{"id":3249,"date":"2018-04-01T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/?p=3249"},"modified":"2018-03-31T22:28:21","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T05:28:21","slug":"titan-ii-missile-silo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/2018\/04\/01\/titan-ii-missile-silo\/","title":{"rendered":"Titan II missile silo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I had read there was a Titan II ballistic missile silo about a 30-minute drive southwest of our campground and I just had to go see it early Saturday morning.\u00a0 Kathy begged off and I drove there to see if I could get in a tour at the last minute.\u00a0\u00a0 I got there just as a tour was getting briefed for the procedures to go in and they allowed me to join it.<\/p>\n

Turns out anyone 6′ or over must wear a hard hat while\"\"<\/a> underground. \u00a0 Thankfully I did as told, I hit a few steel beams when I forgot to duck.\u00a0 I didn’t realize people where that short during the 1960’s, I always thought that we were talking hundreds of years ago. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

This was a really cool tour, and it’s the only Titan II missile silo left.\u00a0 All the others were destroyed after the new generation of missiles were deployed.\u00a0\u00a0 I was surprised the command center was not very far underground, about 55 steps down,\u00a0 especially when they mentioned the warhead it carried was a 9 Megaton hydrogen bomb.\u00a0 If ground burst, it would make a crater 500+ feet deep.\u00a0\u00a0 It appears they did not expect them to be directly hit by a similar sized weapon.<\/p>\n

The underground site was sealed off by sets of massive heavy and thick doors.\u00a0\u00a0 Everything in this silo looked to be in perfect condition.\u00a0 No rust to be seen, yeah it was in Tucson so that makes sense.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>The control room was mounted on large springs that you could see around the perimeter.\u00a0\u00a0 They explained that the previous generation of missiles took over 45 minutes to launch once they got the launch order from the President due to not being able to keep them fueled due to the volatility of the liquid oxygen fuel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They \"\"<\/a>would probably all have been destroyed by a first strike as we only had about a 15-minute \"\"<\/a>advance notice of incoming missiles back then.<\/p>\n

These new Titan missiles fixed that issue having a different fuel mixture allowing them to be kept fueled up 24\/7.\u00a0\u00a0 A launch could \"\"<\/a>happen within 58 seconds of receiving a launch order with the Titan II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I believe they told us all these sites were decommissioned in the late 1980’s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The actual silo was accessed thru a very long corridor. \u00a0 There were a couple of large open bay doors to allow a view of the missile \"\"<\/a>from a couple vantage points. \u00a0 They also mentioned that the tours on the 3rd Saturdays included a visit down to the bottom of the silo. \u00a0 Unfortunately I was there on the 4th Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

I would highly recommend a visit to this museum if you are in the area.\u00a0 It was fascinating.<\/p>\n

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I had read there was a Titan II ballistic missile silo about a 30-minute drive southwest of our campground and I just had to go see it early Saturday morning.\u00a0 Kathy begged off and I drove there to see if I could get in a tour at the last minute.\u00a0\u00a0 I got there just as … <\/p>\n

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