Portal into the Past - Egypt, Washington Missile Silo (Site 8)

Portal Into The Past

Hello everyone, 

As you might know, today is the first "Portal into the Past". So what is it, exactly? Basically, the Portal Into the Past series will be on Wednesday unless research takes longer than planned. Every weekend, my family and I go Geocaching to local areas. What I then do is pick my favorite location we went to that weekend and start researching the area. Then on Wednesday (unless research takes longer than planned) I will write a "Portal into the Past" post on this blog and add the pictures I took over the weekend. That is the basics to my Portal Into The Past posts.

Over the weekend, my family and I were Geocaching around Egypt, Washington which is in Lincoln county. Well, one of the Geocaches we went to was near a Minuteman Missile Silo. My dad went out to

find the cache when the owner of the area came. So my dad was talking to him, and finally he asked if we could go into the Silo. The owner said yes, but only me and my dad could go in because it was too dangerous for younger kids (I have four younger siblings, all 10 and younger). So we grabbed a flashlight and headed over to the Missile Silo. The picture to the left shows the outside of the Silo.

Inside was the storage area where the owner was storing hay and an old car. So while researching, I discovered that first of all, this Missile Silo was a Minuteman missile silo which meant it could launch in 15 minutes. The Fairchild Airforce Base (near Airway Heights) had 9 Minuteman Missile Silos in
different locations. Site 8 is in Egypt, Washington which is the one I went to over the weekend. As I was reading, there would be an underground Missile Launching area called the coffin. The coffin would be covered by a 42-ton steel lid. That would be 150 feet away from the crew living area, power plant, and the control consoles. There would be a tunnel that led from the coffin (where the missile would be held) to the other things I mentioned. The tunnel would look like the picture on the right I took. Also, all these pictures were pitch black but I had flash on my camera plus we had the flashlight which helped.

During the time the missile silo was on alert, it was during the Cold War. We had the Atlas E (the nine Fairchild Airforce Base missiles) aimed at Cuba. The ones down in Texas and Missouri were aimed elsewhere because if they fired at Cuba, it would go right over it and land into the ocean instead. But Washington state was far enough away that aiming at Cuba worked. One thing that you should know is that each of the nine missiles, including the one I visited, were 100 times more powerful than the atomic bomb we dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Each missile was 84 feet long had a 4-megaton atomic bomb attached to it. Every Atlas E site had only one of these missiles.

Each Atlas E site (including Site 8) were on a 20 acre facility with the launch and control area being 5 acres of that 20. At first, they had a fence surrounding only the five acres for the launch and control area, but then they made a fence around the whole 20 acres. Each site cost 4 million dollars to build and it was strong enough to withstand a nearby nuclear bomb blast.

To enter the Silo, there is a giant giant steel door weighing multiple tons that leads to the above-ground part where the coffin is located. The large door is 16 inches thick, 15 feet wide, and 17 feet tall. Then to enter the tunnels to the power plant, control consoles, and living area, there is a smaller door made of steel. The picture above, left shows what I think would be part of the living area.

The coffin was 105 feet by 100 feet with a central bay where the missile would be stored horizontally. The fuel that would propel the missile would be made up of a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene. But this was a problem because to fuel the missile, it had to be on the surface where the missile was vulnerable. And they could not pre-fuel the missile because it had to be empty when in the coffin. Also, the fueling process was extremely dangerous because of the fuel volatility.

When the Atlas E silos were active, they had the crew members working 24 hours shifts. They had 3 communication systems which connected them to the Strategic Air Command. The Atlas E Site 8 (Egypt, Washington Missile I went to) was only on full alert once. That was during the 13 days in October, 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis was happening. But the missile was never launched and the silo was deactivated on June 25, 1965. It had first been activated on April 1, 1960. Now eight of the nine Atlas E missile silo sites are privately owned. The one that is not privately owned is in Reardan, if I remember correctly. The picture to the above, right shows the label of the Strategic Air Command which is what the 3 communication systems connected to. 
 

The picture to the right shows the locations of the nine Atlas E missile sites. I hope you all enjoyed - and learned from - the first Portal into the Past of Egypt, Washington Missile Silo (Site 8). The next one should be on Wednesday, the 29th. Meanwhile, you can keep an eye out for tomorrow's post which I believe will give you an update on what is going on with the The Hero's Prophecy Series as well as the website that goes along with it. Thanks for reading this, and I hoped you enjoyed today's Portal into the Past!