Visiting the Last Titan II Nuclear Missile Silo

Just south of Tucson, Arizona in Green Valley is the last remaining missile silo for the Titan II missile, the largest nuclear ICBM ever deployed by the United States. There were once 54 of these silos around the country, with the sole purpose of mutually assured destruction in the event the country was ever attacked by nuclear weapons.

Now, this silo and it's command bunker have been turned into the Titan II Missile Museum, and visitors can visit the once top secret command bunker and silo.

Because of arms treaties, the missile silo doors are locked in a state of being half open, to show any satellites passing overhead that the silo is not operational. The open silo gives us a rare chance to look inside, to see a place that could have helped bring about the end of the world as we know it.

This missile silo was in operation from 1963 to 1984, and visiting is like taking a step back in time.

In this video we walk around the outside of the silo before taking a tour of the command bunker (including a rare look at the living quarters) and the missile silo.

The Titan II Missile Museum is located at 1580 W Duval Mine Rd, Green Valley, AZ 85614

[saxophool]

I took the tour last year. The young tour guide was unbelievably knowledgeable about every detail of the operation. Definitely worth a stop even if you just took the tour with Steve. 😊

[chuckputnam]

Woo Hoo! I am a Titan II alumni, having been an Electronics and Guidance maintenance technician serving at Mc Connell AFB, Kansas. I visited the Titan II museum a few years ago. It brought back so many memories.

[flashbazbo]

I pulled alert there as a Crew Commander when I was a kid, back in 1979. My home site was 571-5 down south east of this site. People get all excited about "hypersonic" weapons. This thing was hypersonic back in the 50's. They advised us that every site was triple targeted by the Russians. One high altitude air blast (50, 000 feet) to soften the earth up and then two ground burst weapons. The running joke amongst crews was, it wasn't the initial blast that would kill you but the fall to the quarter mile deep crater in the earth created by the fireball hotter than the sun. Behind the site is a giant copper mine. The mine used to lay explosives all day and then, in the early morning, between shifts when everyone was accounted for and away from the blast area, they'd set off a couple tons of dynamite for the next days mining. This blast would set the old guidance system off kilter and the missile would go off alert for a few minutes. SAC didn't like that so they offered to buy the copper mine. The mine responded, "How much do you want for your missile site?" The later Carousel II INS guidance system wasn't bothered by the blasts. If you stood on the silo door, you could see a 7-11 across the road and the roofs of houses nearby. Green Valley is a big retirement community. My new wife and I bought a house while stationed there. The loan lady asked me a bunch of questions about my employer and job title. When she got to job description, I responded, "Global nuclear destruction." She said, "I'll just put missile duties..." Lol. My tour was during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Periodically, they would de-fuel a missile and replace the airframe with a spare. This de-fueling-refueling operation was time consuming and highly dangerous for the crews. One week, during pre-departure briefing when we had the Vice Wing Commander about to give us a pep talk before alert, all 18 crews started softly banging their coffee mugs on the desks, chanting, "parking lot...Parking Lot...PARKING LOT!" hinting to the boss that we could end the Iranian crisis in 30 minutes and save the hassle of the refueling operation. He smiled and told us to "Quiet down boys..." Who said SAC had no sense of humor? This particular site had a hilarious Crew Log detailing much of the drama and goofiness going on at the base and on the cover was a drawing of the site as a space ship 'ala Star Trek. All the entries were in Star Dates and it was hilarious. Sadly, it got round-filed. Amazing today, many young people don't want the responsibility of a drivers license. At 25, I was a Titan II Launch Crew Commander.

[gardenparty]

Thanks for the tour. Minuteman, Titan, & Bomarc trained, Chanute Tech school 1967.

[SilverSergeant]

I was a Titan II launch crew member (BMAT) from 1978-1987 at Little Rock AFB, AR. I visited this museum in 2017. The tour experience is as real as it gets. It took my mind back 30 years .... But 18 days survival? I always thought we had enough rations for a

[muchfab]

A good friend of mine worked on this site. He told me it took 36 straight hours to pour the concrete. The one thing I remember when I took the tour back in the 80's was the "fail safe" security of one person not able to push the 2 red launch buttons at the same time because they were out of reach of each other. Thanks for the tour.

[abbert]

Living in Arizona for only the past 7 or 8 years, I find your channel so interesting and informative please, keep up the good work!

[Acceleronics]

Your comment about 3 minutes to get from A to B reminded me of a story told by my coworker at Hughes Aircraft in Colorado back in the 1980s. During his first visit to "the site", which is where the ground station communication equipment we were designing would be installed, he cut across the grass to get from the parking lot to the building door. He said that soon after he deviated from the designated path, a 20 year old "Barney Fife" pushed him to the ground and was pointing an M16 at the back of his head, and asking why he did not stay on the path. Must have been exciting!

[JP-subp]

3:22 "... please remember I'm not a rocket surgeon." <-- Worth a thumbs-up all by itself.

[mobiltec]

I was in the Air Force in the early 70s and worked in one of these. Brought back a lot of old memories. Thanks for the tour. We also traveled around and worked at Minute Man silos.

[KBYAF]

Thanks for the tour Steve. My wife and I have been there and even she said it was the most fascinating place in all of Tucson. I am a ham radio operator and that huge disk-cone antenna is awesome. D. Oh, and while you are in the Tucson area, don't forget to visit the Desert Museum near Old Tucson. Also, go take the Sabino Canyon tour and hike.

[thanksph]

Great video! I came here because I'm reading Command & Control which of course involves the Titan II rockets.

[JohnCouch-mf]

Thanks Steve for another great tour! I've always wanted to check this place out and now even more. Great history and education as always included with todays production, thank you so much for making Wednesday mornings worth waiting for! Keep up the good work and see you next week!!!

[Javelina_Poppers]

The missile museum and silo tour is a must for anyone. I was in the Air Force in the 70s and had a kind of shirt tail connection to them, I was in NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Complex outside of Colorado Springs. Many of the people I worked with were former missileers and all wore their "pocket rocket" badges with pride.

[xifled]

Brought back a lot of memories from my life underground in the 80’s. My wife and I will be visiting the museum at the end of the year so she can see what I did or didn’t do for a living. I always told my family I got paid not to do my job. Thanks for the video.

[steffenrumpel]

The missile head/cone compared to the model (2:21) did give a decent impression of how huge the whole thing is.
Thanks for taking the time to share.

[ernestjenkins]

I was McConnell and was on afew of the sites. We were maintenance people who maintained the oxidizer and fuel trailers.

[Proto]

Been here 30 years ago and 5 years ago with my daughters. Abosolutely amazing. Great look into our history. Thanks Steve.

[loucatozzi]

I visited this museum about 10-12 years ago and it looks just as good to me now as then. They have maintained it well. It was a sobering reminder of the world our parents lived thru, duck and cover exercises in school, etc. However, I have even better reminder of this world now as one of my boys serves on a ballistic missile submarine. Visiting the Titan Missile Museum with it's one disarmed missile and launch control system is interesting but walking thru the missile silo area of his sub with it's 24 missile silos that contain an unspecified number of very much armed and ready to launch missiles is quite another. I was totally amazed that they let family of crew members even near the sub, let alone allowed to get a stem to stern tour of almost every portion of the sub. We were not allowed to enter or even see the radio room, the launch control room, or the reactor spaces. Everything else was open and available, just no phones or cameras allowed.

[Steve-owjt]

Hey Steve

I loved the informative tour of the Titan 2 missle silo. Was quite different from the one I toured at Ellsworth Air Force base in Rapid City South Dakota. Looking at the technology of that era compared to today seems so ancient. Truly a great video. Will be waiting for next week. Until then stay safe and God bless.

Steve in Oklahoma