snaked overhead and along both sides. It looked like the interior of a submarine that was somehow underground, not underwater. The siloâs nine levels were crammed with equipment, and the checklist there took about two hours to complete. It had hundreds of steps. Sometimes crews would cut corners to speed things up. Theyâd divide the laborâyou check this air compressor, Iâll check that oneâand violate the SAC two-man rule, roaming separately through the silo and comparing notes later. It was faster that way, the violation seemed trivial, and officers in the control center had no way of knowing what the enlisted men were doing in the silo. The television camera in the access portal, aimed at the entrapment area, was the only one in the complex. From the control center you couldnât see what was happening in the cableways, the blast lock, the silo, or topside. There was no periscope. And one officer could not leave the other alone in the control center to check on what crew members were doing elsewhere. That would be a serious violation of the two-man rule.
Holder and Fuller did everything by the book that day. As members of an instructor crew, they took pride in being considered among the best at the job. A standardization-evaluation team was soon going to be judging their work, and Holder wanted a high score. Doing things properly added only fifteen minutes or so to the job. Before joining the Air Force heâd been a construction worker, building highway bridges in rural Arkansas. A career in the military hadnât appealed to him, at first. His father was a former NFL player who joined the Naval Reserve during the Korean War and wound up spending more than two decades as a naval officer. Holderhad attended grade schools in three different countries and high schools in four different states. At the age of nineteen, he liked doing construction work but worried about the future. The military promised a more interesting and rewarding life. Joining the Navy wasnât an option; Holder got seasick too easily. So he joined the Air Force, eager to learn about missiles. Working on the Titan II had revealed that, deep down, he was a techno geek. Holder knew his way around the complex better than any of the other crew members. He not only knew what everything was, he could explain how it worked. On September 18, 1980, he was twenty-four years old and had been married for ten months.
The silo door motors on level 1A had to be checked, as did the sump at the bottom of level 9B, and everything in between. The equipment areas of the silo tended to be loud, but the launch duct was lined with sound dampeners, so that the roar of the engines wouldnât cause vibrations and damage the missile. It was so quiet in the launch duct that on hot summer days, when the air-conditioners were struggling, warm oxidizer could be heard bubbling in the tanks. The only problem that Holder and Fuller noted that day was a faulty switch on the hard water tank. The complex had two large water tanks: one inside the silo, extending from levels 3 to 6, and one topside beyond the perimeter fence. The tank within the silo was considered âhardâ because it was underground, and therefore shielded from a nuclear blast. It held one hundred thousand gallons of water that would spray into the silo moments before launch. The water helped to suppress the sound of the engines and ensured that flames wouldnât rise up the silo and destroy the missile. The two water tanks were also essential for extinguishing a major fire at the complex. Like a broken float in a toilet that allows only one flush, a faulty switch on the hard water tank could prevent it from refilling automatically. Holder and Fuller noted the problem on the checklist and moved to the next step.
PTS Team A reached the complex around 3:30 in the afternoon, but the platforms still wouldnât lower. Having nothing better to do, the team hung out and played
Holder and Fuller did everything by the book that day. As members of an instructor crew, they took pride in being considered among the best at the job. A standardization-evaluation team was soon going to be judging their work, and Holder wanted a high score. Doing things properly added only fifteen minutes or so to the job. Before joining the Air Force heâd been a construction worker, building highway bridges in rural Arkansas. A career in the military hadnât appealed to him, at first. His father was a former NFL player who joined the Naval Reserve during the Korean War and wound up spending more than two decades as a naval officer. Holderhad attended grade schools in three different countries and high schools in four different states. At the age of nineteen, he liked doing construction work but worried about the future. The military promised a more interesting and rewarding life. Joining the Navy wasnât an option; Holder got seasick too easily. So he joined the Air Force, eager to learn about missiles. Working on the Titan II had revealed that, deep down, he was a techno geek. Holder knew his way around the complex better than any of the other crew members. He not only knew what everything was, he could explain how it worked. On September 18, 1980, he was twenty-four years old and had been married for ten months.
The silo door motors on level 1A had to be checked, as did the sump at the bottom of level 9B, and everything in between. The equipment areas of the silo tended to be loud, but the launch duct was lined with sound dampeners, so that the roar of the engines wouldnât cause vibrations and damage the missile. It was so quiet in the launch duct that on hot summer days, when the air-conditioners were struggling, warm oxidizer could be heard bubbling in the tanks. The only problem that Holder and Fuller noted that day was a faulty switch on the hard water tank. The complex had two large water tanks: one inside the silo, extending from levels 3 to 6, and one topside beyond the perimeter fence. The tank within the silo was considered âhardâ because it was underground, and therefore shielded from a nuclear blast. It held one hundred thousand gallons of water that would spray into the silo moments before launch. The water helped to suppress the sound of the engines and ensured that flames wouldnât rise up the silo and destroy the missile. The two water tanks were also essential for extinguishing a major fire at the complex. Like a broken float in a toilet that allows only one flush, a faulty switch on the hard water tank could prevent it from refilling automatically. Holder and Fuller noted the problem on the checklist and moved to the next step.
PTS Team A reached the complex around 3:30 in the afternoon, but the platforms still wouldnât lower. Having nothing better to do, the team hung out and played
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