Reid sent this piece from the NYT on "nuclear tourism", where the tourist visits such things as the Trinity site and a missile silo in Arizona.
On some bizarre principle of confronting one's nightmares such things have always appealed to me. I have been to Trinity site, twice..
I also used to see the little fenced plots with silos in them-- "rocket ranches"-- when I hunted on the Montana plains. You did NOT touch the fences.
At Trinity, I once saw a bunch of peace demonstrators with a statue of Shiva-- referencing perhaps Oppenheimers' statement quoting him: "I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds".
A ranch woman walked by with her little kids and said: "See, that's what radiation does-- gives you extra arms and legs".
UPDATE FROM REID
Steve and I had an e-mail exchange on "rocket ranches" in parallel with Steve putting up this post, that he suggested I paste in here.
Reid:
I have some archaeology friends who stumbled into the fence around a silo while conducting a survey in Missouri back in the early 80s and got picked up by the Air Police. Took them half a day to explain their way out of trouble.
Steve:
Happened fairly often in Montana with out- of- state hunters I think!
Reid:
In 1978 I was driving on a rural road in western Nebraska (just north of Sidney) on my way to do an archaeology survey. I saw flashing police lights in my rear view mirror and pulled to the side of the road. It was a convoy of Air Force vehicles: two jeeps full of armed Air Police preceded a large semi-truck and trailer which was followed by two more jeeps full of Air Police. A Huey Cobra helicopter gunship was escorting overhead.
One of the Air Police jeeps pulled over behind me and the APs got out and surrounded my car, M-16s held at port arms. I was tempted to say good morning, but was being glared at so hard, I kept my mouth shut. Obviously moving warheads in the semi-trailer. After the convoy passed they jumped back in the jeep and drove off.
When I worked at GE, there was a retired Air Force Colonel who worked for me who had spent 10 years as a silo commander in the Strategic Air Command (SAC). Most of that time he was at Malmstrom AFB in Montana. He had interesting factoids to tell about how command capsules had control over multiple silos and that control over fields of silos overlapped among multiple capsules so that if one was taken out another could launch its missles. When telling these stories he would invariably say, "Yes sir! I am a SAC-trained killer!"
Just occurred to me Steve, that you really aren't very far at all from Trinity Site are you? Any old-timers in Magdalena talk about hearing/seeing the blast?
Steve:
Not far at all, and many remember-- even folks in their sixties. You could see the glow.
5 comments:
Charlin Restoration:
I have a 16 ga. Charlin Automatique that I am currently restoring. It is very special to me since I had one stolen over twenty years ago. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I am missing the barrel release catch and the button.
Since I can't find a part, I will have to have one machined, but right now have nothing to go on. So I was wondering if you could photograph and measure yours or point me to someone who can help.
Any assistance you can provide in restoring this fine old gun is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Tom Haynes
Franklin, TN
615-405-7632
tomhaynes@bellsouth.net
I'm just over the hill from a nuclear warhead missile silo and pass their little parades all the time. Now that border security is a big deal, even the little Valier airport is getting use, esp. with helicopters. One in the Sixties, coming back from Great Falls at 3AM, I saw a missile, white and sleek, just poised over the silo hole, being lowered in. I stopped to look -- it was bathed in floodlights -- but a military vehicle started out towards me and I lost my nerve and left.
However, in the Seventies, a peacenik Presbyterian minister crawled the fence and sat cross-legged on top of the lid praying for several hours before they realized he was there and went out to arrest him.
The siloes are in the phone book.
Prairie Mary
A convoy goes by my house in central Montana occasionally. They used to drive dark blue Suburbans with .50 cal gun tubs. They were all replaced a few years ago by Humvees with grenade launchers. I always hoped to see one of the Suburbans at a surplus sale but never did.
Missile silos are so stereotypically Cold War-ish it's easy to forget that some are still around. Though I suppose today the missiles are targeted on Mecca instead of Moscow :)
Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights
does anyone have any information concerning a break-in at a nuclear silo in the early morning of 9/11/01 near Sidney, NE? All the schools were closed that day, but the news item was lost in the reporting of the tragedy that took place in NYC only hours later. Any info or direction would be appreciated. Please email directly.
Adam Boles
adam_boles@mac.com
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