But the newly constructed test facility was so badly damaged it wasnt worth salvaging. More than 600 miles to the south, the F.E. The team started running the procedure for readying the missile for liftoff. 75) of Scorpion is largely based on this event. Print Headline: The Titan missile silo disasters. A total of 21 people were injured. Driving up to the ranch, you would never guess that youre headed to an underground missile silo. 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" The 390th Strategic Missile Wing, headquartered at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, was active from 1962-84 and had command of the 18 sites in Southern Arizona. The United States built many missile silos in the Midwest, away from populated areas. However, a new threat arose from the growing heat inside the silo. This left the powerful nuclear warheads exposed to attack. The Titans sat fueled and ready to go at a moments noticebut that meant constant monitoring and maintenance. The missile was installed later that month at the Albion site, northwest of Searcy, Ark., but not active until May. 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 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. That's how far it is from Rockyford to Limon. We hurriedly put our food away, closed the hatchback and put some distance between ourselves and the pasture. 5 Specifications. Three years later the Pangburn launch site was rocked by an explosion which killed 53 of the 55 contract workers doing maintenance work. 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. Eventually, it was foundin a ditch about 200 yards away from the silo. But the site King and Phillips were driving to in their company Dodge Omni was worse. I was living out of state at the time, but the disaster was covered in depth by the national press. The first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos arrived on the Great Plains in 1959 when Atlas sites were constructed in Wyoming. I just hope it doesnt hurt., After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Kennedy could be heard on the radio saying, Im dying.. Eric Ayala was topside, at ground level near the silo. The large master bed appears to be floating above the floor, thanks to a creatively designed cantilever. After a half hourthey could only stay in the silo that long because of their oxygen tanksthey came back up. It took six years to retire the missiles, demolish the launch ducts and fill in the silos with debris. But the investigative crew was in a holding position for a while, and finally, around 1 a.m., Devlin and Hukle went into the silo. "So you work on things when you can. 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. There are not many food options close by, and besides, who else can say they cooked themselves dinner in a missile silo launch control center? The story behind Colorado's Minuteman missiles and the people at the controls. The next, they were bracing against an explosion that destroyed the facility beyond repair. If we hadnt been ordered off, we would have stayed, Ayala says. A look inside Level 3 of the Titan Ranch in Vilonia, featuring the facility's emergency escape tunnel and ladder. Many were built in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Today they are still used, although . Launch Complex 374-7 was located in Bradley Township, Van Buren County farmland just 3.3 miles (5.3km) NNE of Damascus, and approximately 50 miles (80km) north of Little Rock.[3][4]. 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. 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. locate They stood 103 feet tall and had a range of 9,300 miles. Dig for Fossils in Northeast Texas. 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. That night, the only clue we had that it was way past bedtime was our fatigue. I retreated upstairs to enjoy the incredible shower in the master suite and stayed up entirely too late reading a book in bed. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused! Created with Sketch. https://www.dimoc.mil/resources/limitations, Livingston reentered the silo to carry out the order and shortly thereafter, at about 3:00 a.m., the hypergolic fuel exploded likely due to arcing in the exhaust fan. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. We spent the next 300 miles trying to shoo flies out of interior of our vehicle. 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. Titan Ranch is located in Vilonia, Arkansas, just northeast of Conway. "If we built rooms, it would kind of take away from it.". The AirBnB listing even drew the attention of a couple central Arkansas musicians, who filmed three music videos inside the facility. Arkansas was home to 18 Titan II ICBMs in a missile field located north of Conway. Jan 14, 2020. The Pentagon plans to spend $264 billion on its next-generation ICBM program, which . The unique Cold War-era relic is part of an 11-acre Kansas lot on the market for $380,000. The nuclear warhead was also ejected from the missile silo. Around 1 a.m. on September 19, they watched a helicopter and a bus full of people enter the base. But it doesn't come cheap at $600 a night but only if you can . All rights reserved. Answer (1 of 19): Used to be in the middle of the countrywhere they were safer from sneak attacks. Part of HuffPost Wellness. Fuel vapor started to fill the silo. "It was designed to remain intact enough to retaliate if necessary.". The film was broadcast by PBS as part of its American Experience series. "Basically, what your smart phone can do today, the bottom floor of the launch control center did back then," Hill said. The 308th Strategic Missile Wing was created and operated from the base, overseeing the missiles, [], Your email address will not be published. However, the missile sites represented only 3 percent of the cooperative's annual sales of $26 million, according to a . After a decommissioned Titan II missile silo in Arizona was sold in just two weeks late last year, two more desert silos . NORTHERN WELD COUNTY If it weren't for the 184-foot tall antenna tower stretching far above the prairie, many . Slumbering just beneath the earth, a silent army of nuclear warheads waited for the outbreak of armageddon during the Cold War. The entire motel was quite ramshackled and we entered number 20 with trepidation. Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. When in service, the 110-foot long, 10-foot wide Titan II missile carried the largest warhead the United States military ever placed on an ICBM. 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 station called King while he was eating at sales representative Tom Phillipss home. (Not coincidentally, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee at the time the missiles were installed was Arkansas Democrat Wilbur Mills.) While researching what was going to be a book about warfare in space, journalist Eric Schlosser heard the story of the Damascus explosion. 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. On September 19, 1980, a second tragedy struck the 308th Strategic Missile Wing. Air Force crews reacted quickly to the disaster, putting out fires and searching for survivors. Fortunately, the situation stabilized and the grim task of removing the bodies began. "From a weapon of mass destruction to hosting birthday parties and weddings, that's pretty wild ride," Hill said. It was the loudest explosion Id ever heard in my lifebefore or since, Devlin says. It had happened before. Perhaps most famously, as the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser recounts in his book Command and Control . A projector turns the far wall into a giant screen for movies or events, and a raised platform creates a bar area and kitchen space overlooking the floor along the other wall. The control room space sits on level two of an internal, solid steel birdcage structure. The missile could launch in 60 seconds, without the cumbersome raising and fueling procedures the Atlas and Titan I models required. When the socket fell, it plunged 70 feet to pierce the side of the . The man behind the counter actually looked like a street person, a homeless man. It was still dark outside early the next morning when we dropped the room key in the office mailbox and boogied down the highway eager to get back to good old Rapid City. Livingston lay amid the rubble of the launch duct for some time before security personnel located and evacuated him. In a Sept. 12, 2014 photo, Teri Kramer points out an escape hatch over from www.washingtontimes.com. Theres a unique history surrounding Little Rock, Arkansas that you may not know about. [5], A 1988 television film, Disaster at Silo 7, is based on this event. On the way up, Livingston and Kennedy were told to turn an exhaust fan on. Investigations including a congressional inquiry delved into the Damascus tragedy. KGFL, Sid Kings radio station, had a daytime-only license, but this was a big enough exception that King was on the air by 3:30 a.m., telling everyone to get the hell out of there. By 4 a.m., the studio was full of people and a flurry of activity. Since it was very hot outside I asked this cadaver of a man, "What's the temperature." Its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material or nuclear detonation. The missile sites in Arkansas fanned out from the base into Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Van Buren and White counties. Misiles 46 views. The situation was critical. Christ explained that the deaths were not caused by the explosion itself, but by the rapid loss of oxygen. Sequential photographs showing the launching of the Titan II ICBM weapon firing from underground silos, circa 1965. The facility's master bedroom, on Level 1, features a king-sizedbed and remote controlled fireplace. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. The military continued to use Titan rockets as part of its intercontinental ballistic missile program through the 1980s, and this was not the only dramatic incident involving them. This wasnt the first time; in most instances, it hit the platform. The blast completely destroyed the silo and sent the 750-ton silo door . The air turned white and chunks of steel-reinforced concrete fell out of the sky after the fuel ignited. The countdown to launch started and thenright before the signal to ignite the rocket would have been givenit was stopped. 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! Level 3 also contains the facility's emergency escape tunnel and ladder. 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. We need your stories about the city's hidden corners and unusual places. Though these missiles were judged essential to the protection of the United States, storing and maintaining them proved deadly. Incredible Active Missile Silos In Arkansas Ideas. They were Titan II missile silos that housed nuclear weapons on a Gemini rocket, designed to be launched into space in under one minute. At about 1 p.m. the launch duct was suddenly filled with intense heat and billowing smoke." 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. but I couldn't see him." 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. 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. And Mondale then refused to confirm or deny when he was asked about it at the state convention. The 18 Arkansas Titan II sites were a third of the total Titan II fleet in service from 1963 until 1984. 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. The Air Force also chose two other states to site Titan II missiles: Arizona and Kansas. It is eerie to see military vehicles and military personnel going to and from these scary silos in the middle of wheat country. Phew!We decided not to drive 14 hours back to Rapid City as we did on the trip down, but to stop about half way and spend the night. As Jackie waved her hands around my head trying to chase the flies out of the window, cars passing us must have thought she was a woman gone mad who was assaulting the driver. It was dank and smelled of fresh vomit. 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 . Feeling very unwelcome we decided to try reaching Limon, Colorado, before dark. Crews of four men would work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off. 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. Today, the area is home to one of the most mind-blowing destinations in the state. They were Titan II missile silos that housed nuclear weapons on a Gemini rocket, designed to be launched into space in under one minute. [2], At daybreak, the Air Force retrieved the warhead,[9][10] which was returned to the Pantex weapons assembly plant. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1990. "So this is purposefully, 'Hey, you're not in a missile silo.' 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. Arkansas, and involved the missile exploding after the first-stage Aerozine fuel tank was punctured by a tool which fell from a maintenance platform near the top of the missile. Also some used to be in Arkansasthe Titan or Atlas missilesuntil one blew its fuel loadbecause of a dropped wrenchand threw its payload quite a distance. U.S. From 1963 to 1987, crews maintained the missiles on 24-hour alert and were ready to initiate launch within minutes after receipt of authenticated orders from the National Command Authorities. The United States quickly developed a second model of ICBMs called Titan. 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. His 4-year-old great-granddaughter held the calf in the passenger seat, trying to hug it back to . There was a lot of white smoke, Ayala tells Popular Mechanics, but it was hydrazine.. Missile nosecones from Titan IIs in Arkansas are dismantled. 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].