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1980 Titan II missile explosion, Damascus Arkansas


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Marshal, a childhood friend of mine was in the Air Force in Arkansas at the time this happened. He was military police. He was assigned guard duty at that sight right after the explosion. He never told me any details except that the Air Force gave strict orders to shoot anyone that tried to access the area. He apparently spent many nights standing guard during the clean up and nearly shot a reporter that he detected sneaking into the area. He detained that reporter and the reporter was whisked away by military police. 

My friend was reprimanded for not shooting the reporter when he detected the reporter.

 

Everyone involved with guarding this event was “retrained”. Apparently my friend wasn’t the only one that didn’t shoot sneaky belly crawling reporters. ;)

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Can you just imagine what would have happened to him if he or any of the others HAD shot a reporter?

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53 minutes ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

Can you just imagine what would have happened to him if he or any of the others HAD shot a reporter?

 

Back in those days it was legal and he should have shot him. There is a kill zone well posted and the orders are to shoot on sight, question later. I know.

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I had no idea.

 

We drive through Damascus about once a month to visit family in Arkansas.  Damascus is scary close to Outlaw Camp near Heber Springs!

 

Who knew?

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1 hour ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

Can you just imagine what would have happened to him if he or any of the others HAD shot a reporter?

 

It would have been an excellent deterrent.

 

As a Kid I farmed land adjacent to missile silos.  Whenever we started working the fields near a silo an AF blue truck would come out and observe us till we either left the field or were no longer plowing in close proximity to the silo. You could easily tell both APs were armed with M-16s. I never got up enough courage to try and to talk to them.

A couple of times they sent a different vehicle with a pair of machine guns mounted in a turret. Not sure if they were M60s or M2s but they sure got my attention.

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57 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

It would have been an excellent deterrent.

 

As a Kid I farmed land adjacent to missile silos.  Whenever we started working the fields near a silo an AF blue truck would come out and observe us till we either left the field or were no longer plowing in close proximity to the silo. You could easily tell both APs were armed with M-16s. I never got up enough courage to try and to talk to them.

A couple of times they sent a different vehicle with a pair of machine guns mounted in a turret. Not sure if they were M60s or M2s but they sure got my attention.

Of course there are no more Titan II sites active (the one near Davis-Monthan is a tourist attraction now, and the bird was never fueled).  But security for the Minuteman sites is considerably more stringent than fifty years ago. 

"Peace (was) our Profession" - motto of the Strategic Air Command

"To Assure and Deter" - motto of Air Force Global Strike Command

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If you see the sign: "Use of Deadly Force Permitted" on a military fence/wall/etc., expect to get shot if you manage to get through the barrier.  Legal recourse for your survivors = zero.

 

Church Key

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3 minutes ago, Church Key, SASS # 33713 said:

If you see the sign: "Use of Deadly Force Permitted" on a military fence/wall/etc., expect to get shot if you manage to get through the barrio.  Legal recourse for your survivors = zero.

 

Church Key

I have seen those signs. I believe and heed them. 

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In the early 60s I was OIC of a small weapons storage in Germany.  All of our guards carried live ammo in M14s with bolt closed on an empty chamber.  They were instructed to shoot if an intruder refused to follow their (the guard's) orders.

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3 hours ago, Noz said:

In the early 60s I was OIC of a small weapons storage in Germany.  All of our guards carried live ammo in M14s with bolt closed on an empty chamber.  They were instructed to shoot if an intruder refused to follow their (the guard's) orders.

I've never agreed with carrying any weapon Condition 3.  The only thing worse is Condition 4 IMO.

 

If you're going to issue me a weapon, for guarding or patrol, allow me the ability to actually use it.

 

If you're arming imbeciles - make examples of them if Murphy doesn't do it first.

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