Print Headline: The Titan missile silo disasters. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. You can see the locations of all silos on the ICBM History page. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. 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 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. 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Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. 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 . All missiles in the silos are currently Minuteman III (LGM-30G). 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. 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. Is Russias Only Aircraft Carrier Cursed? Despite the size of the explosion, no one was hurt in the accident: The second-set of recently reinforced blast doors held. President Ronald Reagan announced the retirement of the Titan II program, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. We spent the next 300 miles trying to shoo flies out of interior of our vehicle. 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. The tanks that held the rockets fuel and oxidizers broke open, mixed, and exploded. He started the radio station after his previous employer, Dogpatch, a Li'l Abner theme park, went belly-up. The Titan II missile was the tallest ICBM used by the U.S. military. Along with bombers and sea-launched ballistic missiles, the Titan II missile program was a bulwark in the nation's three pronged-response to threats posed by the Soviet Union's large nuclear warfare capacity. His weekly column won the H. L. Mencken Award in 1985. After nearly being run over by the sheriff, King and Phillips jumped in their car and took off. An eye-opening journey through the history, culture, and places of the culinary world. Slumbering just beneath the earth, a silent army of nuclear warheads waited for the outbreak of armageddon during the Cold War. After finally reaching Limon we discovered that two of the three motels in town had shut down and the only one open, the KS Motel, was it. Three of the Arkansas launch sites--in White, Van Buren, and Faulkner counties--have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. He was a 19-year-old missile technician, a new trainee, riding with another guy, David Powell, who was showing Plumb the ropes. Now she writes adventures to send her characters on journeys, too. In 1978, six months after the trailer leak in Arkansas, two airmen died after a leak in Kansas. How far is it from Rockyford to Limon? 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. It is a long and lonely route. The entire property spans 18 acres, with the silo near . It was the loudest explosion Id ever heard in my lifebefore or since, Devlin says. 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. "That's one of the very few things about the Titan IIs that remain classified," he said. 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. The unique Cold War-era relic is part of an 11-acre Kansas lot on the market for $380,000. All rights reserved. A socket like the one that punctured the missiles hull. Soviet Ukraine held around one-third of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear arsenal, most of . These shortcomings led to the rapid development of the Titan II missiles, which would become part of the three-pronged nuclear strategy the U.S. military used for the next 25 years. After a decommissioned Titan II missile silo in Arizona was sold in just two weeks late last year, two more desert silos . The missile was not armed at the time. Livingston lay amid the rubble of the launch duct for some time before security personnel located and evacuated him. I said, We just left a bunch of dead people back there. He said Yeah, I know. We were sick about it. 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. The silo which housed the Gemini missile is sealed off and still remains destroyed. As if they didn't have enough to worry about. The united states built many missile silos in the midwest, away from populated areas. "TheThree Side" 373-1: 373-3: 373-2 . tercontinental ballistic missile wing, has the largest number of active fense Council (NRDC) and Hans M. Krisair force weapons. "We could excavate it, but if you think about it, it's like, 'Why?' Say what? 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. 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. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). [8][17], Jeff Plumb's account of his role in the incident was featured in a 2017 episode of WBEZ's This American Life. He saw the explosion, and he told the New York Times his first thought was, It kind of reminded me of the old days. Many were built in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. GT and Nick met us again to check out and we got to see a sneak peek into the other side of the complex. 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. The missile could launch in 60 seconds, without the cumbersome raising and fueling procedures the Atlas and Titan I models required. If we hadnt been ordered off, we would have stayed, Ayala says. Two of the most serious disasters to plague the Titan II missile program during the Cold War occurred in Arkansas. Around 1 a.m. on September 19, they watched a helicopter and a bus full of people enter the base. The two airmen had just left the missile silo to await further orders when the rocket exploded at 3 a.m. 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 land was sold back to the owners for as little as $600 to as much as $12,000. But the site King and Phillips were driving to in their company Dodge Omni was worse. What you may not know is that at one time, there were 18 ICBM (intercontinental nuclear missile) silos surrounding the Little Rock area. Decommissioning the former missile silos included destroying the top 25 feet of each silo and the access portal and elevator to the LCC. It has been painstakingly restored by GT Hill. Mondale and Jimmy Carter lost their bid for re-election in 1980. In 1965, dozens of people died after a fire started in a Titan II silo in Arkansas. If you would like to republish please give the photographer appropriate credit. Basically, you crawl 10 feet and then it's a 50-foot ladder," Hill said. The fire started whena high-pressure hydraulic line was cut by anoxyacetylene torch. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. If the Soviets had missiles, then the Americans needed them, too. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. 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. 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. In a Sept. 12, 2014 photo, Teri Kramer points out an escape hatch over from www.washingtontimes.com. It has a maximum range of 8,700 miles and a maximum speed of Mach 23 . Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. [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 Air Force also chose two other states to site Titan II missiles: Arizona and Kansas. Deactivation of Arkansas' Titan II missile silos began in May 1985 and ended May 5, 1987, with the state's last missile, located near Judsonia, Arkansas, being deactivated. The Titan II entered active service with the U.S. Air Force in 1963. They tried to recreate it in an empty silo, and it bounced into the wall. At about 1 p.m. the launch duct was suddenly filled with intense heat and billowing smoke." Find out more at KSMitchell.com. The team was then ordered to reenter the silo to turn on an exhaust fan. 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. 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 triad, along with assigned . The large underground facility at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New The Titans sat fueled and ready to go at a moments noticebut that meant constant monitoring and maintenance. 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. In 1965, dozens of people died after a fire started in a Titan II silo in Arkansas. "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? All too soon, it was time to check out. The blast completely destroyed the silo and sent the 750-ton silo door . 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.