The Cold War - Revisited

The Cold War extended from the end of WW II to 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. During that time, the United States was at war . . . "The Cold War". US stratagy was called "Mutual Assured Destruction". That is, if either side initiated a nuclear strike, the other country had the capability to destroy the opponent. This strategy gave birth to the Inter-Contiental Balistic Missile . . . behomuths of metal, electronics, rocket fuel, and multiple nuclear warheads.

One of the most awesome of these behomuths in the United States assenal was the Titan II Missile which was on alert, at-the-ready, in blast-proof underground silos in 54 locations across the country. These awesome liquid fueled rockets with multiple nuclear warheads stood 103 feet tall, but were buried from view and destruction in these underground silos.

At the end of "The Cold War", a treaty between The United States and the Soviet Union required the dis-mantling of both missles and the silos in which they were protected. All such missles and installations in this country were destroyed except one, all under the watchful eye of scientists from the Soviet Union. With the Soviet Union's approval, that one Titan II Missile and one silo were preserved as a museum near Tucson, Aizona. The missile and the silo are, of course, inoperable.
My long-time friend, Joe Chandler, and I had the opportunity to tour this facility . . . truly "The Cold War - Revisited".
A large metal building in front of the underground silo serves as a Visitor's Center and Museum, where  many exhibits provide an introduction to the events of the time.

The missile silo behind the Visitor's Center is covered in concrete with massive steel blast-proof doors which were designed to roll away for firing of the missile, but today are permanantly blocked from opening more than half way . . . and the Russians monitor this site by satelitte and personal inspections.

The Titan Missile in the silo is shockingly huge. The viewing area was only about ten feet from the warhead which, of course, is a dummy approved by the Russians.

The missile itself is very tall. We only went down to the second level of the silo, where the Control Room is located, but there are eight levels in total. The lower levels were used primarily for fueling and maintenance. This is a photo looking down into the silo from the second level.

We toured the crew's quarters and walked down long blast-proof hallways passing through massive steel doors and 20-30 foot thick walls of reinforced concrete to the Control Room. Everywhere we looked, there was piping and huge electric cables.

The Control Room was awesome . . . a computer room from the 60's with so many redundancies. No crew member was ever allowed to be alone anywhere in the silo, except in the Crew's Quarters. It took at least two crew members to do anything, especially a launch.

The Tour Guide led us through a simulated launch of the Titan Missile, which could be launched within 58 seconds of a Launch Command and be delivered to a target up to 5,500 miles away in less than 30 minutes. Our tour was extremely educational and really, almost kind of chilling to see the world of the 50's and 60's . . . and what could have been.

It really was "The Cold War - Revisited".