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The land is now under private ownership. "If we built rooms, it would kind of take away from it.". From 1963 to 1987, crews maintained the missiles on 24-hour alert and . Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. The last of the Titan launch sites in Arkansas, located near Quitman in Cleburne County, was demolished on Nov. 19, 1986. Slumbering just beneath the earth, a silent army of nuclear warheads waited for the outbreak of armageddon during the Cold War. NORTHERN WELD COUNTY If it weren't for the 184-foot tall antenna tower stretching far above the prairie, many . 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); We select one featured photo per week, but we show many more in our gallery. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. 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. Nukes in the Heartland: Remnants of Cold War Missile Sites Remain The missile silo near Pervomaysk is the only intact remainder of what was once an array of nuclear bases in Ukraine. In Arkansas, three launch sites remain with both launch pads and control centers. Pen & Quin: International Agents of Intrigue - The Mystery of the Painted Book is her debut novel. The Reagan Administration decided to . Its a lot of heavy information in a short time, but worth absorbing every minute of it. 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. 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 initial PTS team was sent home. John Hooks Well, first we got to dig into how they got here in the first place. 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. The missile base I visited, Foxtrot-01, is right there on Google Maps. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were developed in response to the Soviet Union achieving nuclear capabilities. He started the radio station after his previous employer, Dogpatch, a Li'l Abner theme park, went belly-up. 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 . Mark Christ set the stage: "Senior Airman David Livingston and Sergeant Jeff K. Kennedy then entered the launch complex early on the morning of Sept. 19 to get readings on airborne fuel concentrations, which they found to be at their maximum. The Air Force also chose two other states to site Titan II missiles: Arizona and Kansas. Today, theres still a giant hole in the ground, now overgrown and given over to wild animals. 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. [2] The entire missile launch complex was destroyed. These sites in Springhill in Faulkner County, Southside in Van Buren County and Center Hill in White County are now on the National Register of Historic Places. Investigators later discovered that a welder working on level 3 had "hit a hydraulic line with his welding rod, rupturing the hose and causing the spray of hydraulic fuel to catch fire." 2023 Farmers Bank & Trust. "The nuclear warhead landed about 100 feet from the launch complex's entry gate; its safety features operated correctly and prevented any loss of radioactive material. Suddenly the flies began to land on everything and in the process they flew by the hundreds into the back of our SUV. (Kennedy died in 2011 at the age of 56.) 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. 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. Ed's daughter-in-law drove the pickup truck past the missile silo and out toward the cow pasture. After a decommissioned Titan II missile silo in Arizona was sold in just two weeks late last year, two more desert silos . 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. But we dealt with hydrazine [the fuel] and nitrogen tetroxide [the oxidizer] every day. Colorado prairie is dotted with Minuteman missiles All the guys that walked down with their RHFCO suits, I just assumed they were all killed.. 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. The Titan II Missile program was a Cold War weapons system featuring fifty-four launch complexes in three states. 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. The story behind Colorado's Minuteman missiles and the people at the controls. This design allows the structure to absorb the force from a nearby nuclear strike, with eight giant springs serving as shock absorbers. [11], The launch complex was never repaired. Within a couple hours, there was a crowd of about 25 to 30 journalists and law enforcement personnel gathered just outside the gate. Is Russias Only Aircraft Carrier Cursed? The missile survived the fires and was not damaged. Many features won't work correctly, and functionality can't be guaranteed. If you saw footage from the massive explosion in Beirut this past August, King says, you saw what he saw that morning. From Level 2, visitors may climb a spiral staircase to Level 1which previously served as the crew's sleeping quarters and kitchen or descend to Level 3, which housed the communication equipment that kept the facility connected to the larger world. Here are some maps showing the locations of U.S. Minuteman III ICBM silo's along with coordinates. AddThis Utility Frame. Where are the nuclear silos in the US? - KnowledgeBurrow.com Shannon Seidler, a mechanic near Garrison, North Dakota, has lived on family land housing a nuclear missile silo for his entire life. When the socket fell, it plunged 70 feet to pierce the side of the . 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. The facility's master bedroom, on Level 1, features a king-sizedbed and remote controlled fireplace. By 9 p.m. the Air Force had a team on site and began evacuating personnel as well as some local residents. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1990. God, help me! As if they didn't have enough to worry about. Decommissioning the former missile silos included destroying the top 25 feet of each silo and the access portal and elevator to the LCC. Two of the most serious disasters to plague the Titan II missile program during the Cold War occurred in Arkansas. It's time for your real estate portfolio to go ballistic! By 1960, teams at Cape Canaveral had run several successful tests of the new missiles, and a new facility, located at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, was ready to start testing out the missile under operational conditions. but I couldn't see him." 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. Many of the dead were found crowded around an escape ladder. Aerial photographs taken Friday morning showed a gaping hole with smoke drifting from it, and debris scattered over hilly pastureland." "And we don't have any vacancies because there's a tournament in town," he spat. By 1986 these sites were all decommissioned and destroyed. Itll be in a port in a shipping container or something like that.. Titan II Missiles - Encyclopedia of Arkansas 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. You think things will take a year, but they really take five years.". 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. "There was metal debris, concrete, all sorts of stuff we had to pull out," he said. They dont know where the warhead is, King recalls being told. A concussion of wind hit me like a truck, and I slid 60 feet, and every foot, it felt like I was going faster. Ten years ago, Hill purchased the site that Titan Ranch sits on. Livingston died of his injuries [later] that day." Of course the flies didn't swarm on us until we opened the tailgate and started to prepare our lunch. 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" Founder, Native American Journalists Association. Say what? Will China Give Lethal Support to Russia? You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. 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. Thats the idea of the Titan II. 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. See. [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. View of the nose of a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile sitting in its 150-foot deep underground launch pad at McConnell Air Force Base near Wichita, Kansas, circa 1965. The entire motel was quite ramshackled and we entered number 20 with trepidation. From there, we watched a video all about the missile base, the history, and the long and difficult renovation. I said, We just left a bunch of dead people back there. He said Yeah, I know. We were sick about it. The missile sites in Arkansas fanned out from the base into Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Van Buren and White counties. 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. The discovery follows the report earlier this month that China appears to be constructing 120 missile silos near Yumen in Gansu province. Robert Rhodus, the test conductor for the company that had built the missile, watched in fascination as the elevator, carrying a missile fully loaded with propellants, plummeted to the bottom of the silo, Stumpf writes. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. [8][17], Jeff Plumb's account of his role in the incident was featured in a 2017 episode of WBEZ's This American Life. We backed out of the room quickly and asked for another room. 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. U.S. Airbnb feels you, so now you can for $324 a night. Misiles 46 views. It was the same warhead that had been atop the missile during the deadly Searcy fire 15 years earlier. Why are there so many nuclear missiles in Montana? 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. 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. "You didn't know if it was going to Cuba or if it was going to Moscow," Hill said. U.S. Nuclear Missile SILO Fields Maps and Coordinates - NYPrepper These 5 states were designed to be America's 'nuclear sponge' Workers from . There Are Still Active Missile Silos on Highway 71 South The first disaster occurred on August 9, 1965 at launch complex 373-4, located near Searcy. They were Titan II missile silos that housed nuclear weapons on a Gemini rocket, designed to be launched into space in under one minute. 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 missile silo itself is one of the few remaining atlas f silos that is naturally dry, with many interior levels and crib structure. The Cold War was over, and with it the threat of annihilation right? Police discussing evacuation plans after the explosion. The Titans sat fueled and ready to go at a moments noticebut that meant constant monitoring and maintenance. The first Titan II missile in Arkansas was installed in a silo near Searcy in 1963. The team was then ordered to reenter the silo to turn on an exhaust fan. Christ explained that the deaths were not caused by the explosion itself, but by the rapid loss of oxygen. [14], In September 2013, Eric Schlosser published a book titled Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. The two airmen had just left the missile silo to await further orders when the rocket exploded at 3 a.m. They were used to launch satellites into space as recently as 2003. [2], At daybreak, the Air Force retrieved the warhead,[9][10] which was returned to the Pantex weapons assembly plant. Perhaps most famously, as the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser recounts in his book Command and Control, in 1980, a Titan II missile exploded in its silo in Damascus, Arkansas, while carrying a nuclear warhead. Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the editor and publisher of Native Sun News. By then, a lot of the documents detailing just how bad the incident wasand how close wed come before to accidental nuclear explosions had been declassified. Janet Choate: An Everyday Hero of Small-Town U.S.A. Heres what the terrifying incident was like, from those who were there. The missile was not armed at the time. 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. Titan II was developed as much for use in space flight as it was for an ICBM, Stumpf says. Moving down from level two is the kitchen and entertainment space on level one. It had happened before. The only thought I had at that point was, I know Im a dead man. For us, there were two, queen size beds set up for my children. But the site King and Phillips were driving to in their company Dodge Omni was worse. The Damascus missile complex was at the Southside location, indicated by the red star on the map above. 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. "Two officers would each turn a key, and 58 seconds later the Titan II would be out the door," Hill said. tercontinental ballistic missile wing, has the largest number of active fense Council (NRDC) and Hans M. Krisair force weapons. NORTH DAKOTA MISSILE SITES: Living in a nuclear world It's what happened on the journey that prompts this week's column. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. This photograph is considered public domain and has been cleared for release. It has a maximum range of 8,700 miles and a maximum speed of Mach 23 . 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. What you may not know is that at one time, there were 18 ICBM (intercontinental nuclear missile) silos surrounding the Little Rock area. The following is a list of active missiles of the United States military. "So this is purposefully, 'Hey, you're not in a missile silo.' During the next year, the other 18 missile silos in central Arkansas received ICBMs, and Jan. 1, 1964, all silos in Arkansas were active and on alert status. There are 1,000 kilotons in a megaton). "But that was part of the psychological training. Sound good? The AirBnB listing even drew the attention of a couple central Arkansas musicians, who filmed three music videos inside the facility. The large underground facility at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New The discovery of what appear to be hundreds of new missile silos under construction in China has inspired arguments that imply the United States needs more nuclear weapons. You knew it was 10 million people, but you didn't know where.". Powell was working on a Titan II missile fitted with a thermonuclear warhead, tucked away underground in Damascus, Arkansas. Incredible Active Missile Silos In Arkansas Ideas. They stood 103 feet tall and had a range of 9,300 miles. (February 2011) Air-to-air missiles.