Wanted to show my dear children what a 9-Megaton ICBM could do
Tour featured above ground exhibits, videos, former crew chiefs and a trip down into the last remaining silo that's now just a static display (and STILL required, by treaty, to keep the blast doors open)
Titan and Atlas came on board at roughly the same time - under Eisenhower i believe
They were our first ICBMs
Titan missile silos were here in Arizona of course - but also in Kansas and Arkansas
One shot - and it was 9-megatons
They went offline in or around 1987 - about the some time Ed Lavender was rockin the goggles and scoring at will (except with Chapman's girl......)
the house we're building is about a 30 min walk to one of the old silos that was decommissioned etc
4 man crew ran the whole silo
2 officers
2 enlisted
The lawyer that I work with at my company was the first female to go into a ICBM silo for the USAF - SAC bases were no damn joke back in the day
You had the airborne command post in the air 24/7 so a counter strike could be coordinated / launched from the skies in the event silos were knocked out
and you had B 52's sitting on many tarmacs with their engines running - ready to scramble at a moment's notice
Fun fact -- for about 13 years --- Titan's had no "safety"
The Air Force had an "HONOR SYSTEM" for launches because a single Airman - could potentially enable and arm the weapon and get it on the way to whatever target was doomed
(the crew only knew they had "Target 1 and Target 2" with the options for airburst/ground burst)
They installed an elaborate system of countermeasures eventually of course
Tour featured above ground exhibits, videos, former crew chiefs and a trip down into the last remaining silo that's now just a static display (and STILL required, by treaty, to keep the blast doors open)
Titan and Atlas came on board at roughly the same time - under Eisenhower i believe
They were our first ICBMs
Titan missile silos were here in Arizona of course - but also in Kansas and Arkansas
One shot - and it was 9-megatons
They went offline in or around 1987 - about the some time Ed Lavender was rockin the goggles and scoring at will (except with Chapman's girl......)
the house we're building is about a 30 min walk to one of the old silos that was decommissioned etc
4 man crew ran the whole silo
2 officers
2 enlisted
The lawyer that I work with at my company was the first female to go into a ICBM silo for the USAF - SAC bases were no damn joke back in the day
You had the airborne command post in the air 24/7 so a counter strike could be coordinated / launched from the skies in the event silos were knocked out
and you had B 52's sitting on many tarmacs with their engines running - ready to scramble at a moment's notice
Fun fact -- for about 13 years --- Titan's had no "safety"
The Air Force had an "HONOR SYSTEM" for launches because a single Airman - could potentially enable and arm the weapon and get it on the way to whatever target was doomed
(the crew only knew they had "Target 1 and Target 2" with the options for airburst/ground burst)
They installed an elaborate system of countermeasures eventually of course