Silo Explosion

[tadbart]

Just woke up to a text from the missus, who worked last night. "I cannot BELIEVE you slept through that." I ain't heard a thing.

An asphalt company about 20 miles away had a silo explode. Apparently, according to the local word-of-mouth pages, it really rattled the windows around here.  No deaths or injuries. A valve got stuck, pressure built up, and kabloooey.

 

She's in bed asleep- I slept in the other room last night. I'll shoot her a text when she gets up for work tonight. Gotta head to class in a bit.

 

DAB Constructors Leesburg FL

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-asphalt-leesburg-explosion-dab-20190404-story.html

[Eric]

[willie-pete]

Silo explosion?

 

That's not a silo explosion

 

This is a silo explosion.  The item circled in red is a W-53 9.3 MT nuke.

 

 

 

Here is a before picture of a similar site. That door covering the hole in the ground weighs 750 tons

 

[Historian]

Wasn't that the nuke silo that went up because someone dropped a wrench?

Edited April 5, 2019 by Historian

[Historian]

Ayep. Now a historical monument. Dropped a 25 pound wrench 80 ft.

That's a resume generating event.

[Citra47]

23 minutes ago, willie-pete said:

Silo explosion?

 

That's not a silo explosion

 

This is a silo explosion.  The item circled in red is a W-53 9.3 MT nuke.

 

 

 

Here is a before picture of a similar site. That door covering the hole in the ground weighs 750 tons

 

Was it an active site?

[Historian]

4 minutes ago, Citra47 said:

Was it an active site?

There was one in the tube!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion

Edited April 5, 2019 by Historian

[willie-pete]

One of the sites I pulled alerts at. I had left before this happened.

 

This accident plus the SALT talks paved the way for Titan II de-commissioning.

 

Killed one and injured 23.

[tadbart]

Okay. So WP wins the silo-explosion measuring contest. 

[Moshe]

Come on, DAB construction, really?

My 13 year old was saying that a year ago.  It is the only reason I know.  It looks dumb to me.

[Glockworks]

10 hours ago, willie-pete said:

Silo explosion?

 

That's not a silo explosion

 

This is a silo explosion.  The item circled in red is a W-53 9.3 MT nuke.

 

 

 

Here is a before picture of a similar site. That door covering the hole in the ground weighs 750 tons

 

I was in Basic Training at LAFB when this happened and do remember it in the news, albeit not until I had graduated I think.  I served in one assignment in ACC and on the Missile/Space side, they were beyond anal, and I am surprised that in SAC that this happened.  I do like the resume reference that someone had made.

[Historian]

The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. The W53 warhead landed about 100 feet (30 m) from the launch complex's entry gate; its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material or nuclear detonation.^[5][6]

The former launch complex was never repaired. Pieces of debris were taken away from the 400 acres surrounding the facility, and the site was buried under a mound of gravel, soil, and small concrete debris. It now stands on private land, under a small hill.^[2][10] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 2000.^[2]

 

^{And the unit commander had his shorts laundered.} 

[willie-pete]

2 hours ago, Historian said:

The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. The W53 warhead landed about 100 feet (30 m) from the launch complex's entry gate; its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material or nuclear detonation.^[5][6]

The former launch complex was never repaired. Pieces of debris were taken away from the 400 acres surrounding the facility, and the site was buried under a mound of gravel, soil, and small concrete debris. It now stands on private land, under a small hill.^[2][10] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 2000.^[2]

 

^{And the unit commander had his shorts laundered.} 

The unit commander was not the only one. The real hero of the event got a letter of reprimand and left the Air Force for violating the " two man " commandment.

 

 

Titan II killed 57 people at Little Rock over it's lifetime. It killed at least three others at the two other bases in the same time frame.

 

 

It really was haunted. A horse called me on the phone one night.

 

No, it was not Mr. Ed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by willie-pete

[Moshe]

I remember as a kid during the cold war seeing signs down town that had arrows pointing that said "Fallout Shelter."  It makes me wonder, what is going at White Sands NM, where they tested the first Atom Bomb.  That just can't be good, it is a tourist and film location.  I have been there many times, and you track the gypsum home with you as sure as you had been to the beach.  Then on lonely stretches of road, in various locations, it has posted warnings, "Do not cross fence line, this area has unexploded ordinance."  That unexploded ordinance?  Also, there since WWII.  If you traveled between the University to Alamogordo, you expected the military to come out, block the road, with full battle dress, then a missile would roar above the road and make a hellacious explosion off in the distance.  That was the time the bunk busters were being developed, along with laser guided ordinance.

[Historian]

10 hours ago, willie-pete said:

The unit commander was not the only one. The real hero of the event got a letter of reprimand and left the Air Force for violating the " two man " commandment.

Titan II killed 57 people at Little Rock over it's lifetime. It killed at least three others at the two other bases in the same time frame.

It really was haunted. A horse called me on the phone one night.

 

Noc, it was not Mr. Ed.

I would buy you a pitcher right now just to hear the history. 

The air force gave that young man a repremand and a medal saying it was two different events. Typically, military. Wow.

So...you were there...Wow. I have used this as a case study in systems studies.

And you are saying this facility claimed 57 lives before it was closed. If I'm reading that right.

My mind is blown. That's it! We had a history moment. Amazing.

What...did the horse want? Actually could have been my sister in law. I've claimed for 20 years she's a talking horse.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Historian

[willie-pete]

54 minutes ago, Historian said:

I would buy you a pitcher right now just to hear the history. 

The air force gave that young man a repremand and a medal saying it was two different events. Typically, military. Wow.

So...you were there...Wow. I have used this as a case study in systems studies.

And you are saying this facility claimed 57 lives before it was closed. If I'm reading that right.

My mind is blown. That's it! We had a history moment. Amazing.

What...did the horse want? Actually could have been my sister in law. I've claimed for 20 years she's a talking horse.

 

I’ll write up the horse story later; it’s somewhat lengthy. 

 

Little Rock had 53 killed in a flash fire at Searcy at Complex 3-4, the Haunted site.

Amn South died when he went to the lowest level in the launch duct and was asphyxiated with Freon vapors ; liquid Freon was used to clean the missile. I , myself, had a fire underground caused by Freon soaked wiping rags that spontaneously combusted in the “ dirty rag “ bucket. This also happened at 3-4.

Master Sgt. Bugge died when he slipped and fell from the upper levels of the launch duct while working on the missile at 3-9.

The last fatality was Sgt. Livingston who died in the Damascus explosion at 4-7.

 

McConnell AFB lost two people that were overcome after an accidental release of the oxidizer, nitrogen tetroxide in one of their sites

They lost another person who was electrocuted while working on the underground diesel generator in another site.

 

I don’t remember any deaths at Davis-Monthan AFB, but there might have been.

Each of the three Wings had 18 missiles each.

 

RIP

 

 

Edited April 6, 2019 by willie-pete

[Historian]

Wow! You were part of history.

Thanks for keeping us safe!  Seriously.  I'm just amazed.

https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/2015/08/16/survivor-recalls-titan-ii-missile-silo-fire-killed/31815507/

 

Here's the story on the 53 men who died.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Historian

[willie-pete]

8 hours ago, Historian said:

Wow! You were part of history.

Thanks for keeping us safe!  Seriously.  I'm just amazed.

https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/2015/08/16/survivor-recalls-titan-ii-missile-silo-fire-killed/31815507/

 

Here's the story on the 53 men who died.

 

The article mentions the last silo to be destroyed in the last state was 3-8.

3-8 was the Alternate Command Post ( ACP ) for the 308th Strategic Missile Wing; the site that would take command of the Wing if Little Rock AFB was blown away in a war. It had comm gear and other things like an EMP Event detector that the other 17 sites didn’t have.

I was an ACP Combat Crew Commander and pulled my last alerts at 3-8 for about six months before my 4 year tour ended.

Edited April 6, 2019 by willie-pete
Sp

[willie-pete]

15 hours ago, Historian said:

 

What...did the horse want? Actually could have been my sister in law. I've claimed for 20 years she's a talking horse.

The missile sites were surrounded by a chain link fence with a wide gate for vehicle access. At the outside of the gate was a direct line telephone to the Commander's console inside a weather enclosure.  When we had scheduled people arrive, they would open the enclosure and pick up the phone. It would ring downstairs in the control center and the people who were at the  gate would announce who they were, number in the party and what they were there for.

If that matched what Job Control had sent us, we would unlock the gate remotely. The team leader would go to the entrapment area, give the same info and a password. If that password matched, we let them out of the entrapment area, they went back to the gate and we would unlock the gate and everybody comes in.  If that password did not match, they stayed in the entrapment until the roving SAT ( Security Alert Team ) came and check them out. The entrapment area was secured  and it was a place where they could also use a different " duress " password.  Using that password would get a much bigger security force headed in your direction.

One Friday night about 1:00 AM on alert  at the Haunted site, the gate phone started ringing.  Since we had no one scheduled to be out, that was an automatic Security situation, so I called it in before answering the phone to get the SAT guards on the way. The Wing Command Post said their ETA was 20 minutes.  They were roving around for five or six different sites so they could be 5 minute out or 35 minutes out.  I punched up the Gate phone and said  " Hello ".  All I heard on the other end of the phone was snorting and the phone banging around. 

The sites were at the end of a long road with nothing else out there.  Generally they were farms that .gov had leased a portion of to build the launch complexes and access roads. The roads were famous for being a Lover's Lane since they were pretty private. We used to call them Firestone Drive ( where the rubber meets the road ).  Naturally I figured on a Friday night there were some teenagers just messin' around with the crew.  What they probably didn't realize was that in a few minutes, they would be spread eagled face down on the ground with two machine guns pointed at them. So I just laid the phone down and would pick it up every little bit, but still only heard the phone knocking about.

After a while, The Wing called me and said the guards were five minutes out. I picked up the phone to listen, heard the guard truck drive up the road and then I heard yelling and screaming like someone was getting killed. I was just waiting for the gunfire .  Finally a guard picked up the phone and said " Give me the Commander please " I said " Speaking " and he said " It was a horse ".
I said " Horse? ", he said  " Yes, a horse ".

As best we could figure, as many people opened the box and picked up the phone, they left sweat on the phone.  The horse had evidently mistaken it for a salt-lick. He had licked the phone hand set off the hook so it rang downstairs. He kept licking  it which was the banging around I was hearing.