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To: OldMissileer

Don’t know if you saw this post but if not, I think you’ll find it interesting.


42 posted on 11/03/2017 11:30:18 AM PDT by crazy scenario ( We can't take you anywhere!)
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To: crazy scenario
Don’t know if you saw this post but if not, I think you’ll find it interesting.

This accident was kept pretty close hold and I never heard of it in the 14 years I was directly involved with ICBMs, but I read the entire report once I started working in DC and was responsible for a large portion of the stockpile.

Back in those early years parts of the system design were quite rudimentary as they were designed and built on the fly. Heck. The first Titan II squadron was on Alert less than a year after the program was authorized and funded.

Anyway, what happened at that Minuteman Launch Facility would not have if the Airman involved had not used an unauthorized tool, a screwdriver, to pull a fuse. Unlike the testimony of reinserting the fuse a few times when the arc happened he actually used a screwdriver to try to pry out the fuse because he could not find the authorized fuse puller. He arced the hot terminal in the fuse holder to ground and sent a signal throughout the entire Launcher system.

44 posted on 11/03/2017 11:47:27 AM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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