![]() ![]() The 8 lb (3.6 kg) socket fell off the ratchet and dropped approximately 80 feet (24 m) before bouncing off a thrust mount and piercing the missile's skin over the first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak a cloud of its Aerozine 50 fuel.Īerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, such that they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. Powell later claimed that he was already below ground in his safety suit when he realized he had brought the wrong wrench, so he chose to continue rather than turn back. Powell, had brought a ratchet wrench – 3 ft (0.9 m) long weighing 25 lb (11 kg) – into the silo instead of a torque wrench, the latter having been newly mandated by Air Force regulations. CDT on Thursday, September 18, 1980, two airmen from a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) team were checking the pressure on the oxidizer tank of a USAF Titan II missile at Little Rock AFB's Launch Complex 374-7. The Strategic Air Command facility of Little Rock Air Force Base was one of eighteen silos in the command of the 308th Strategic Missile Wing (308th SMW), specifically one of the nine silos within its 374th Strategic Missile Squadron (374th SMS), at the time of the explosion.Īt around 6:30 p.m. Launch Complex 374-7 was located in Bradley Township, Van Buren County farmland just 3.3 miles (5.3 km) NNE of Damascus, and approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Little Rock. Strategic Missile (SM) sites of 373rd & 374th Strategic Missile Squadrons, reporting to the 308th Strategic Missile Wing. The warhead landed a short distance away and no radioactive material was lost. on September 19, ejecting the warhead from its silo. on September 18, and culminated with the explosion at around 3:00 a.m. The incident began with a fuel leak at 6:30 p.m. Air Force LGM-25C Titan II ICBM loaded with a 9-megaton W-53 nuclear warhead experienced a liquid fuel explosion inside its silo. The incident occurred on September 18–19, 1980, at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas when a U.S. nuclear weapons incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). We hope you’ll take away inspiration, as well as an impression of the power of the powerless to redress the injustices of this world we share.The Damascus Titan missile explosion (also called the Damascus accident ) was a 1980 U.S. Whether you can visit for minutes or hours, we hope the time you spend here will refresh your spirit. The Peace Garden was inaugurated and opened to the public on 5th October 2002. Between 1990-2, the missiles and US military personnel were returned to the US.Īfter 19 years of continuous non-violent protest, first against Cruise Missiles and later against the Atomic Weapons Establishments at Aldermaston and Burghfield, the Women’s Peace Camp closed on 5th September 2000. The Treaty’s preamble, “Conscious that nuclear war would have devastating consequences for all mankind…”, is a testament to the impact of non-violent work by many thousands of women on Greenham Common. The missiles and warheads were removed under the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed on 8th December 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev. Arrests, court cases and prison sentences followed. Each and every missile convoy exercise was non-violently disrupted by the women. ![]() The missiles and their nuclear warheads began arriving on 14th November 1983 and were housed in hardened silos on the Common, from where the missiles were taken out for regular firing drills on Salisbury Plain. The camps became a focus for tens of thousands of women throughout the UK and internationally, to protest against war and nuclear weapons. The Women’s Peace Camp was set up on this site and as the protest grew, other Camps formed around the perimeter fence. They arrived on 5th September 1981, to the protest the NATO plans. On 27th August 1981, following a long tradition that includes Gandhi’s marches for justice and the US civil rights marches, the Welsh group ‘Women for life on Earth’ marched from Wales to Greenham Common. They would be under the command of the United States Air Force. Each missile would have the explosive power of 16 Hiroshima bombs. At the height of the Cold War between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, plans were made at NATO Headquarters to install 96 ground-launched cruise missiles at the Royal Air Force / United States Air Force Base here on Greenham Common. ![]()
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