Titan Missile Museum

Our first stop during our Tucson trip was to the Titan Missile Museum, http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/. It's actually a short drive south of Tucson in Sahuarita. The picture below shows the actual site with the tan blast doors peeled back enough to reveal the disarmed Titan Missile II below.

Plan to arrive at the Titan Missile Museum no later than 15 minutes before the hour. The general tours begin on the hour, every hour, from 9 am until 4 pm. If you show up at 9:15, you'll be waiting for 45 minutes in the Count Ferdinand von Galen Education and Research Center, and while there are some exhibits and a small gift shop, I think you'll be hard pressed to find enough to keep you occupied for much time, especially if you have small children.

The tour begins with a short movie explaining the Cold War and the role the Titan Missile program played in it. Then, you step outside for the above-ground portion of the tour. I'm not very technical, so I'm bound to get some of the details about what we saw wrong. We talked quite a bit about the security system that could detect movement above ground, we saw some fuel tanks and discussed how the missile would get to its target, and we peered through Plexiglas to the disarmed missile in the silo. At the access portal, we stopped for a few minutes to talk about the procedures each crew would go through to get into the control center. It was very interesting, but by that time, I was dying to get out of the summer heat and into the cool air underground.

It wasn't as cool, temperature-wise, as I had hoped underground, but it was still pleasant. You begin by walking down several flights of stairs. (I think I overheard one of the guides say that there were 55 steps.) If you're unable to use stairs, there is a freight elevator to take you down. During this portion of the tour, the guide spent a good deal of time discussing the structure's design and what portions would have survived a nuclear strike. I can't say that the concrete walls and 6-ton doors made me feel 100 percent safe, but supposedly, once you're in the control center, you're strike-proof.

If you have grade school-aged kids, especially girls, try to maneuver towards the front of the line as you enter the control room. There's a good chance they could be singled out, like my 10-year-old daughter was, to be the crew commander. She sat in the commander's chair as the guide talked about crew life and the inner workings of the control center. Near the end of this, he asked Kim to help him simulate a launch, which basically entailed them both turning a key at the exact time. She thought it was very cool. This particular tour guide said he liked to select girls for the task since this was one of the few positions, at the time, that women could hold in the Air Force. (Or at least, that's what I understood him to say.)

The tour ended with a walk to the silo. Of the eight levels, you are only at level two at this point, so your view is basically the top of the missile. You look through windows into the silo and, I think, get a very limited view of the missile. (Other tours, detailed below, allow you to go into the silo.) This is a good time to mention that you can take photographs for your own personal use during the tour. I forgot mine, unfortunately, but I wouldn't have been able to get the shot anyway that I was really hoping for: a shot of the entire missile looking up.

As I mentioned, there are several other tours available. Some are at no additional charge; others are more expensive. While there is no additional charge for the Director's Tour or the Crew Tour, you do have to make reservations ahead of time. These tours, as the names suggest, are essentially the general tour but led by the museum director, a former missile combat crew commander, or former crew members. For a more in depth tour, try the Beyond the Blast Door Tour. This tour includes the crew quarters and silo in addition to the general tour destinations. The Titan Top-to-Bottom tour is the extreme tour. It lasts 4-5 hours and covers all three levels of the control center as well as all eight levels of the silo.

Other opportunities at the museum include private tours, Science Saturdays and Moonlight MADness. I really, really want to participate in the Overnight Experience where you and three friends or family members can sleep in the crew quarters. On second thought, I've yet to see the crew quarters and might change my mind. The Titan Ruins Exploration looks interesting, too. It's an opportunity to spend three hours scouring the desert for Cold War artifacts with the museum's historian.

Whatever tour I take, I will definitely be back!