrees before landing back on the ground. Take the time to ask questions and hear the stories. Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. [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 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. Rex Peters was up to get a blood pressure pill. It had happened before. 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. But the site King and Phillips were driving to in their company Dodge Omni was worse. When I needed a break from writing the series, I found myself scrolling around Nebraska and Colorado, looking for silos and . Basically, you crawl 10 feet and then it's a 50-foot ladder," Hill said. Maps to the LRAFB missile sites Be warned Arkansas Farmers aren't against shooting trespassers! Since it was very hot outside I asked this cadaver of a man, "What's the temperature." We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. Here's what the terrifying incident . He gave us a key to Room 20. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. KGFL, Sid Kings radio station, had a daytime-only license, but this was a big enough exception that King was on the air by 3:30 a.m., telling everyone to get the hell out of there. By 4 a.m., the studio was full of people and a flurry of activity. They all knew each other. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. The PTS crew stayed at the site as an investigative crewDevlin, Rex Hukle, David Livingston, and Jeffrey K. Kennedyarrived. Feeling very unwelcome we decided to try reaching Limon, Colorado, before dark. Then we realized what it was and started grabbing for masks.. [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. The missile was not armed at the time. The air turned white and chunks of steel-reinforced concrete fell out of the sky after the fuel ignited. See. You have to try it to see what I mean. I tucked my children into the beds on the second floor, while my son picked a color for the light to stay while they fell asleep. "Some people get a little nervous down here. A missile took 15 minutes to launch and had to be fueled with a highly flammable mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen. Be sure to fill out all the fields in order to have yours selected. "Two officers would each turn a key, and 58 seconds later the Titan II would be out the door," Hill said. Tell Us About the Most Amazing Parts of Tulsa, Oklahoma! King decided to hang around. What you may not know is that at one time, there were 18 ICBM (intercontinental nuclear missile) silos surrounding the Little Rock area. 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 . "From a weapon of mass destruction to hosting birthday parties and weddings, that's pretty wild ride," Hill said. The 308th Strategic Missile Wing was created and operated from the base, overseeing the missiles, [], Your email address will not be published. The Cold War was over, and with it the threat of annihilation right? but I couldn't see him." We were so used to it that it didnt scare us.. The space has been turned into a luxury master bedroom, complete with an open concept walk-in shower, soaking tub, and enclosed toilet room. 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. Because their vapor detectors indicated an explosive atmosphere, the two were ordered to evacuate. Phew!We decided not to drive 14 hours back to Rapid City as we did on the trip down, but to stop about half way and spend the night. The man behind the counter actually looked like a street person, a homeless man. [2] The warhead landed a short distance away and no radioactive material was lost. As was the case with the Pangburn disaster, the explosion at the Damascus launch site resulted from routine maintenance work. We met with Nick, one of the current hosts, who led us down the steps into the bunker. 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). 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. More than half of the potential arsenal is in Amarillo, Texas, at the Pantex plant, which will dismantle them. [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. Christ explained that the deaths were not caused by the explosion itself, but by the rapid loss of oxygen. Heres what the terrifying incident was like, from those who were there. But we dealt with hydrazine [the fuel] and nitrogen tetroxide [the oxidizer] every day. (Not coincidentally, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee at the time the missiles were installed was Arkansas Democrat Wilbur Mills.) "Some people feel that the missile had a little bit of a bad omen, if you will.". Two airmen were performing maintenance at Missile Complex 374-7, located 3 miles north of Damascus, the evening of September 18th. Despite the criticism, the U.S. appears to be committed to the idea of a nuclear sponge in those five states. Possibly a fuel leak. The elderly man behind the counter was a dead ringer for the man lying on a gurney in the movie Young Frankenstein who Gene Wilder, Dr. Frankenstein, assaults unintentionally while instructing a group of medical students. Hill said he had no plans to excavate the silo in the immediate future. In Arkansas, three launch sites remain with both launch pads and control centers. What you may not know is that at one time, there were 18 ICBM (intercontinental nuclear missile) silos surrounding the Little Rock area. Police discussing evacuation plans after the explosion. The incident occurred on September 18-19, 1980, at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas when a U.S. Air Force LGM-25C Titan II ICBM loaded with a 9-megaton W-53 nuclear warhead experienced a liquid fuel explosion . The first U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), like the Atlas and the Titan I, were cryogenically fueled, relying on substances like liquid oxygen, which had to be kept cold. 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. A civilian crew was working throughout all nine floors of the missile silo, which plunged 150 into the ground. 75) of Scorpion is largely based on this event. 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. He saw the explosion, and he told the New York Times his first thought was, It kind of reminded me of the old days. 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 heard somebody yelling "Help me! In the silo, they have a close-up view of the missile from less than ten feet away. At the end of the 1950s, the United States military began developing the Titans as part of its growing supply of intercontinental ballistic missiles. This released a cloud of noxious gas, leaving a few people sick and eager to file lawsuits. Livingston reentered the silo to carry out the order and shortly thereafter, at about 3:00 a.m., the hypergolic fuel exploded likely due to arcing in the exhaust fan. The discovery follows the report earlier this month that China appears to be constructing 120 missile silos near Yumen in Gansu province. Ed's daughter-in-law drove the pickup truck past the missile silo and out toward the cow pasture. 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 . We spent the next 300 miles trying to shoo flies out of interior of our vehicle. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced the retirement of the Titan II program. "And we don't have any vacancies because there's a tournament in town," he spat. The following is a list of active missiles of the United States military. In 1978, six months after the trailer leak in Arkansas, two airmen died after a leak in Kansas. Each launch complex contained underground operational offices as well as living quarters for a staff of four. The missiles were stored in massive underground silos, which were constructed in the early 1960s and closed in the early 1980s. DoD image must be made in compliance with guidance found at The Air Force refused to confirm or deny if a nuclear weapon was involved in the explosioneven to Vice President Walter Mondale, who was in Arkansas that day for the state Democratic convention, trying to help the states young governor, Bill Clinton, in a re-election bid. On September 19, 1980, a second tragedy struck the 308th Strategic Missile Wing. There are no windows in the space and no inclination that the sun had retreated and the moon was up. You knew it was 10 million people, but you didn't know where.". And around 3:05 a.m., all hell broke loose, he tells Popular Mechanics. "That way if there was a nuclear explosion, they always wanted to have one door closed to protect the facility," Hill said. The process was eye-opening, and a great history lesson. 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. God. The first launch complex completed was situated near Pangburn northwest of Searcy, going operational on July 31, 1962. Sid King had just sat down to dinner on September 18, 1980 when he got the call. After a half hourthey could only stay in the silo that long because of their oxygen tanksthey came back up. 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 first missile launch facility was located in jersey shore,. Accepted file types: jpg, png, Max. And the origin of those dates back to the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and '60s, specifically the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957. [5] The 8lb (3.6kg) socket fell off the ratchet and dropped approximately 80 feet (24m) before bouncing off a thrust mount and piercing the missile's skin over the first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak a cloud of its aerozine 50 fuel. A projector turns the far wall into a giant screen for movies or events, and a raised platform creates a bar area and kitchen space overlooking the floor along the other wall. 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. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. That's a multimillion dollar project to do anything with it," he said. 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 post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Powell was working on a Titan II missile fitted with a thermonuclear warhead, tucked away underground in Damascus, Arkansas. 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. The incident began with a fuel leak at 6:30 p.m. on September 18, and culminated with the explosion at around 3:00 a.m. on September 19, ejecting the warhead from its silo. Placed on the western edges of the Soviet Union due to their limited range of 2,000 kilometers, the Sandals could . Due to the safety features built into the warhead, it did not detonate and was recovered about 300 feet away from the explosion. 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. "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? A compilation of platforms and weapons, the three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad serve as the backbone of America's national security. So the Titans stayed in placeand demonstrated time and again their peril. "You could dump dynamite in the bottom, light it off, and these doors would just keep on going," Hill said. Soviet Ukraine held around one-third of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear arsenal, most of . John Hooks Well, first we got to dig into how they got here in the first place. 7 . Incredible Active Missile Silos In Arkansas Ideas. All the guys that walked down with their RHFCO suits, I just assumed they were all killed.. Vince Guerrieri is a writer based in the Cleveland area. The first ICBMs, called Atlas, were ready by 1959 and deployed at air force bases around the nation. 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. Twenty years ago Kansas, Arkansas and Arizona were littered with nuclear missiles, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. We drove maybe 10 miles before we said anything to each other, King recalls. 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. At about 1 p.m. the launch duct was suddenly filled with intense heat and billowing smoke." 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. "We never wanted to build rooms," Hill said, referring to the circular layout and feel to the LCC. The two airmen had just left the missile silo to await further orders when the rocket exploded at 3 a.m. Now she writes adventures to send her characters on journeys, too. 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. The three-story facility previously housed a crew of four airmen two officers and two enlisted men who manned the site 24 hours a day and awaited launch instructions that thankfully were never issued. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. What to Know Before You Get Started, 4 Essential Tips for Applying for a Mortgage Online as an MBA Student. The Titan II missiles were the largest intercontinental ballistic missiles ever developed. They were used to launch satellites into space as recently as 2003. The countdown to launch started and thenright before the signal to ignite the rocket would have been givenit was stopped. It turned out a worker doing routine maintenance on one of the missiles had dropped a nine-pound socket. It has been painstakingly restored by GT Hill. Airmen Jeffrey Plumb and David Powell were in the silo working on the missile. Kimberly S. Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. The newly formed 308th Strategic Missile Wing oversaw the operation of 18 missile sites, manned by groups of four soldiers 24 hours a day. [8][17], Jeff Plumb's account of his role in the incident was featured in a 2017 episode of WBEZ's This American Life. 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. Deactivated silos were located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. Matthew Kroenig, a Defense Department adviser during the Trump administration, suggested in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that "the Pentagon should . We didnt want to leave, but I understand why they wanted us to leave.. Eventually, it was foundin a ditch about 200 yards away from the silo. Will China Give Lethal Support to Russia? 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. One moment, the team at the new operational test facility had been on the verge of celebrating, finally, a successful trial run of the launch sequence for the powerful Titan I missile. 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. Nuclear weapons are just ideal for that., The next nuclear bomb to go off will not be delivered by a missile. The Pentagon plans to spend $264 billion on its next-generation ICBM program, which . Out of 55 workers, only two survived. When in service, the 110-foot long, 10-foot wide Titan II missile carried the largest warhead the United States military ever placed on an ICBM. The Air Force also chose two other states to site Titan II missiles: Arizona and Kansas. How far is it from Rockyford to Limon? Walking across the gangplank feels something like a sci-fi movie, and my childrens insistence on bringing Star Wars costumes was rather apropos. "Basically, what your smart phone can do today, the bottom floor of the launch control center did back then," Hill said. 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. That made the trip well worth the bumps along the way. For a one-night stay, I would recommend bringing all of your own food. Many of these locations hold warheads awaiting dismantlement. 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. Our destination in the vicinity of this sleepy little town was an enormous subterranean Dvina missile silo complex, once the home of R-12 medium-range ballistic missiles (NATO designation: SS-4 Sandal) of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com. The entire motel was quite ramshackled and we entered number 20 with trepidation. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. It was the loudest explosion Id ever heard in my lifebefore or since, Devlin says. Today, the area is home to one of the most mind-blowing destinations in the state. The missile silo near Pervomaysk is the only intact remainder of what was once an array of nuclear bases in Ukraine. 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. [11], The launch complex was never repaired. .css-v1xtj3{display:block;font-family:FreightSansW01,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:100;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-v1xtj3:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.1387rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-v1xtj3{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}Why Russian Hybrid Warfare Failed in Ukraine, Meet the E-7 Wedgetail, the Air Forces New Plane, Report: Pilot Error Ruined a $112 Million F-35 Jet. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. The next morning, my kids enjoyed the donuts Id brought for them and another movie on the projector. 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. 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: He said, "The same as it was when you came in." 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.