Though these missiles were judged essential to the protection of the United States, storing and maintaining them proved deadly. 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. The Titan II's earth-shattering payload was 30 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. A look inside Level 3 of the Titan Ranch in Vilonia, featuring the facility's emergency escape tunnel and ladder. tercontinental ballistic missile wing, has the largest number of active fense Council (NRDC) and Hans M. Krisair force weapons. 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. Misiles 46 views. Founder, Native American Journalists Association. The Damascus incident was front page news for at least a few days. Jimmy Roberts and Donald Green saw the explosion. It was the same warhead that had been atop the missile during the deadly Searcy fire 15 years earlier. The missile base I visited, Foxtrot-01, is right there on Google Maps. The tanks that held the rockets fuel and oxidizers broke open, mixed, and exploded. We spent the next 300 miles trying to shoo flies out of interior of our vehicle. After nearly being run over by the sheriff, King and Phillips jumped in their car and took off. What to Know Before You Get Started, 4 Essential Tips for Applying for a Mortgage Online as an MBA Student. Then we realized what it was and started grabbing for masks.. Possibly a fuel leak. Fortunately, its safety mechanisms prevented any loss of nuclear material. It took six years to retire the missiles, demolish the launch ducts and fill in the silos with debris. 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. 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The first Titan II missile in Arkansas was installed in a silo near Searcy in 1963. Required fields are marked *. See. The four men at the silo were blown off their feet. Shannon Seidler, a mechanic near Garrison, North Dakota, has lived on family land housing a nuclear missile silo for his entire life. First Security Bank, Member FDIC. An airman dropped a wrench socket and it fell 80 feet and pierced the thin skin of the rockets first stage fuel tank. Construction on the Minuteman II structures began in 1946. The W53 thermonuclear warhead landed about 100 feet (30m) from the launch complex's entry gate. 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. During the 25-year period of operations, Arkansas experienced two disasters connected to the missiles. 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 first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos arrived on the Great Plains in 1959 when Atlas sites were constructed in Wyoming. Today, theres still a giant hole in the ground, now overgrown and given over to wild animals. Created with Sketch. 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. King decided to hang around. Aerial photographs taken Friday morning showed a gaping hole with smoke drifting from it, and debris scattered over hilly pastureland." "There was metal debris, concrete, all sorts of stuff we had to pull out," he said. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). 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. A bathroom with a bathtub and a double shower helps break up the circular feel of the LCC's top floor. The Titan II Missile program was a Cold War weapons system featuring fifty-four launch complexes in three states. At the end of the 1950s, the United States military began developing the Titans as part of its growing supply of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Titan missile silo disasters. 40 Years Ago, We Almost Blew Up Arkansas. The Pentagon plans to spend $264 billion on its next-generation ICBM program, which . Then it faded into relative obscurity. Top: Vanderberg Air Force Base, for reference. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. The most common sites have been the . But somethinglater determined to be an elevator malfunctionwent wrong. While renovating, GT decided to put in a spiral staircase to save space and it adds to the industrial ambiance. 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. The missiles were stored in massive underground silos, which were constructed in the early 1960s and closed in the early 1980s. file size: 5 MB. Airbnb feels you, so now you can for $324 a night. I enjoyed a cup of coffee in the master suite thanks to the in-room coffee bar and read a few more chapters. We need your stories about the city's hidden corners and unusual places. There are no windows in the space and no inclination that the sun had retreated and the moon was up. 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. "It was designed to remain intact enough to retaliate if necessary.". 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 . We drove maybe 10 miles before we said anything to each other, King recalls. At a station that small, King couldnt afford to specialize. The fire started whena high-pressure hydraulic line was cut by anoxyacetylene torch. The aerozine 50 fuel immediately began leaking into the launch duct. Fuel vapor started to fill the silo. There were tons of movie options for children and my kids had a blast watching Paddington on the huge white walls of the silo. He called the station, and word spread. They were used to launch satellites into space as recently as 2003. Level 3 also contains the facility's emergency escape tunnel and ladder. GT has also set the space up to be able to host DJs and dance parties, for any kind of event. Accepted file types: jpg, png, Max. 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. Arkansas was home to 18 Titan II ICBMs in a missile field located north of Conway. 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 . Matthew Kroenig, a Defense Department adviser during the Trump administration, suggested in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that "the Pentagon should . 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. "That way if there was a nuclear explosion, they always wanted to have one door closed to protect the facility," Hill said. 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. 75) of Scorpion is largely based on this event. Aerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, such that they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. 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. Little Rock, Conway, Searcy, Benton, Heber Springs, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, West Memphis, Batesville, Mountain View, Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, Texarkana, Arkadelphia. The Damascus Titan missile explosion (also called the Damascus accident) was a 1980 U.S. nuclear weapons incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). 7 . Placed on the western edges of the Soviet Union due to their limited range of 2,000 kilometers, the Sandals could . Devlin and Hukle werent certified to work a hydraulic pump, Devlin recalls, and were unsuccessful in trying to manually open a blast lock door. They told of groping around in total darkness, hearing the screams of co-workers: "Men were screaming and crying. 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 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. [2][12] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 2000. Nodak, based in Grand Forks, served 55 missile silos around the region. While researching what was going to be a book about warfare in space, journalist Eric Schlosser heard the story of the Damascus explosion. Be sure to fill out all the fields in order to have yours selected. He excavated the entrance to the LCC, opening the door to the facility in October 2010. Hed worked on the Manhattan Project and had retired to Damascus after years in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Each launch complex contained underground operational offices as well as living quarters for a staff of four. This wasnt the first time; in most instances, it hit the platform. NORTHERN WELD COUNTY If it weren't for the 184-foot tall antenna tower stretching far above the prairie, many . "People who stay here do so willingly, and they have a blast.". Happy #EmployeeAppreciationDay! 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. While I wouldnt recommend this for small children, its certainly a bucket list-worthy experience for adults and older children. Twenty years ago Kansas, Arkansas and Arizona were littered with nuclear missiles, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. "So this is purposefully, 'Hey, you're not in a missile silo.' Feeling very unwelcome we decided to try reaching Limon, Colorado, before dark. 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. Sid King had just sat down to dinner on September 18, 1980 when he got the call. Where's this story? "You could dump dynamite in the bottom, light it off, and these doors would just keep on going," Hill said. Nuclear weapons are just ideal for that., The next nuclear bomb to go off will not be delivered by a missile. Its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material or nuclear detonation. [18], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}352451N 922350W / 35.4141N 92.3972W / 35.4141; -92.3972. If you saw footage from the massive explosion in Beirut this past August, King says, you saw what he saw that morning. The high water table in Arkansas meant that without regular maintenance the bottom of the facility was prone to flood with groundwater. Hill said he had no plans to excavate the silo in the immediate future. Titan Ranch missile control center comes with a full kitchen, stocked with drinks refrigerator, and a massive projector equipped with multiple movie streaming options along with some saved movies. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. So the Titans stayed in placeand demonstrated time and again their peril. It was used for the Gemini project, which launched men like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Jim Lovell into space in the 1960s. Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. In 1965, dozens of people died after a fire started in a Titan II silo in Arkansas. Using decades-old U.S. Air Force training footage, re-enactments and drone . 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. In 1981, by Presidential order, all 54 of these missile silos were to be dismantled and abandoned by 1987. 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. Miraculously, only one person died: Livingston, in a local hospital the day after the explosion of pulmonary edema, sometimes called dry drowning. 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. which pertains to intellectual property restrictions (e.g., copyright and A 1961 decommissioned Atlas-F intercontinental ballistic missile silo complex is for sale. The facility's master bedroom, on Level 1, features a king-sizedbed and remote controlled fireplace. "It's all illuminated. Two years earlier, a trailer at Damascus leaked oxidizer, the component that mixes with rocket fuel to propel a rocket into space or toward a strategic target. What Happens When a Giant Nuclear Missile Accidentally Falls Back Into Its Silo. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the START Treaty in 1991. Jan 14, 2020. Of course the flies didn't swarm on us until we opened the tailgate and started to prepare our lunch. For a one-night stay, I would recommend bringing all of your own food. Mondale and Jimmy Carter lost their bid for re-election in 1980. No purchase necessary. Its a bit of a chilling experience. And around 3:05 a.m., all hell broke loose, he tells Popular Mechanics. But this never happened. 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. Tell Us About the Most Amazing Parts of Tulsa, Oklahoma! 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. "If we built rooms, it would kind of take away from 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. After a decommissioned Titan II missile silo in Arizona was sold in just two weeks late last year, two more desert silos . 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. Originally, the launch control center had standard steps to reach multiple levels. The first Titan II missile in Arkansas was installed in a silo near Searcy in 1963. A compilation of platforms and weapons, the three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad serve as the backbone of America's national security. On the night of September 18, 1980, a Titan II missile carrying a thermonuclear warhead exploded in rural Arkansas. However, a new threat arose from the growing heat inside the silo. You don't know who you were killing. Sequential photographs showing the launching of the Titan II ICBM weapon firing from underground silos, circa 1965. They realized it was way worse, not worse than we felt it would be, but probably worse than a lot of other people thought, Devlin says. 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 . It is a long and lonely route. The missile was not armed at the time. The state is armed with 150 nuclear missile silos that form a . 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. Titan II rockets were adapted to use in the space program and launched the first Gemini manned missions in the early 1960s. On Sept. 19, 1980, a silo near Damascus, Arkansas, exploded, killing one airman. It takes a certain mental toughness. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. 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 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. And Mondale then refused to confirm or deny when he was asked about it at the state convention. (AP) For about 10 hours in 1980, the United States faced a nuclear threat of its own making after an airman performing maintenance on a Titan II missile dropped a 9-pound socket 70 feet, ripping a hole in a fuel tank and leading to an explosion that propelled a 9-megaton warhead out of the ground. The site was closed, and President Ronald Reagan chose to retire the Titan II missile program, announcing his decision a year after the Damascus Titan II missile explosion. Ten years ago, Hill purchased the site that Titan Ranch sits on. But spend any amount of time here and you'll forget that you're underground," he said. King remembers sitting on the hood of a sheriffs car, aimlessly slipping his shoes on and off. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. 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. That night, the only clue we had that it was way past bedtime was our fatigue. The first launch complex completed was situated near Pangburn northwest of Searcy, going operational on July 31, 1962. The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. The second airmen survived his injuries, while 21 others suffered injuries from the blast and following rescue operation and cleanup. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. The complexes were grouped together in missile fields. These ICBMs were fueled with Aerozine 50, which allowed the fuel to stay in the missile while stored in its silo. 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. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. It was time-consuming and costly, but thanks to GTs determination to recover and preserve some history, you can experience it firsthand by touring or staying the night at Titan Ranch. Lately, many have been closed and the . "Two officers would each turn a key, and 58 seconds later the Titan II would be out the door," Hill said. We backed out of the room quickly and asked for another room. "We could excavate it, but if you think about it, it's like, 'Why?' 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). Itll be in a port in a shipping container or something like that.. 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. How far is it from Rockyford to Limon? You may also know that it was an important location during the Cold War, a difficult time in the US and World History. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. 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]. The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. [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. Illustration: Ada Amer/Background image: Public Domain. Within a couple hours, there was a crowd of about 25 to 30 journalists and law enforcement personnel gathered just outside the gate. Senior Airman David Livingston, one of the two airmen on the scene, died from injuries sustained during the explosion. The idea is no longer to win a nuclear war, but to prevent one from starting, Chuck Penson, who recently retired as historian for the Titan Missile Museum in Arizona, tells Popular Mechanics. As was the case with the Pangburn disaster, the explosion at the Damascus launch site resulted from routine maintenance work. 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. A civilian crew was working throughout all nine floors of the missile silo, which plunged 150 into the ground. Around 1 a.m. on September 19, they watched a helicopter and a bus full of people enter the base. Despite the criticism, the U.S. appears to be committed to the idea of a nuclear sponge in those five states. 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." If the Soviets had missiles, then the Americans needed them, too. He Ended Up With A Titan Ii Missile Silo That Was Decommissioned In Spring Of 1986. 2023 Farmers Bank & Trust. "We never wanted to build rooms," Hill said, referring to the circular layout and feel to the LCC. 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 process was eye-opening, and a great history lesson. They stood 103 feet tall and had a range of 9,300 miles.