How Times Have Changed

I was looking though some of my previous pictures from a vacation I took in Tucson (yes there are things to do in Tucson, so no comments how boring the city is) and I came across this picture of my daughter climbing what appears to be some piece of metal in the desert. While I should have used a wide angled lens, what this picture actually depicts is my daughter climbing one of the sliding doors that covered a Titan class nuclear missile. I find it interesting how times have changed so much in the past 30 years that what was once a top secret military Cold War facility that was designed to counter attack a nuclear strike from the USSR is nothing more than a climbing toy for my daughter.

The picture to the right was exactly what my daughter was climbing over. While at the Desert Museum the next day I talked to an elderly man that was stationed at this facility in the 60's. I asked him how the war head was transported to the facility and it was interesting to hear the tale. There were two convoys. One convoy consisted of tanks, truck, enough armed personal to occupy a small country, and fighter jets in the air. In one of these truck would be the supposed warhead. The other convoy was nothing more than a 57' Chevy owned by a local farmer that was contracted to deliver food for the facility from the local farms. In reality and with no notification to the farmer his truck carried the warhead and the military convoy carried the food. After all, who would ever think to attack some beat up old truck cruising down the road thinking that there was a warhead in its bed.

Got to love American ingenuity!