Cold War Underground Missile Silo, Arizona Desert

In the desert south of Tucson, there's a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile standing upright in its silo. At 103 feet tall, it was part of the largest land-based nuclear missile system the United States ever deployed. Beginning in 1963, 54 Titan II missile complexes were placed on alert across the country: in Kansas around Wichita, in Arkansas around Little Rock, and in Arizona around Tucson. Each one held a missile ready to launch at any hour of any day. The crews who worked them lived with the knowledge that, if the order came, they could launch within minutes. This site, Complex 571-7, is typical of what they built. Underground, an eight-level missile silo connects by tunnels to a three-level launch control center, all built of heavy steel-reinforced concrete designed to survive nearly anything short of a direct hit. A four-person crew stood watch here around the clock. The site's highest state of alert came on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As the news unfolded, launch keys were placed on the tables beside the consoles while crews waited for further orders. The orders never came. The missile at Complex 571-7 was assigned a target referred to only as "Target Two." Where that was remains classified. In 1981, President Reagan's administration announced it would retire the aging Titan II fleet. Complex 571-7 came off alert on November 11, 1982, and over the next several years the other sites were shut down. Almost all of them were demolished or filled in. This one was kept. Before it could become a museum, the site had to be visibly disarmed. Its missile holds no warhead and no fuel, and the complex was modified so that anyone, including observers from the other side, could confirm it was no longer operational. In April 1994, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. It was only 31 years old, extraordinarily young for that honor. Today, visitors walk down the same stairs the crews used, sit at the launch console, and look into the silo at the missile that was once minutes from launch.