The Titan Missile System

Hey Ray I found it, it was a Nike Ajax site
https://youtu.be/eVqjmcp0POA?t=39

seanbarr said:

We live on Missile Site Rd, just up the street where it was decommissioned before the Titans. Didn’t last long as the method for launching it was way too long.

Read the archives about how the first one rolled into town and stopped in front of a grade school as a “show-n-tell” while 18 y.o. MP boys with M-16’s stood guard. Years later, a pupil who was there recalled that day when all of a sudden, the MP’s raised alarm and hurriedly got the missile on the way to the site and the students quickly ushered back into class. He witnessed a principal grasping a boy’s shirt while scolding at him loudly.

He later met with the boy and asked if he knew what happened. Turns out that the boy took a dare to se if he could throw a rock over the missile. Not quite as the small primitive missile from the earth hit the man made one.


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I live about a mile give or take from "the" Titan (actually a Titan II) site. The one that had an accident in 1980. I wasn't here then. As I understand it, it was a 9.8 Megaton warhead that was ejected from the launch vehicle; had it gone off, this area-as well as about everything within a few miles of here, would have been vaporized and likely uninhabitable for a LONG time. PBS did a documentary about it a while back called Command and Control. Took a while for them to do the story and I mostly stayed out of the documentary aside from letting them park on the field next to the house. But the documentary really hit home. Pretty interesting how a minor mistake can cause a huge problem. Yes the Titan sites are all over the country. There are at least 4 near here including the "famous" one, 54 in total across 3 states. One mentioned, about a mile from here, another site about 15 minutes away, another one about 20 minutes....I would have been right in the middle of the Titans had I lived here when the Titans were around.

I had a link to the documentary on Youtube, but looks like PBS wants you to pay for it now. I have watched it about a half dozen times for free. What in the world???

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!
Mine was a bit more cramped.

Ray, in about 1965 those B-52's were flying out of Kadena Air Base on Okinawa at the rate of one about every 10 minutes it seemed. When they first started bombing Vietnam with those flights it took about a week to get any sleep it was so unsettling!

It wasn't too long, there was so much complaining from the local villages the govt had dozers build high berms built around to reflect the noise up.

It takes a special person to spend months underwater like that,,, CRAZY !!
From one old sailor to another Thank you for your service

We had a Nike missile base just down the road from the farm.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/31/exchange-former-missile-base-hidden-at-pere-marque/

CaveCreekRay said:

Good picture showing why the C-130 is not quite the "truck" everyone thinks it is. These guys are super lucky they made it back. The engine usually fails up and over the wing resulting in loss of the leading edge and most of the lift on that side...

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This was just in the news


https://www.npr.org/2019/12/10/7866...ying-38-people-crashes-en-route-to-antarctica

Don't suppose these guys will be as lucky, but fingers crossed.

I happened to be watching coverage of this fire saw this broadcast live. Tragic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYeJVh1cew

We had fried a starter starting up that morning at Kwaj and were lucky enough to get a "BJ" from another 130. We tucked in tight behind his engines and used his prop blast to start our motor. That was a routine op back in the day. The other Herk was a weather bird with an all female weather observer crew. The last thing they asked was, "Will you respect us in the morning?"

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That's hilarious!