Arizona - Titan Missile Museum

While in southern Arizona, my kids and I visited the Titan Missile Museum just south of Tucson. This place looks like almost nothing from the street level, but we learned that looks can be REALLY deceiving!

The visit started with a presentation on the cold war, and why the Titan Missile program was in place. I am young enough that I didn’t go through the nuclear war drills that others did in school, and the quick cold war lesson was helpful in getting context.

Next, we went underground to the control room that was manned 24/7 during the cold war, on the ready to deliver a nuclear warhead at a moment’s notice. We learned what the operators did on a daily basis, and that they had MANY instances of being on alert to be ready to launch. Mostly, these alerts were due to increases in tensions, but other times, it was false information. There were safeguards in place to ensure the missile would not be launched by accident.

While underground, we also saw the silo with the missile still there. The nuclear warhead is NOT on it anymore! The last stop was up on top, looking down into the missile silo.

In all, it was an informative, but highly uncomfortable tour – the thought of having tons of nuclear warheads on both sides, ready to launch at a moments notice is unnerving!