Missile Madness

While on a jaunt to Tucson and beyond with some out of town guests, we stopped at a relic from the near past. For those who don't recall much more about the 80's except the music, the hair (BIG) and some of the crazy fashions (neon shoelaces, shoulder pads, plaid pants and skinny ties), this was a reminder of one of the key flavors of the 1980's for me. All during my high school life, there was endless talk on television, news media and the school, about nuclear annihilation. Great topic for everyday conversations!! It turns out, that there is a site which embodies this philosophy, only 26 miles south of Tucson. Arizona was one of the sites of the Titan II missile silo. So nearly twenty years later, and with a whole lotless concern about nuclear war heads, we proceeded to the site.


The silo that housed the Titan II missile, is nearly fully accessible to the public. You can see the computer room, view the missile (without all the dangerous stuff in it) and the above ground bits. The place is staffed by ex military types who have the information down pat, and are able to answer all questions (except the ones that are classified - so they say). The most interesting part of the day was the effort that the tour guides make what to me was one of the scariest period of my life, just a data dump of information.

I offer you a few photos of our time at the site- it will not give you the flavor of the place, or of the fear that we lived in during the decades prior to them dismantling the Titans. I wondered, while on the tour, how individuals born in the late seventies and after, would view this site.