Command and Control

The greatest nuclear threat to the continental US was not the Cuban Missile Crisis; Russia wasn’t about to go to war over that sinkhole. On September 18, 1980 during the Carter Administration, a Titan Missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas had an accident where a 9 megaton thermonuclear warhead was thrown out of its silo by an explosion. Nukes are machines, only the wrench in the machine turned out to be a ratchet which did not allow the socket of an oxidizer tank to snap securely in place, causing a rupture and fuel leak.  This bomb was more powerful than all the explosives used in WWII, including the two A-bombs! So, the last thing you want to hear at a job site at a nuclear silo is, “uh-oh!” which was what came over the SAC speakers! This documentary exposes these events as well as the statistical reassurances that the “lost” warheads won’t detonate or deteriorate over time. Oh, and the public was totally unaware that nuclear warheads were even involved in the incident! Based on the book by Eric Schlosser.

[NR]