The Hami missile silo field is in a much earlier . 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. Airbnb feels you, so now you can for $324 a night. After the accident, the area around the missile silo was littered with debrisboulders of concrete, giant springs, pieces of navigation systems. Its a bit of a chilling experience. .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. Say what? 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 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. She believes magic can be found in life and books, loves to watch the stars appear, and still dreams of backpacking the world. Three of the Arkansas launch sites--in White, Van Buren, and Faulkner counties--have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The story behind Colorado's Minuteman missiles and the people at the controls. They dont know where the warhead is, King recalls being told. 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. 2023 Atlas Obscura. More than half of the potential arsenal is in Amarillo, Texas, at the Pantex plant, which will dismantle them. 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]. Airmen Jeffrey Plumb and David Powell were in the silo working on the missile. 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 . 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. Once through the blast doors, visitors enter Level 2, which is the former operations center where the officers would initiate the order to launch the ICBM. The missile not only survived the explosion in 1965, it was the same missile which exploded in 1980 near Damascus. But somethinglater determined to be an elevator malfunctionwent wrong. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. "That's one of the very few things about the Titan IIs that remain classified," he said. He Ended Up With A Titan Ii Missile Silo That Was Decommissioned In Spring Of 1986. What Happens to Pilots That Defect to the U.S.? The missile was more than 100 feet in length and 10 feet wide. While renovating, GT decided to put in a spiral staircase to save space and it adds to the industrial ambiance. I retreated upstairs to enjoy the incredible shower in the master suite and stayed up entirely too late reading a book in bed. Jan 14, 2020. "It's a little weird," Hill said. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. More than 600 miles to the south, the F.E. 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. 5 Specifications. Walking across the gangplank feels something like a sci-fi movie, and my childrens insistence on bringing Star Wars costumes was rather apropos. Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB) was headquarters for the 510th Strategic Missile Squadron of the 351st Strategic Missile Wing, consisting of 150 Minuteman II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos and 15 launch control facilities spread over 14 counties of west central Missouri . It is a long and lonely route. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced the retirement of the Titan II program. Theres a real risk right now. 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. The elevator structure and the launchertons and tons of steel that one witness later likened to red spaghetticame flying from the silo as the test team ran for cover. As if they didn't have enough to worry about. 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. Maps to the LRAFB missile sites Be warned Arkansas Farmers aren't against shooting trespassers! Each of the mammoth doors can withstand 1,000 psi of pressure, Hill said. Many people played a part in creating Arkansas as we know it today. Heres what the terrifying incident was like, from those who were there. There were tons of movie options for children and my kids had a blast watching Paddington on the huge white walls of the silo. 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). 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. Of course, thats just as true on purpose as it is on accident. I have a thyroid condition, Ayala says. "Some people get a little nervous down here. My son was absolutely thrilled to learn how to use the tablet to control the lights in the room. Sid King had just sat down to dinner on September 18, 1980 when he got the call. 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. Bottom: Damascus after the explosion. Nodak, based in Grand Forks, served 55 missile silos around the region. The nosecone from the Judsonia site sits atop a time capsule that will be opened Aug. 17, 2037. 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. [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. After nearly being run over by the sheriff, King and Phillips jumped in their car and took off. 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. However, thanks to the ingenuity and tenacity of one person with a unique determination, one of those missile sites have been renovated into a luxury rental that you can stay in! First Security Bank, Member FDIC. There do remain some active missile silos, in Montana, North Dakota, and at Warren Air Force Base, which is in both Colorado and Wyoming. Today, the area is home to one of the most mind-blowing destinations in the state. From there, we watched a video all about the missile base, the history, and the long and difficult renovation. 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. These are MAJOR nuclear war targets, each one of these silo's will be hit with minimum one warhead with a fairly large yield as part of a Russian counterforce attack. The site is also booked for a wedding later this year. Over its 25 years in the service, the Titan II series had it share of accidents, two of the most well-known occurring in Arkansas. "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.". He gave us a key to Room 20. Delta- 09 was believed to be assigned the name "Cassandra's Missile . Required fields are marked *. 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. [13], Season 4, episode 4 (ep. The united states built many missile silos in the midwest, away from populated areas. 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. Founder, Native American Journalists Association. She has hiked the Inca Trail, walked into Panama on a rickety wooden bridge and once missed the last train of the night in Paris and walked several miles home (with friends). They would meet at the Air Force base in the morning and drive to the missile launch control silo to begin their work day. "So this is purposefully, 'Hey, you're not in a missile silo.' 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. We drove maybe 10 miles before we said anything to each other, King recalls. 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. Part of HuffPost Wellness. The likely missile field, comprising 120 silos that could potentially house weapons capable of reaching the United States mainland, was documented by researchers at the James Martin Center for . 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. 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. A WWII Bomb Has Been Found at the Fukushima Nuclear Site, Dozens of Previously Hidden Nuclear Test Videos Declassified, Uploaded to YouTube, In the 1960s, Telegraph Poles Were Equipped With Nuclear Bomb Alarms, Decades Ago, the U.S. Military Set Off a Nuke Underwater, And It Went Very Badly. All the guys that walked down with their RHFCO suits, I just assumed they were all killed.. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com. 2010 Native Sun News. The Damascus missile complex was at the Southside location, indicated by the red star on the map above. 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. 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. There do remain some active missile silos, in montana, north dakota, and at warren air force base, which is in both colorado and wyoming. You know you're definitely in someplace different, but we wanted to make it nice enough that you didn't think you were in a silo.". The Titans sat fueled and ready to go at a moments noticebut that meant constant monitoring and maintenance. The warhead was found 100 feet from the launch complex. 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. Miraculously, only one person died: Livingston, in a local hospital the day after the explosion of pulmonary edema, sometimes called dry drowning. 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. The team started running the procedure for readying the missile for liftoff. 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 weapons here in Montana are intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs. While researching what was going to be a book about warfare in space, journalist Eric Schlosser heard the story of the Damascus explosion. 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 air turned white and chunks of steel-reinforced concrete fell out of the sky after the fuel ignited. And Mondale then refused to confirm or deny when he was asked about it at the state convention. That's a multimillion dollar project to do anything with it," he said. In the silo, they have a close-up view of the missile from less than ten feet away. This was the first missile site to become operational in Arkansas in 1963. 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. 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. The next morning, my kids enjoyed the donuts Id brought for them and another movie on the projector. The tanks that held the rockets fuel and oxidizers broke open, mixed, and exploded. locate The most common sites have been the . Eric Ayala was topside, at ground level near the silo. 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. A bathroom with a bathtub and a double shower helps break up the circular feel of the LCC's top floor. A compilation of platforms and weapons, the three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad serve as the backbone of America's national security. They stood 103 feet tall and had a range of 9,300 miles. Eighteen were in Arkansas, from which intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nine-megaton nuclear warheads could be launched to strike targets as far as 5,500 miles away. The second airmen survived his injuries, while 21 others suffered injuries from the blast and following rescue operation and cleanup. Despite the criticism, the U.S. appears to be committed to the idea of a nuclear sponge in those five states. They tried to recreate it in an empty silo, and it bounced into the wall. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. Is Russias Only Aircraft Carrier Cursed? The first missile launch facility was located in jersey shore,. 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. Ten years ago, Hill purchased the site that Titan Ranch sits on. [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. 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. No purchase necessary. Lately, many have been closed and the . Two airmen were performing maintenance at Missile Complex 374-7, located 3 miles north of Damascus, the evening of September 18th. 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. "There was metal debris, concrete, all sorts of stuff we had to pull out," he said. Construction on the Minuteman II structures began in 1946. Fueled and ready to go 24 hours a day, Titan IIs could be ready to go at a moment's notice. Frustrated, Mondale had to call Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and pull rank, saying, Goddammit, Harold, Im the vice president of the United States, to find out it was, in fact, carrying a nuclear warhead. Level 3 now serves as the living room and kitchen area. The complexes were grouped together in missile fields. 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. Eventually, it was foundin a ditch about 200 yards away from the silo. The newly formed 308th Strategic Missile Wing oversaw the operation of 18 missile sites, manned by groups of four soldiers 24 hours a day. All rights reserved. Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were developed in response to the Soviet Union achieving nuclear capabilities. Then it faded into relative obscurity. Rex Peters was up to get a blood pressure pill. "Some people feel that the missile had a little bit of a bad omen, if you will.". They were ordered to leave the launch duct when the measurements proved alarmingly high. Today they are still used, although . But the newly constructed test facility was so badly damaged it wasnt worth salvaging. If we hadnt been ordered off, we would have stayed, Ayala says. Christ explained that the deaths were not caused by the explosion itself, but by the rapid loss of oxygen. Devlin and Hukle werent certified to work a hydraulic pump, Devlin recalls, and were unsuccessful in trying to manually open a blast lock door.