Titan Missile Museum, reminder of our of our MAD times

The Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, AZ was an actual ICBM launch site. It had one missile, with a triple-target 9 megaton hydrogen bomb that could travel 6,300 miles. There were 54 such sites in the US during the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) insanity of the Cold War.

The tour was excellent. At the end the guide said no missile was ever launched by the US or Russia during this MAD era  (if ever an acronym fit, it was this one!) because thankfully both sides knew full well what the outcome would be. The purpose of this site was to respond if the US had been attacked.

The photos shows the actual Titan Missile control room. Note the big green spring behind the standing man’s head. The entire room was designed to withstand 18 inches of vertical movement and 12 inches of horizontal movement. Missiles could only be launched after receiving an order that could only be issued by the President. Extraordinary safeguards were instituted to insure a missile could never ever be fired accidentally or without orders. But once launched there was no kill switch because if we knew how to stop then the Russians could possibly have learned how to do the same and redirect it.

The underground missile area had food for thirty days and air for ten days. If after firing a missile, if they had not received orders within ten days, then they could crawl out an emergency exit tube and see what still existed.

The gift shop had a t-shirt with a picture of an exploding a-bomb. The caption said “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Indeed.