![]() ![]() In 1965, the billion-dollar Atlas-F missile program was replaced by more dependable, less expensive Minuteman missiles. One of America’s deterrents were the Atlas missile sites in Nebraska. The Cuban nuclear crisis was averted when the Soviet Union backed down and dismantled its missile sites. Because you aren’t going to live after it.” "If I were you, if you heard there was warheads coming our way. "The launch crews did not know if we were going to have to go to war," Duffy said.ĭuffy called home to tell his family what to do if the Soviets launched nuclear missiles. military on high alert after learning Russia was building nuclear launch sites on Cuba. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba and placed the U.S. "Most of the whole time I was here I was in a missile silo," Duffy said. The Atlas-F nuclear missile could be ready for launch in 15 minutes.Įighty-year-old Dan Duffy of Lincoln was a technician on one of the Air Force launch crews that manned the Atlas sites at the height of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The steel framework within the silo equals the height of an 18 story building and weighed about 1,500 tons. Through three more blast doors is the massive Atlas silo itself, now mostly filled with water. They have, really, I mean, all the basics that you would need." "So they've got hot and cold running water, and they've got an electric furnace as well as a wood burning stove. ![]() "They've got two wells to fill up four 500 gallon water tanks," Mike Figueroa said. The doors open into the two-story living area that used to be the missile site’s command and control center. At the thickest point it looks like it’s probably close to a foot.," Mike Figueroa said. Thirty-feet underground we pass through the first of five steel doors built to protect the Air Force launch team from nuclear attack. Some of the hottest times in the Cold War." "Lincoln had some of the first missile silos ever built in the United States. "Basically when Atlas missiles came along it was this brand new science that the Air Force really took and ran with to supplement their bomber force," Branting said.īranting says the former Lincoln Air Force Base commanded 12 Atlas Missile sites in Nebraska. Who knows? You could be living right next door to a sleeping giant.Cold War historian Rob Branting, a native of Lincoln, is supervisor of North Dakota’s Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Historic Site. If you’re interested in knowing where all the Arizona Titan missile silos are, check out this amazing map. Read on to learn more about this incredible museum and how you can explore a real nuclear missile silo. The site is no longer run by the government but managed by the nonprofit Arizona Aerospace Foundation. More than a collection of Cold War memorabilia, this museum is actually located inside a decommissioned missile silo. The Titan Missile Museum actually has a more formal name: Air Force Facility Missile Site 8. Today, the area is home to one of the most mind-blowing destinations in the state. The missiles were stored in massive underground silos, which were constructed in the early 1960s and closed in the early 1980s. Slumbering just beneath the earth, a silent army of nuclear warheads waited for the outbreak of armageddon during the Cold War. Posted in Arizona Nature Jby Sophia You’ll Never Believe What Unsettling Secret Is Hidden All Over The Arizona Desertĭriving through the quiet desert landscape around Tuscon, Arizona, you would never know you were cruising through what was once among the most heavily guarded sites in the world. ![]()
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