We decided one day to take trip down to Nogales Mexico which is south of Tucson. That trip in and of itself pretty much turned out to be ‘eh’ … Nogales really isn’t worth it compared to some of the other Border Crossing towns we’ve visited in the past. However, on the way back up I-19, we spotted a small sign on the side of the road that said “Titan Missile Museum“. Mike retired from Lockheed Martin, the “Martin” part of that was Martin Marietta which originated from the Glenn L. Martin Company.
The Martin Company/Martin Marietta built the Titan Missile and in fact they were originally built at the plant in Baltimore where Mike worked. Long story short, we just HAD to stop!

This facility is the last remaining of the 54 Titan II launch facilities that went on first alert in 1963 and stayed functional until decommissioned in 1987. These missiles were America’s “first line of defense” against a Soviet nuclear attack during the Cold War. They were intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the USSR within 20 minutes after launch.

Nowadays, it’s a tourable museum in which you can go down into the silo and the Launch Control Center. It’s a guided tour and we had the great fortune to have ‘Dave’ as our tour guide. Dave was retired Air Force and was part of the last Air Force crew to actually work at and man the facility before it was shut down. To say he was a wealth of knowledge about the life of a missile man would be an understatement. He provided a tremendous amount of information about the program, history, and what daily life was like 35+ feet below ground – next to a device that could level a city if it was ever to be used.

(click on any image below to open full screen)