Yesterday,we were fortunate enough to visit the Titan Missile Museum in Arizona. This stands as a historic site commemorating the "cold war". The cold war occurred when weapons of mass destruction of the nuclear varieties were developed by the USA and USSR. Since a launch of a Intercontinental Ballistic Missile with nuclear warhead by either would result in the total destruction of humanity as we know it a stalemate was reached. In order to comply with the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in 1984 all weapons of mass destruction were destroyed. The Titan II site in Arizona is the only missile site of it's kind in the world.
The museum is easily accessible off I-17 in southern Arizona. The entryway and ticketing area has good and very informative displays about nuclear arms proliferation and a timeline of events. On display is hardware used by the Strategic Air Command in the missile site operation. There is a full size mock-up of a warhead as well. There are some good videos as well including one from a Star Trek TNG episode that was filmed here
You are only allowed to visit the site as a part of a guided tour group with the maximum group size of 25. After a brief introduction lecture and video the tour begins. Hard hats must be worn by all those over five feet ten inches in height. I donned my hard hat and was on my way.
Tours are run on a strict schedule. There is a militaristic air about the location and people. our first stop was a look at the fuel station for the missile and the rocket engines. We then looked down on the rocket, missile, all one hundred and ten feet of it inside the silo. We were told how the silo and missile were configured so the Russian surveillance satellites could determine that the missile was harmless. To comply with the treaty all missiles had to be destroyed. Holes were cut in the side of the missile and it was laid on it's side for a number of days so the satellites could get a good view.
We descended underground. Fifty-five steps down. The lower level was visible through the expanded metal steps. Once below we entered the command area through steel-reinforced concrete blast doors weighing three tons each. Naturally everything is painted that pale green that someone once told me was picked by psychiatrists as a soothing color. Once in the control room we were given an explanation of all the electronics of missile control and operating procedures. A prominent sign is this area read "NO LONE ZONE". This meant that you were not allowed in the area alone. After our lecture we participated in a mock launch of the missile. By some quirk of fate I was the launch commander turning the key to launch the missile which carried the equivalent explosive force of a freight train loaded with TNT reaching from Arizona to Kentucky, over one thousand miles! It was quite a kick to play missile commander which in reality would have been an Air Force major or captain. Two officers and two enlisted men manned the site. We entered a long tubular passageway of about ten feet in diameter for our walk to the missile. Upon reaching it we could view the missile through huge windows on the silo wall constructed for this purpose. It was then time to go back up to ground level. They gave us more information about the site and the tour was over. Of course, we had to exit through the gift shop.
The volunteers do a great job here. Our visit was very interesting and informative. And we got great exercise!
More information is available at the Museum website.
