Shootout at the OK Corral and other fancy stuff

The OK Corral shootout re-enactment was high on the list of things to do, after breakfast at the OK Café (Thursday, April 9).  Funny thing about breakfast.  I recognized the guy, Billy, from the Birdcage Theater from last year.  He was the one who gave me permission to write and publish the story and photos for my blog.  It was nice to see him, say hello, and thank him one more time.

Once we’d finished breakfast, it was time to wander around as town opens up around 10 a.m.  We saw the stagecoach rides getting set up and starting to give people rides, the hawking by the cowboys to get customers for the shootout show, people eating ice cream cones, stores opening so we could view their wares. 

The boys.

The stagecoaches were starting to haul folks around.

And that’s how Chuck got his top hat.  He’d been looking at one in Las Vegas, but had not purchased the one he liked.  Now he was looking here.  And what do you know, he found the absolute right one.  It looks great on him, and pretty soon he had a top hat in a hatbox loaded onto the rack of his bike.

That's one mighty fine looking hat there, Mister.

We viewed various pieces of old west history and saw the reenactment shootout show.  It was fun, as there was mandatory audience participation, with yelling for the good guys, and booing of the bad guys.  I absolutely adore yelling “BOO!!!”

They even provided sunscreen.

Who to yell for as there's both good and bad here.  Go get 'em, Wyatt.

One bad guy, two good.  Who's got the best hand here?

Bang, bang, they shot them down.

The bad guys didn't fare too well here.

Only one bad guy lived, the one who caused the clash.

The good guys.

The bad guys, who live to fight again in a couple of hours. 

There were lots of other things to see ... including seeing Chuck acting like a tourist.  Yahoo!!!

We’d now spent enough time in Tombstone and it was time to mount the iron horses and ride out of town. 

Every time I saw one of these as a kid, I'd beg my mom to let me ride.

We headed to the Pima Museum to pick up Chuck’s camera, and then we sped off to another tourist sight, the Titan Missile Museum.

This is a photo of a photo, but you get the picture!!  The Titan II was the largest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile ever built by the U.S.  The missile's top speed was about 16,000 mph, more than 20 times the speed of sound.

The surveillance system on the grounds above the missile silo was called an AN/TPS-39.  Because of the TPS crews often called them tipsies.  The scoop-shaped units projected a motion-sensing radar beam around sensitive areas of the complex.  In the 25-year history of the program intruders were never a serious problem.  In fact, four-legged intruders were the majority of the problems.

The Titan Missile Museum was once upon a time a very top secret place.  Now Complex 571-7 is all that remains of the 54 Titan II missile sites.  It’s a National Historic Landmark with a one-of-a-kind museum and a deactivated missile that showed us the technology used by the U.S. to deter a nuclear attack from the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.  It was peace through deterrence, and apparently worked as there was no nuclear war.  At least, not yet.

The idea was that to be credible the missile had to be able to survive an attack and still function.  That's why it was kept underground in a massive concrete and steel silo that is protected by these doors. 

 

This how we entered and exited the underground silo.

We walked through this door that weighs 760 tons and could be opened in 20 seconds using a hydraulic winch.  The door is now locked half open to show that the complex is no longer operational.  In fact, every few years dignitaries do a walk through just to check.

We then walked down a long corridor that took us to the control room.

The Titan II missile could launch from its underground silo in 58 seconds.  Our guide went through the scenario of how they would be notified to launch and how many people had to have a variety of codes and what they had to go through in order to hit the actual launch and point-of-no-return button. 

We went through the entire countdown to launch.

This missile could deliver a nine-megaton thermonuclear warhead to a target more than 6,300 miles away in about 35 minutes, and destroy an area of about 900 square miles.  The 54 Titan II missile complexes were located across the U.S., with 18 each at Little Rock, AR, Wichita, KS and Tucson.  They were on alert 24/7/365 for more than two decades, from 1963 to 1987.  The people staffing these complexes did not know what their “targets” would be as they were on a “need to know” basis and did not need to know that piece of the puzzle.  They only had a piece of the information. 

Titan II could be stored in its silo fully loaded at all times and was the first missile that could be launched directly from its silo reducing its vulnerability to attack, huge advantages when dealing with an enemy.

By the time we had gone through the launch scenario, I had a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.  It was a scary thought to realize we were 58 seconds away from a nuclear war at any time during those years.  Okay, maybe not 58 seconds in reality as it would take a bit more time to get to that point, but it was a frightening prospect just the same.

Then it was time for dinner, and to say good bye to Chuck as he was headed back home to get ready for the trip back to Alaska.