The Titan Missile System

[skeets]

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

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Cool! Those sites were all over the country.

The later models of the Nike had nuke warheads and there were batteries above Burbank, CA, Northeast of San Jose, and east of Berkley, CA. They finally closed them down in the 70's.

Evidently there was a missile command facility in the hills over Brentwood, CA, west of Hollywood. It may have controlled the battery north of there in the mountains above Burbank...

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-07-01-me-20296-story.html

 

[lugbolt]

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.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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???

 

[KHW59]

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

 

[CaveCreekRay]

DITTOS!

Yeah, I got to go home after 24 hours and had a mandatory two day off Crew Rest & Relaxation before another alert.

You guys were on 24/7 for months.

I was at a class in February with a buddy and we met a guy who was a submariner. I was a missile guy and my friend was a B-52 pilot. We had all three forks of the triad together for a day.

Small world. Small group.

 

[D2Cat]

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.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Nothing like 8 turbojets running in close formation over your house to keep you awake...

The B-1 has four engines with burners. At Dyess, there was an old farmhouse right off the end of the runway. A news reporter showed up one day and asked the old occupant if the noise bothered him. He didn't answer. She eventually realized he was deaf. After writing back and forth, he explained he liked the feeling of the jets going over because it was the closest thing to hearing he had experienced since his deafness began. And, it made him proud...

 

[skeets]

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

 

[CaveCreekRay]

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...

 

[Bmyers]

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/

 

[sheepfarmer]

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...

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.

 

[Lil Foot]

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

 

[CaveCreekRay]

The firefighting loss was because a huge wing crack went unnoticed until they hit turbulence in and around the fire drop. As you could see in the video, both wings departed the aircraft. You can only bend metal so many times before it breaks.

Many countries operate older 130's that have come out of US service. Whether the props lose a blade or something else catastrophic happens, there is often no trace left to discern the cause if it happens over open ocean. This was mid-Pacific between Kwajelein Island and Hawaii.

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?"

Teamwork. It what gets stuff done.

 

[Lil Foot]

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?"

That's hilarious!