Quitman Titan II Silo - With Pictures

[junkman306]

True dat. I think they should be used.

[godfather]

Honestly, I don't care what you others do, but if we get this thing open I'll definitely be wearing a good mask. Actually, it would probably be a good idea to pop the top, and let it sit for a day or so to "breathe."

I'm sure we are getting way ahead of ourselves here, but it's fun to dream.

[junkman306]

I was gonna say earlier that if we could get atleast 1 or 2 doors open we should let it air out for a few days.

[fsp]

Maybe we should keep an eye on this...
http://www.308smw.com/3739_excavation.html

[godfather]

Yeah, I saw that site and thought the same. My only question is how old are those pictures, and page?

[junkman306]

Interesting. Where is that?

[Riggz13]

Yeah, I saw that site and thought the same. My only question is how old are those pictures, and page?

I'm thinking the page itself isn't more then a few months old at the most. I've been trying to find these damn things for 3 years now and I'd never come across this page until a few days ago.

Interesting. Where is that?

That's the Hamlet site. The one that was up for auction a few years ago. Guess someone finally bought it. According to this page it was $85k + half of salvage profits. This one is about 20 minutes from Conway. I'll see if I can't head out there this week and grab some more pictures. Who knows, maybe I'll use my awesome people skills(sarcasm alert) and talk this guy into letting us explore it once they get it dug up.

[ambrosian_spelunker]

So did anyone find out anything? I could check and see if my ex-husband can dig some stuff up. (real good friends) He is a military intelligence agent somewhat like the cia or fbi but for military. Has the highest security clearance there is. Pretty cool, no fun to be married to though damn stick in the mud.

[FiReDiVeR]

So did anyone find out anything? I could check and see if my ex-husband can dig some stuff up. (real good friends) He is a military intelligence agent somewhat like the cia or fbi but for military. Has the highest security clearance there is. Pretty cool, no fun to be married to though damn stick in the mud.

Sounds like he would be a good person to hit up for info on this location and possibly others like it.

[TooMuchCoffee]

I've done some minor research on these things in the past and posted a few in this forum. The theory is that all 374 silos were imploded, but the command "bubbles" were simply sealed off. Around 30 feet of the access tunnels were removed and filled in.

The silos themselves, by agreement with the USSR, were dismantled as such: the missile was removed and the silo was left open for 90 days to allow satillites verify that they were empty. Then the silo was imploded and left in that state for up to another 90 days, again for the "spies in the skies" to verify. The remains of the silo and resulting crater were backfilled.

The command structure tunnels were "removed". Some were supposedly filled in with sand, idea being the more you tried to dig, the sand would refill the hole. The "bubbles" themselves and the equipment inside were considered obsolete at the time of decommissioning, so most equipment were left inside. Anytime these things sell, they almost always list as "good salvage potential".

As for water: two theories. Theory one: according to AF sources, these things were built airtight and did not leak. Many fill that if the hatches were sealed properly, the structure would still be airtight and dry inside.
Theory two: they're leaking like a sponge. No power, no sumps, equals lots of water. However, a retired officer I met told me that the command structures didn't have sump pumps because they did not leak.
What effect 2 decades buried would have, I do not know.

I will relocate and post some sites for the wings former members. They stay in touch and have reunions. Contacting these guys would be a great resource.

As for the two that are on the National Historic Reg. Digging into them, not a chance. The idea is that the history is "preserved" as is. Some occasionally talk about reopenning them to make into museums.

[Riggz13]

I haven't made it out to the Hamlet site yet(first week back at school). This weekend should be a good opportunity provided it doesn't blizzard as my Wii Forecast channel is predicting . Anyways, I think if I can see what kind of shape their access tunnels are in that should be a good indicator of what other sites should look like underneath the dirt. Who knows, maybe they're inside theirs already.

[TooMuchCoffee]

Something else of interest that might give an idea of the command bubble's condition. When 374-7, the Damascus site, exploded, there were operators inside the command unit. They report barely noticing a slight tremor when the missile exploded. Everything inside the silo was isolated to prevent damage from shock waves of nearby nuclear hits.
Taking this into consideration, when the silos were imploded, there should have been virtually no damage inside the bubble. It would be possible that the airtight/watertight seal was not damaged.
Water entering would most likely come from improperly or just bad door/hatch seals. The government did not destroy the silos; this task was contracted out to the private sector.

Also, the 374-7 command unit was left intact after the explosion. It was decided to simply seal off the command unit in case the Air Force decided to "reuse" the silo complex. At the time, the Titan II was going to be phased out, and the Air Force didn't know if it would put the new Peacekeeper missile in the existing Titan II silos. There has been mention of turning this complex into a museum also.

[TooMuchCoffee]

One big question about the Hamlet site is what is the intentions of the new owners? If it's salvage profit, they most likely won't care about the history of the site and be keen to the idea of "touring" the site. If I understand it correctly, about the only way to salvage the steel inside is to pit mine down to the structure and rip 'er apart. Unless you plan to live in it and would take some care.

[TooMuchCoffee]

When I was a-growing up, we called the Beebe site the "hidden site". It was kinda in a valley and very hard to see. There was always security on site and in the structure. We would approach from the surrounding property and see how close we could get before the security guys would pop up.
Some guys would drive down the road straight at the gate. I guess there were motion sensors starting at the cattle guards.

There was an outer barbed wire fence where they started mowing the grass and a big inner chain link fence. Never could get within 300 feet of the chain link fence. I say "we", I always stayed at the first fence.

Then the AF cheated and just started calling the sheriff's office.

[Scoutin]

I went and visited a few sites around the conway area. Nothing really to see, but here you go if you want.

This one is right above greenbrier down a road. I parked along the fence line and walked around for a second. Nothing really to see, but there were some neat structures that I would like to ask someone about. There is a trailer house on this location past the cattle guard. If your not a shy person, go talk to them some day and ask. This site looks to be the best for a possible intact unit becuase of all the extra debris around and earthen mounds.
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTExNmI ... 9759&mag=2

This one is right outside conway. I parked in a traler house sales place. The actual part you want to look at is in the cow paster towards the back.
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTExNmI ... 7753&mag=1

What you see are the two rectangles, this is where the fuel was stored for the missle.

Here is a visual of what is/on a missle base:
As you can see there is two was into the command center: Escape hatch, and the main entrance. The crew quarters may also be intact also.


Here is the link I got all my info from let me know if it is helpful.

http://w3.uwyo.edu/~jimkirk/titan2.html

Hope you guys can actually help uncover something from a gone era. If you can find someone who does geological work or get with a local school, you may be able to borrow one of those sonar machines that looks for voids under the earth. Also, the old water witching technique may work if they have water in them.

Good luck!