That was one of the best museum presentations I have ever seen. If anyone from that museum is reading this - Good Job!

@travelingtom923

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@simonsimard7221

3 жыл бұрын

@@travelingtom923 yes , captivating thank you.

Thanks for doing this whole thing....a handicapped person like me could never have seen this.....thank you!

@travelingtom923

2 жыл бұрын

You are welcome.

I had the good fortune of touring a fully commissioned silo in Rock, KS as a aeronautical high school student in 1973. I seriously don’t know how the permissions were ever given to enter the facility. This is the best tour video ever posted to YT, seems even more detailed than I remember receiving as a wide eyed student. Thank you to all Military Branches for their selfless service to our country. Peace thru Strength pretty much sums it up. God Bless these United States of America 🇺🇸.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I'd like to go back again, just for old times' sake. The friends I made during those years are the only ones who stay in touch, 33 years later.

My first training in the USAF was as a Missile Electrician on Titan II missiles. My first base out of tech school was DM. I caught hell from the instructor at Sheppard one day because I was leaning against that same missile as it lay on it's carrier. He told me to slowly pull my hand away from the missile and watch the skin. I was shocked when it "oil canned out" with a rather disturbing "Ping." I'm still amazed the damn things stand up without being filled with anything.

@danielmarshall4587

5 жыл бұрын

Maybe the old style oiling can..... just a half sphere with a spout that you'd squeeze the flat portion of the sphere to pump oil out of the spout. Then the depressed flat base "pings" or pops back out into shape...?

@paulschab8152

5 жыл бұрын

The skin was very thin on a lot of early rockets. The liquid fuel gave them rigidity.

@livindalife5356

4 жыл бұрын

As a launch crew member on the Titan II at Davis-Monthan, I had the opportunity to lower the work platforms and actually touch the missle and warhead. Never tried to push against the skin. Didn't know it was that thin. It was one big missle.

@Gpacharlie

3 жыл бұрын

The Marine Corps had a similar job. It was called an IFMM. In Flight Missile Mechanic. Truly the “tip of the spear.”

@timmotel5804

2 жыл бұрын

i was stationed at Sheppard in 1972. i didn't even know that they had missile training there until i went to the Titian Missile Museum in Green Valley Az and they mentioned it. The one in the Silo is from Sheppard. I was training as a Power Lineman after my AFSC was changed from "Missile Maintenance Technician". Best Regards

When I was 16 I was privileged to get to go into a Titan Missile Silo with an actual Titan Missile inside. It was amazing! I will never forget it!

Thanks for posting this tour, brings back a lot of memories of pulling alerts in the early 80s.

Obviously AFTER the removal of the digital LES system, which was a HF transmitted signal from the Control Center and received by each of the 18 sites. A “rotating” digital signal with each site having its own digital address. This Launch Enable System had to be activated through the input from the CC.which then passed the 24 volts to the launch panels for launch initiation sequencing. I was the LES maintenance technician at the 18 sites (plus the Wing Command Post) at Wichita. The LES system was replaced long after I left (1967) with a land line (think telephone lines) comm link to accomplish the same thing. I watched looking for the LES panel which was at an angle behind the Mission Commanders console.

This is one fantastically produced video. Thank you for not making comments while filming. You have done an excellent job and I truly appreciate your efforts.

Great video. Whatever you did at 20 minutes made the sound SO much better.

This was excellent! I visited the museum years ago. It was nice to "visit" it again from my living room. Thank you for your attention to detail, such as zooming in on the equipment panels and museum description placards.

I love the engineering that went into the shock absorber system. When I lived in Nebraska I drove by many missile silos. Anybody seen videos of one of those silo re-enforced concrete cover doors being rapidly shoved aside prior to launch? The engineering we use to try and destroy one another is very sobering and impressive.

@insideoutsideupsidedown2218

4 жыл бұрын

bill timmons my understanding was the engineered the control center and silo to withstand 3000 psi, not 300....and what is sobering is the small size of the warheads. Almost unimaginable power.

thank you for the tour. you did a good job filming. this place is on the bucket list to see in person!

Incredibly informative! I learned a lot from your overview, and I have seen quite a few. Your level of detail was phenominal - down to subsystems, seconds, salvo timing. Very well done.

The United States had under ground facilities like this in the 60s,just imagine what they have under ground now!!

@andrewarmstrong7310

4 жыл бұрын

We still have them.

@georgewillems32

4 жыл бұрын

More than you ever can imaging.

@thunderbird1921

4 жыл бұрын

@Ganiscol Yeah, ICBMs are still powerful weaponry, but the sub-launched Trident missiles are a lot harder to detect and can be launched in far more areas around the planet. Hence why a number of ICBM silos are decommissioned now (Russia has done similarly with a number of theirs).

@muzaaaaak

3 жыл бұрын

They’re undersea now in nuclear fast attack submarines. And they’re all over the world, ready at a moment’s notice.

@foxbodyblues6709

3 жыл бұрын

@@muzaaaaak they are in boomers, not the fast attack type subs.

Thank you for the great video and content. The tour guide was either a retired missileer or given the presentation information by one,. He did an excellent job on presenting the information to his target audience. He was very clear in the Titan's mission, explaining the launch process and everything else. I hope you have more videos, regarding missile sites.

Thank you. For folks like myself who are "low vision", this is fantastic. Being able to read the material at the beginning was very enjoyable. Had I been there in real life, it would be difficult if not impossible to read the material and enjoy the display. Thank you.

I was in Tucson and missed a chance to go by here and see this facility ... Thank you to you and the staff for the great tour!

@RiDankulous

2 жыл бұрын

Me, too, I missed visiting. We both saved money though and can watch it all on the internet although the sheer size probably can only truly be experienced seeing it in person.

Thank you for taking the time to create and post this video. I really enjoyed watching it. Perhaps I will have the opportunity to see in person someday.

Was hee a few months earlier in 2017. what a great tour, enjoyed it verry much, keep up the good work

The launch simluation process was really cool to watch

This is pretty cool I don't mind paying taxes after watching this

Thanks so much for posting this. You gave us an excellent look of the facility, feeding our curiosity. Lots of cool stuff to see while listening to the guide.

@travelingtom923

5 жыл бұрын

You are welcome.

I was Titan Two Missle security that is O7 on the nogales route. we had Three sites on this route. O5. O6 and 07. 803 Combat Security Police

This was a great video! it felt like I was actually there. Thank you

Really nice video. We toured the missile site in March 2018, and you did a great job, the cold war was a really scary era. Just one Titan II nuclear missile could incinerate a 50 mile diameter area. As a Cub Scout I remember touring a Nike Missile site in CT.

that brought back some very dear memories of my visit in 2019, thx for posting

@travelingtom923

3 жыл бұрын

You are welcome.

This was before my time. I pulled my alerts at FE Warren from 2003 to 2008 before going back to the schoolhouse.

death with bunny slippers owns a decommisoned unit, it's wild to see what one looks like thats intact.

@SpenserRoger

6 жыл бұрын

Tylenole lmao ya me too. The pour guy didn't know what he was getting himself into. At least his kids think he's cool now though.

@HeavyHaulKen

6 жыл бұрын

His channel is 'Death wears bunny slippers'

@WhitfieldProductionsTV

6 жыл бұрын

and most know whom I was referring too

@landlordchannel

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah, right? It's like buying a wreck of a car and trying to make it a decent ride, all by yourself, haha. Must be really satisfying at the end tho.

@DFWTF

4 жыл бұрын

Who?

When the Titan II started up things were different. We had no butterfly valve controls, and the officers had the keys and decode cookies on a chain around their neck.

@brucebedford5121

4 жыл бұрын

I added a reply to see if I get notified of a reply.

Amazing, thanks so much for sharing this!

The tours used to be given by actual retired AF personal who worked in that silo, but looks like now it's others now giving the tour probably last crews who work at the museum getting too old to work there as the last time it was live missile was 1987 33 years ago those personal are in their late 60's. I live in Phoenix wanted to go there since the 90's wife never wanted to go she has no interest in it should have just gone by myself.

@arturojgtful

4 жыл бұрын

Is your wife maybe my wife's sister?

@silicon212

3 жыл бұрын

That particular site was decommed in 1982, not 1987.

Thank you. Excelent video!

Thanks for the upload.

@travelingtom923

6 жыл бұрын

You're welcome.

Man that's a tight ship! Thanks for sharing

Thank you for sharing this.

@travelingtom923

4 жыл бұрын

You are welcome.

A fantastic tour

Very well done tour , Thanks. Grew during those times , times where you knew that at any moment everything could change for ever . We did drills in school to prepare, all futile of coarse. One can only Imagine the " weapons" that we know nothing about that are out there today.

@travelingtom923

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

It was a fantastic tour, my wife got to sit at that launch console and turn the key.

Awesome your guide. Thank you for sharing

This was fascinating, thanks!

Great video, it is nice they kept one intact for historical purposes! Very impressive when compared to the rusty decommissioned ones we see on internet.

@thunderbird1921

4 жыл бұрын

Indeed. While kind of scary, they are an important part of our nation's history. Good to see this one preserved for the future generations.

Amazing! Such skilled engineering

great place. Travelled over from the UK to see it a couple of years ago.

Thanks Tom for recording all this. I used to work in the Titan II silos @LRAFB when they were active in the 80's. This brought back a lot of memories. This museum is on my bucket list. I think I could easily spend a couple days there seeing all the levels in detail again. :)

@travelingtom923

5 жыл бұрын

You are welcome.

The Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinnville OR has Titan II airframe B-100 in a partial simulated launch duct. They have all three ‘pointy ends’ including Mark 6 reentry vehicle, Gemini Capsule, and Satellite cover fairing.

Visited this a couple years ago Literally still have the tshirt... great tour.

Fantastic Video thank you for your time and effort.

@travelingtom923

4 жыл бұрын

You are welcome.

Its amazing how well perserves that silo is aftet seeing some over the others online

Having read "Command and Control" by Eric Schlosser briefly, this video is a nice additional chunk of information.

I spent my hours of my youth on level 6 repairing and maintaining the MSA.....quite a few hours swapping launch control chassis in the control center as well....31652F '79-'83

Running these tours is the ultimate Retired Dad Job. This guy’s trained his whole life to explain technical things in a folksy yet expert manner, ample opportunities for dad jokes -“ this is not a Winnebago” - vast opportunities to point out the negative ramifications of touching knobs you’re not supposed to touch. This job is the ultimate retired dad flex.

@travelingtom923

3 жыл бұрын

Yes and working there you get to see the entire complex which most people will never see. Must be a fun job.

Great video

Thanks for this TT. Really interesting. Seen some urbex videos on deserted silos but this is the first complete one! Cheers 🍻

Very fascinating Thank You

Sad you weren't able to see Level 1 and 3. It would've been great to see what that looked like in the day.

great video....thanks for filming the guide......some of us will never get the chance to go there

Absolutely fascinating thanks for sharing, I liked that I could scan the qr codes to get more info!

@travelingtom923

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Firstly thanks you for your presentation. You know as a kid growing up in the UK during the 70s & 80s we lived with the threat of nuclear war as a real possibility. It would seem that children of today don't understand the destructive power of an ICBM. When I explain the devastating impact one missile would have they just don't believe it. I can only hope the human race never uses wepons of this nature. Thank you again for your time.

@travelingtom923

4 жыл бұрын

Yes as a child of the 70's and 80's I remember well both Russia and the USA building huge stockpiles of atomic weapons. I was sure at some point we would get attracted by Russia. Many people thought the end of the World was near with MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction. Some great movies came out along this time. Two of my favorites are War games and Spies like us.

@decab8292

4 жыл бұрын

@@travelingtom923 yes I remember both of those movies. "The only way to win, is not to play" and well what can you say about Mr Chase & Mr Aykroyd comical due, exceptional. Thanks for your upload and your time, I would like to wish you and your family all the best for the future.

@rabwoody264

4 жыл бұрын

Wow! Nice to see what the silos looked like before they where turned to scrap, have been watching the after videos, full of water and mud etc ... Also so true about the feelings we had back then I used to come home from work and part of the trip was a view off Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and I honestly my thoughts where IF I saw the mushroom cloud how could I save my family, I very real fear, they looked at me in wonder as I cried when the wall (iron curtain) came down ...

@melmaciandissenter2324

4 жыл бұрын

I don't want to be pessimist, but the situation is worse today. Pakistan has Nukes, and Iran could get some ... The M.A.D. concept worked between somewhat intelligent nations. But what about kamikazes/martyrs in low IQ nations ? :s

Great video. Thanks. I saw the Moscow command tour in the subway.

That was awesome!

Nice video and presentation!

Great tour! Very well documented by the person holding the camera. I'm sure you had to sacrifice viewing some of the items so you could film. We appreciate it! The guide is extremely knowledgable about the subject. Did he mention his background? and 3, 2, 1...SNEEZE! Wow, what incredible timing for that sneeze! Right on the 'Turn' command to launch! 34:12

@brucebedford5121

5 жыл бұрын

I was on crew 43 from 1963 to 66 I was back about 2004 and all guide had T II experience. We are all getting old.

They took out the most important equipment on that level, the TV.

Vidéo très intéressante; merci pour le partage ! :)

If you look at the silo walls, you’ll see boxes in there that look like they have a soft surface on them. That’s because those are boxes that have a soft surface on them.

Great video 👍

Went thru this silo when active in 1968 when was in rotc

Thank you for posting this this is as close to actually seeing it as I will ever get I'm sure because those places are not ADA Compliant very well done

@travelingtom923

4 жыл бұрын

Steve you can take the service elevator to and from the main level. When I left the main level I took the service elevator up, as shown in the video. You should be fine.

Thax man! that's great!

Great video i toured the atlas f site in South Dakota

They also operate the Pima Air Museum on the south side of Tucson.

thank you

Wow, that guide was very knowledgeable! I'm curious to know where/how he learned all of that info and to present it so seamlessly. Was he originally stationed there? Awesome job restoring that site into a museum too! I'm definitely putting this on my bucket list!

I went to the museum in the 90's the ones who gave the tour said they were the last crew to actually man a live missile before it was decommissioned which I think was early 80's.

@travelingtom923

3 жыл бұрын

Still a lot of active missile sites in Wyoming. I believe those are all remote control now.

Thanks for uploading but I did not go. I was in Tucson but it would have been an extra 3 hours or more for me on a big travel day, but also I am being very careful with spending. Same with the Thunderbirds, who were at Davis Monthan air force base. Skipped it, but I have seen quite a bit of air shows in my time. The amount of engineering and money that obviously poured into these facilities is unbelievable. There are clearly very tailor designed equipment throughout the whole facility which most definitely had enormous cost. There are improvements to lower cost I believe, in the minute mans, but those are surely extremely expensive, also.

Wow. thats amazing. once up on a day i want visit this museum, if we do holdiays in the USA

The tour guide is awesome.

What a great tour hello from Australia glad MAD never happened but we did come to one minute to midnight a few times from my reading of cold war history. As karl sagen I think it was said once the cold war was like two people standing in a large pool of petrol one with three matches the other with four .....or something similar

That was my home site. I was a DMCCC

was a MFT at a little rock site , learned about LIFE. Most people i liked

From personal experience in the hole at DM, the practical jokes never stopped. Too many to tell topside and below ground.

they were very lucky to have the elevator still in the silo, most were destroyed

@smw381st

6 жыл бұрын

I used to work on those 2 elevators at each of the 18 sites in Kansas

Just where it belongs. In a museum!

@unclemonster48

3 жыл бұрын

It’s a museum because they have better weapons in space. Energy directed lasers

@markmiller4971

3 жыл бұрын

@@unclemonster48 And "rods from God"

@unclemonster48

3 жыл бұрын

@@markmiller4971 saw a video about that this morning.

I hope that all these silos in US and Russia will be museums some day.

@Eggsr2bcrushed

6 жыл бұрын

Alis Avdagić well that won't happen because most have already been destroyed

“The missile knows where it is at all times, it knows this because it knows where it isn’t…”

Amazing. Looking at the detailed engineering to harden the building they must have really thought a Soviet first strike was a possibility

@chrisdraper5067

4 жыл бұрын

From what I have read - Many politicians tried to prove Titan was a first strike weapon, but the defences say otherwise. At the time, they could not be used publically as proof. I wish a higher power would stike down grandstanding politicians who try to use security silence for their own gain.

ausaaam structure

I was just a lowly Airman along one of the redundant communications chains that fed these silos their orders. It seemed we blew up the world 3 or 4 times a week whether it needed it or not. Thank-God the genuine orders never came. Thank-God...

"Tell me everything you know about target 2" In my head: "If we have to turn these keys, it won't be there much longer"

@scottsherfey1712

6 жыл бұрын

Brad Wilmot. Ient to visit my parents last week. They literally live 1/4 mile away. First thing I when I got there.

@SpenserRoger

6 жыл бұрын

Eddy Q cool any other anecdotal nuggets?

@Leoluvesadmira

4 жыл бұрын

My job is to remove it form the face of the earth if president gave the order

Thanks for the video,Tom. I was a launch crew member at Davis-Monthan AFB 48 years ago. Did they say what site it was? I may have served at that site. It's been a long time since I've been to Tucson and would love to take my family there to show them where I worked. Thanks again!

@travelingtom923

4 жыл бұрын

You are welcome. I would check the website for the details of that site. There was many silos around Tuscon and many are still abandoned.

wow, what a way to make a museum exciting.... Zzzzz

I would love to come visit this place and I would feel right at home :)

@smw381st

6 жыл бұрын

I was there from august 71 to april 74

@smw381st

6 жыл бұрын

I worked in the water treatment, elevator repair, and plumbing shops

@smw381st

6 жыл бұрын

and I lived on the 2nd floor of the dorm building 320

@smw381st

6 жыл бұрын

yeah maybe we didn't and also our shop was in the hangar with the building #1107

I want to visit this place!!!

@compsmith007

4 жыл бұрын

DO IT!! While you're at it, check out the Davis Monthan AFB museum. AND the junkyard tour. And if you do, look up once in a while. F16 and Warthog pilots train in those skies.

In the UK we have ROC bunkers - royal observer core they were manned by volunteers too repart on nuclear fallout and report back on the size of the blast and direction of the missile some of them still exist they are mostly underground and big enough for three crew I have always thought about the people manning these reporting on the end of the world

Ohhh so so awesome Was anything in the control rm active, if I pressed a button would anything happen ???? I love pressing buttons 😁

@robertyork784

4 жыл бұрын

oooooooo dam opppps

@StinkFingerr

4 жыл бұрын

It is discouraged since it would destroy the world.

I'm not a faint-hearted person, but watching the launch sequence at 35:00 while sitting somewhere close to "Target 2" makes me feel a bit dizzy. This is some scary sht right there, if you ask me. It never ceases to amaze me how much thought, effort, and resources we humans put into potentially (and actually) destroying our own species.

@cinematedman

6 жыл бұрын

True, but looking at it another way, the effort and resources put into the design and construction of facilities like this were intended to SAVE our species. Remember, the M.A.D. deterrent worked. If not for silos like this, SAC bombers and nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines (the nuclear triad) and all the thought, effort and resources used for all of these, it's quite likely during the 1950s thru 1980s a foe, the USSR perhaps, or the PRC, might have not thought twice about removing the US from the map if given the chance. They both possessed nuclear weapons and had already killed off millions of their own people in revolutions in their own nations' histories. So, if survival of the species - of planet Earth even - is the goal, these are resources well spent. Very well spent, indeed. And thank goodness for those with the intelligence and skill to have accomplished these tasks. And we can all be thankful they never had to be used. Deterrence works.

@chrisdraper5067

4 жыл бұрын

@Marq LOECSTA - YES! - but you cannot un-invent them! Who would you rather hold that capability?

@markmiller4971

3 жыл бұрын

@@chrisdraper5067 If good people don't step into the power vacuum bad people will.

29:30 1200 miles worth of train cars of TNT that was a fascinating fact

33:20 I’ve been on the tour before but this guide is really good. However I don’t know if there was ever a time when the Titan II’s were supposed to be the first ones to launch (if that’s what is meant). Kaplan’s 1984 book on the RAND Corporation mentions that, as part of “counterforce” planning, almost all of the Titan II’s and submarine based missiles were to be held in reserve and used only as a last-ditch retaliatory weapons against cities (due to their low accuracy) if the earlier strikes against military targets by the Minuteman and bombers could not control the war.

@insideoutsideupsidedown2218

4 жыл бұрын

John Watson the accuracy of the Titan II was actually quite good. The minuteman series were even better, the mm3 can hit a target within 300 to 500 meters of the bullseye

@johnwatson3948

4 жыл бұрын

Depends on what you mean by quite good - using an inertial system no better than used for later commercial aircraft it was calculated to land, at best, somewhere within a couple of miles from its target.

@insideoutsideupsidedown2218

4 жыл бұрын

@@johnwatson3948 a 9 megaton ground strike within 1 or 2 miles if bullseye will obliterate a hardened target. That's why the warhead used was so big. Today's 350kt to 500kt warheads hitting a target within 200-450yards does the same thing

@insideoutsideupsidedown2218

4 жыл бұрын

Also remember the minuteman series was the next generation weapons system that replaced the Titan series, not worked in conjuction with it. As the minuteman 1 missles sites came on line, the Titan II's were phased out, and decommissioned.

@johnwatson3948

4 жыл бұрын

That’s difficult to remember because it isn’t true. Minuteman became active in 1962 with Titan II first active in 1963. Titan II ended in 1987 so they worked in conjunction for 24 years.

It's cool how, even today, they use old tech that can't be hacked. reel to reel computer tape, off line computers, old land line phones and such that be electronically compromised