NPS Titan 2 Ballistic Missile Mystery. South Dakota
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you are. I’m here in South Dakota outside the Badlands National Park and I’m here at the uh as you can read at the Minute Man Messiah National Historic Site. This was a uh a site where uh during the cold war uh the uh United States had its uh nuclear uh like ballistic uh missiles. Uh we can find out what uh this is all about. There’s a information board right here. And let’s see uh what this uh tells us. Uh a landscape lost to time. The land you see before you is a vast prairie once home to herds of bison, big horn, sheep, and deer. Packs of coyotes and wolves hunted jack rabbits and other games. So this is uh basically telling us about the uh the natural uh beauty of the area which this site is uh located on. It’s good to know a little bit about the uh natural nature of the area as well. Like it says here, buffalo grass that grows here. And then sandrop seed, blue grammar is a major warm season. Perennial grass found in the plains. And then side oak, western weed grass, green needle grass. So there’s so many types of grasses here. So that’s the reason this is a big uh uh cattle area. Here we go into the uh site. Someday an ultimate class of warriors will evolved, too strong to be contested. They will win battles without having to fight. So that at last the day may be won without shedding a single drop of blood adapted by sun to the art of war. So this is a very ancient uh very very ancient saying and uh yeah as this depicts a modernday messiah in a truck and then these very very ancient eastern architecture. This does makes lots of sense. truck, peacekeeper, Cadillac, Ranger truck, security police, armored response, convoy. So these were the uh peacekeepers like the police of the of the uh missile site. So at war every day peacekeepers used in this missile field served in two primary goals. Providing armed response in an area security backup role and serving as armed convoy escort vehicles. I guess they had machine guns on the roof. Wow. This is a solid uh solid bulletproof. Yeah, nothing could penetrate this. Even the glass is bulletproof. So looking inside uh on the turret out there. That’s for the machine gun, communication antenna. And then the uh hatch at the back, which opens. I guess this was for uh looking through the window. And that was for the uh for the machine gun. Wow, it’s a nice building. Very nice. So, I guess we can go inside and see what this is all about. We did look around the truck. And we did uh observe the uh the writings by Sunu, the art of war. The nation nuclear defense rising from the planes. used to. So it said uh Pride Hanger at Ellsworth AFB headquartered at Ellsworth and then this is the great plains of ground zero. Welcome to the Minute Man missile national historic site. This is Rapid City out there and we are right here. uh close to a little town called Wall and then that’s Rapid City. And it says you are standing approximately 5,1 100 miles from Moscow, 1,400 miles from Washington DC, and nearly 4 miles from a facility that could launch nuclear weapons. The Great Plains once housed 1,000 intercontinental ballistic missiles, ICBMs. targeted primarily at Russia, formerly the Soviet Union. They still harbor launch facilities for hundreds of missiles. So I guess these are still active passport stamps. So this was the hatch to get deeper within the uh the sites which house the nuclear warheads. So this is all during the cold war from 1949 to 1991 where Russia and the US were uh in a big arms race. United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. We became a different country. In the words of nuclear physicist Robert Oenheimer, these remain the only instances in which nuclear weapons have been used in war. Meet the missiles a little about the Berlin wall. East Berlin and East and West Germany timeline 1934 world’s first nuclear fusion and then 1940 Enrio Fermy builds first nuclear reactor then 41 Japan attacks naval station in Pearl Harbor brings us into war. 42 Manhattan project begins to develop atomic bomb. Soviet Union begins nuclear weapon research. 4319 Germany begins to develop V2 rocket. 1952 US test it first thermono nuclear bomb in a wart at all. So that’s most probably in Alaska, Luton Islands. I guess 1954 US more power for hydrogen bomb. So withdraw historically 55 56 1957 58 59 58 President Eisenhower authorizes Minute Mania program. 1981, [Music] Ronald Reagan becomes president, increases defense spending. 1982 world’s largest anti-war demonstration to date. 1 million gather in New York to support UN special session on disarmament. continues continues. 1987 88 89 then 91 was this armorament first movement missile deactivated at Ellsworth AFB. Just uh finished touring the main site. uh the main uh missile site and now we are at delta one. This is uh a little bit about the landscape which we covered uh in the uh prior site. Uh different types of grass which grow in the area. So it’s a big uh cattle grazing uh area as well. Prairie ranch and missile fields. So the landscape around you is a traditional homeland of the Lakota people. So this tells a little bit about the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union always knew the locations of the m of the missile facilities in western South Dakota and in fact had them targeted. The American public remained largely oblivious. The front lines of the Cold War Minute Man land is eerie. On the surface, no weapon is visible. But beneath the empty prairies and forested hills, the gyroscopes are literally spinning. each ready to steer holocaustal destruction to a pre-selected target established in Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, as well as Missouri in early 1960s. Most Americans enjoying vacations in the West never suspected they were so close to Cold War front lines. The park is comprised of three sites along a 15mi stretch of Interstate 90 in western South Dakota. Delta 9 missile provides the opportunity to view a missile in place. Uh lots of information out here. So that’s the facility right in front which I’ll zoom into and most of the uh structures underground facility right there. During the cold war most of the uh structure of the whole complex was uh underneath uh underground. Yeah. So this is uh just giving the location where we are. We were at the visitor center prior. Right now we are at delta 1 and our next step will be next stop will be delta 9. A quick video on delta 9. So this where you guys have visited uh all three sites in the complex. the last of the Minute Man missile sites which is the Delta 9. As you can see we are right here. Most of the facilities were underground missile national historic site delta09 silo. 10 miles east of this location is Delta 1 launch facility which we visited. This is the Delta 9 launch facility. This is where we are. Delta 9. This is our location. And then it would have taken uh 30 minutes in flight, which is little over 5,000 miles to reach Moscow. The ballistic missile launched in uh Delta 9 would reach Moscow in 30 minutes. National weakness, real perceived contempt, aggression, and thus cause war. That’s why the United States can never neglect its military strength. At the ready, the fence compound defines the Delta 9 launch facility which held a Minute Man intercontinental ballistic missile ICBM during the Cold War. Anyone or anything that crossed the fence was in serious trouble. Standing orders meant the use of deadly force was authorized. motion sensors reported activity day and night. Now imagine 1,000 unmanned silos like this, each roughly the size of a football field, scattered widely across the American hardland. Here you see part of the enormous system that kept the United States secure from the Soviet Union. Nuclear attacks by threatening overwhelming destructions. outside it just looked like a corn field and a farm, but underneath was the uh the ICBM nuclear warhead which could reach Moscow from this location in 30 minutes. So this gives the uh size of the warhead. Three cars like say three little uh Honda felt four cars, four little uh little uh mini cars and that’s how big. So So here we are at uh Delta 9 and there’s a warning here. It is unlawful to enter this area without permission of the installation commander. While on this installation, all personnel and the property under their control are subject to search. So it says here, use of deadly force is authorized. So, and like other words, uh uh they can shoot you. Delta 9. Wow. It just looked like a a corn field in the middle of nowhere. Uh but uh the whole facility was uh underground. So this is it. Let’s uh see this. And then uh so this was the uh Delta 9 launch facility. And they had uh thousands of facilities like this identical to this uh scattered all over the Midwest like in these states. Uh, Minute Man missile hidden in plain sight. Why South Dakota? Because it’s very centrally located. A technological wand uh wonder the hatch access part of the uh missile complex as well. This I guess was the hatch access in here from here. It’s solid steel. And then this is all hardened uh completely uh solid uh construction. So, I don’t know if you could look inside, but uh that’s the ballistic missile. I don’t know if you could see it because there’s this thick uh thick glass. So that’s the ICBM which could reach Moscow from here in 30 minutes. But back then this glass structure wasn’t here. It was all like covered in concrete and most probably there was grass growing on top. One of the warheads. Uh, this must have been like covered up as well, like hidden. Who knows what? Maybe high grass or a farm, just like a a place where people store old farm equipment. But underneath was a a ballistic missile. As I mentioned, this wasn’t the only site. lots of hardened uh concrete and hidden like all the sites hidden and and this is uh the past. But could you imagine the the nuclear facilities right now which are hidden which no one knows about. though because this is uh 2025 and uh lots of nuclear weapons are still uh [Music] are still in use for some reason. They still have high security here. Delta 9. So this is the last the last of the three which are still preserved. Delta 9. Thank you for uh watching. As usual, uh please subscribe for more uh interesting content and I’ll try and post more stuff as I travel uh across the US.
The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, located near Wall, South Dakota, preserves the last intact Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile system in the United States. Established in 1999, it offers guided tours of a launch control center and a missile silo, highlighting the history and significance of the Cold War and nuclear deterrence.