Chilling PBS Doc Recounts The Nuclear Accident That Nearly Destroyed Arkansas

Interesting... However, I don't think that, even if the rocket had blown up, it would have triggered a nuclear detonation. Having worked around nuclear weapons and components for much of the past 20 years or so, I know that it takes more than an explosion to actually trigger a nuclear detonation. The event was certainly serious, but the claim that it would have destroyed Arkansas is most likely a huge exaggeration.

Of course the shock-awe of how this could happen, is terrible. But what really struck me in this whole thing was how the airmen, NCOs, and even the wing commander got screwed over something that there was no contingency plan nor emergency procedure for, in an organization that had people shitting in cadence. The people involved acted as best they could. The airmen that went back in were asked to volunteer to go after everyone else was evacuated. The senior NCO leading the team was reportedly the best crew chief in the wing. They were brave.

Little concerned that a socket a little bigger than my fist could puncture pressure tanks on an ICBM, but there it is...kind of explains why a Patriot just has to be close to work.

Thanks for sharing the background SSgt (Join to see). Of course almost a nuclear accident is much better than a nuclear accident :-)
"In 1980, a mismanaged Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas nearly exploded a missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead built by the United States—600 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. A wrench socket fell 70 feet and punctured the missile, unleashing a stream of explosive rocket fuel into the silo. Naturally, there were no contingency plans to deal with such an event. For the next eight hours, Strategic Air Command leadership frantically struggled to regain control of the thermonuclear warhead."