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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. 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. Lieutenant General Lloyd R. Leavitt Jr., the Vice Commander of the Strategic Air Command, commanded the effort to save the launch complex. 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. These sites stayed active until President George H.W. One of the workers, Airman David P. Powell, had brought a ratchet wrench 3ft (0.9m) long weighing 25lb (11kg) into the silo instead of a torque wrench, the latter having been newly mandated by Air Force regulations. He was the first Native American ever inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2007. 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. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced the retirement of the Titan II program. More adventurous souls can use the escape hatch to leave the facility when they check out. 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. The land was sold back to the owners for as little as $600 to as much as $12,000. Kimberly S. Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. The missile could launch in 60 seconds, without the cumbersome raising and fueling procedures the Atlas and Titan I models required. but I couldn't see him." It took six years to retire the missiles, demolish the launch ducts and fill in the silos with debris. 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. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. Itll be in a port in a shipping container or something like that.. 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. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. An eye-opening journey through the history, culture, and places of the culinary world. [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. The Cold War was over, and with it the threat of annihilation right? After the accident, the area around the missile silo was littered with debrisboulders of concrete, giant springs, pieces of navigation systems. We drove maybe 10 miles before we said anything to each other, King recalls. 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. 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. If you would like to republish please give the photographer appropriate credit. Here are some maps showing the locations of U.S. Minuteman III ICBM silo's along with coordinates. 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). You don't know who you were killing. file size: 5 MB. Lately, many have been closed and the . In 1965, dozens of people died after a fire started in a Titan II silo in Arkansas. 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. 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. My son was absolutely thrilled to learn how to use the tablet to control the lights in the room. Titan II was developed as much for use in space flight as it was for an ICBM, Stumpf says. His weekly column won the H. L. Mencken Award in 1985. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space in 1957, it made the idea of long-range nuclear bombers obsolete. The Air Force also chose two other states to site Titan II missiles: Arizona and Kansas. U.S. By 1986 these sites were all decommissioned and destroyed. The entire motel was quite ramshackled and we entered number 20 with trepidation. The man behind the counter actually looked like a street person, a homeless man. Ayala said Livingston, a native of Heath, a small town in central Ohio, would let him use his ham radio to talk to people in his hometown in the Bronx. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Each of the mammoth doors can withstand 1,000 psi of pressure, Hill said. Many were built in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Originally, the launch control center had standard steps to reach multiple levels. It was sitting there at a moments notice, and putting the enemy on notice that they couldnt win the war.. The air turned white and chunks of steel-reinforced concrete fell out of the sky after the fuel ignited. It takes a certain mental toughness. The United States built many missile silos in the Midwest, away from populated areas. The film was broadcast by PBS as part of its American Experience series. "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." This hidden gem, a former missile silo in Vilonia, Arkansas, was designed not only to survive a nuclear explosion, but also launch a nuclear . Construction on the Minuteman II structures began in 1946. One of the strangest things about the master suite is the domed concrete ceiling. In a Sept. 12, 2014 photo, Teri Kramer points out an escape hatch over from www.washingtontimes.com. Don't go passed the gate without permission! Thats the idea of the Titan II. 75) of Scorpion is largely based on this event. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. (Kennedy died in 2011 at the age of 56.) They were given codes on paper, to be confirmed by the crew in place for a changeover, and the paper was burned. GT and Nick met us again to check out and we got to see a sneak peek into the other side of the complex. "But that was part of the psychological training. The site is also booked for a wedding later this year. [11], The launch complex was never repaired. Top: Vanderberg Air Force Base, for reference. Two airmen were performing maintenance at Missile Complex 374-7, located 3 miles north of Damascus, the evening of September 18th. John Hooks Well, first we got to dig into how they got here in the first place. By 9 p.m. the Air Force had a team on site and began evacuating personnel as well as some local residents. Titan I missiles were stored in silo lifts and had to be raised to the surface to be fueled before launch. 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. Titan Ranch is located in Vilonia, Arkansas, just northeast of Conway. Shannon Seidler, a mechanic near Garrison, North Dakota, has lived on family land housing a nuclear missile silo for his entire life. "You could dump dynamite in the bottom, light it off, and these doors would just keep on going," Hill said. "People who stay here do so willingly, and they have a blast.". On September 19, 1980, a second tragedy struck the 308th Strategic Missile Wing. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. Warren Air Force Base In Wyoming. The two airmen had just left the missile silo to await further orders when the rocket exploded at 3 a.m. Where's this story? Check out the other articles in the series: The demon core that killed two scientists, missing nuclear warheads, the bombs that fell on North Carolina, and the underground test that didnt stay that way. Devlin, now retired in Florida and a childrens book author, says he has osteoporosis and believes the hydrazine he inhaled caused it. They stood 103 feet tall and had a range of 9,300 miles. The missile was more than 100 feet in length and 10 feet wide. tercontinental ballistic missile wing, has the largest number of active fense Council (NRDC) and Hans M. Krisair force weapons. The Titan II, on the other hand, had a longer range and could be used for defense as well as for the nations nascent space program. We backed out of the room quickly and asked for another room. We always take Highway 71 South taking us through Kimball, Nebraska and Limon, Colorado coming out at Highway 25 at Trinidad, Colorado. The triad, along with assigned . The facility's master bedroom, on Level 1, features a king-sizedbed and remote controlled fireplace. But somethinglater determined to be an elevator malfunctionwent wrong. Early in the morning of Friday, September 19, a two-man PTS investigation team consisting of Senior Airman David Lee Livingston and Sergeant Jeff K. Kennedy entered the silo. Titan II rockets were adapted to use in the space program and launched the first Gemini manned missions in the early 1960s. 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. During the 25-year period of operations, Arkansas experienced two disasters connected to the missiles. The silos were of necessity deep, about 150 feet. This was the first missile site to become operational in Arkansas in 1963. [2], Kennedy, initially praised as a hero, later received an official letter of reprimand for his first entry into the complex, as it later transpired that he had disregarded an order to stay away. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. 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. locate But the site King and Phillips were driving to in their company Dodge Omni was worse. 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. 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. Walking across the gangplank feels something like a sci-fi movie, and my childrens insistence on bringing Star Wars costumes was rather apropos. 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. It has been painstakingly restored by GT Hill. 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. The demon core that killed two scientists, the underground test that didnt stay that way, One man died and more than 20 others were injured. We need your stories about the city's hidden corners and unusual places. It has a maximum range of 8,700 miles and a maximum speed of Mach 23 . [1] It focused on the explosion, as well as other Broken Arrow incidents during the Cold War. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). 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 . At about 6:30 p.m. Sept. 18, 1980, an airman working on the missile dropped a wrench socket, which fell 80 feet before hitting and piercing the rocket's first-stage fuel tank, causing a leak, but not an immediate explosion. The only thought I had at that point was, I know Im a dead man. We always take Highway 71 South taking us through Kimball, Nebraska and Limon, Colorado coming out at Highway 25 at Trinidad, Colorado. Will China Give Lethal Support to Russia? Then we realized what it was and started grabbing for masks.. It had happened before. We were so used to it that it didnt scare us.. Missile Guidance Speed Image AIM-7 Sparrow: Semi-active radar homing: Mach 4: AIM-9 Sidewinder: Infrared homing: Unverified (Mach 2.7) AIM-120 AMRAAM: Active radar homing: The Titan II missile program was terminated by the Reagan administration, but memories still burn brightly among many Arkansans. 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). 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. 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. 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. More than 600 miles to the south, the F.E. 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. They would meet at the Air Force base in the morning and drive to the missile launch control silo to begin their work day. 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. That's a multimillion dollar project to do anything with it," he said. Our stay at Titan Ranch began with driving down the gravel road, leading between cow pastures, the reason for the name ranch. Cows looked back at us, munching away, while we wondered if we were headed to the right place. See. 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. 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. "We never wanted to build rooms," Hill said, referring to the circular layout and feel to the LCC. 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. It is a long and lonely route. Accepted file types: jpg, png, Max. GT has also set the space up to be able to host DJs and dance parties, for any kind of event. The North Star Missile Silo was used during the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s and is up for sale, with a price tag of $989,000. This left the powerful nuclear warheads exposed to attack. He started the radio station after his previous employer, Dogpatch, a Li'l Abner theme park, went belly-up. 40 Years Ago, We Almost Blew Up Arkansas. I said, We just left a bunch of dead people back there. He said Yeah, I know. We were sick about it. Theres a real risk right now. A piece of Cold War history is now available as an Airbnbproperty. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. God. There are 1,000 kilotons in a megaton). 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. In 1965, a civilian welder working on upgrades in an Arkansas silo accidentally hit a hydraulic line, causing a fire that killed 53 of the 55 workers there that day. 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 . Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. As if they didn't have enough to worry about. The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. The Titan II missiles were located near three air force bases around the country: Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas and Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. [5], A 1988 television film, Disaster at Silo 7, is based on this event. Little Rock, Conway, Searcy, Benton, Heber Springs, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, West Memphis, Batesville, Mountain View, Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, Texarkana, Arkadelphia. "We could excavate it, but if you think about it, it's like, 'Why?' The Pentagon plans to spend $264 billion on its next-generation ICBM program, which . Visitors to the site first descend down the 50 feet to a concrete pad, where they are greeted by the first of two 6,000-pound blast doors, one of which was kept closed at all times during the Cold War. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. Meanwhile, as a countermeasure, the silo was filling with water to douse potential flames and dilute the vapor. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. 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. Airmen Jeffrey Plumb and David Powell were in the silo working on the missile. Visitors to Titan Ranch stay inside the former ICBM facility's launch control center (LCC), located 50 feet underground. Should the missile need to be fired in anger, launch instructions would indicate that either Target 1, Target 2, or Target 3 was in the crosshairs; the men firing the ICBMs never knew what the targets actually were. The station called King while he was eating at sales representative Tom Phillipss home. 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. The missiles were stored in massive underground silos, which were constructed in the early 1960s and closed in the early 1980s. 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. 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 first thing that makes this particular route interesting is the still active missile silos that dot the highway from Kimball to the Colorado border. It never bounced into the missile.. The silo which housed the Gemini missile is sealed off and still remains destroyed. 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. The Titan II Missile program was a Cold War weapons system featuring fifty-four launch complexes in three states. Devlin and Hukle werent certified to work a hydraulic pump, Devlin recalls, and were unsuccessful in trying to manually open a blast lock door. Slumbering just beneath the earth, a silent army of nuclear warheads waited for the outbreak of armageddon during the Cold War. On September 19, 1980, a second tragedy struck the 308th Strategic Missile Wing. The missile not only survived the explosion in 1965, it was the same missile which exploded in 1980 near Damascus. Since it was very hot outside I asked this cadaver of a man, "What's the temperature." The missile silo itself is one of the few remaining atlas f silos that is naturally dry, with many interior levels and crib structure. He called the station, and word spread. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Miraculously, only one person died: Livingston, in a local hospital the day after the explosion of pulmonary edema, sometimes called dry drowning. 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. These were giant rockets, designed to fly long distances while carrying nuclear weapons. Both areas were then filled in with concrete, scrap iron, gravel and dirt, and the property wasreturned to the previous landowners. Find out more at KSMitchell.com. 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 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. AddThis Utility Frame. The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. Two airmen were performing maintenance at Missile Complex 374-7, located 3 miles north of Damascus, the evening of September 18th. But it doesn't come cheap at $600 a night but only if you can . The team had met its goal. 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.

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