Titan II

Launch Day

"Get into the van!" I screamed over the sound of the air raid siren.

The busy and bustling streets were alive and oblivious to the missiles. With all of the threats of war against the Soviets, it would have seemed unlikely that this situation could have been avoided. I hurriedly loaded my family of three kids, a dog and my beloved wife into the van.

As part of the North American Air Defence Command, it was my job to respond to any air-borne threats against America. I was stationed at Tucson, Arizona to keep a watch on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the 150 ton missile it contained. Me and the other members of our division were given orders by President Truman himself to put the launch of the missile at first priority.

Following these orders, I arrived at the military base and told my wife to drive the van to the west and stop at Fresno, California where there will be a correspondent to guarantee their safety.

With one last hug and kiss goodbye, she left to embark on her long journey to the west.

All of the news of imminent war had lead everyone to tighten up their security. There were no less than eighty guards patrolling the immediate vicinity and certainly countless more out of sight.

"Halt!" exclaimed one of the guards. "Identify yourself."

"Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Anderson of NORAD missile defence squadron 3659, stationed at Tucson, Arizona," I inform him, promptly providing my identification papers.

"Very well. We will be sending an armed escort to ensure security," informed the guard.

We descended the steel mesh staircase into the lover levels. There was a loudspeaker playing the president's speech live.

"We are in times of national crisis. There are seven nuclear missiles launching from unknown locations in the Soviet Union. We are at DEFCON 1. Our air defence squadrons have been informed and are currently launching a counter attack from the thousands of missile silos around the country. May this great country survive and may god have mercy on our souls."

It finally came to my mind, just near the launch control site, that what was going to happen was real and that World War III was upon us.

"Anderson. Why are you so late?" exclaimed my squadron commander.

"With all due respect, sir," I explained, "we are at a time of national war and can't waste a precious second on talking."

With that the commander gave a firm nod and began the launch sequence.

Over the intercom came several numbers and letters in phonetic. We wrote them down and authenticated with each other's.

With both numbers valid, we were given permission to unlock our safes with our unique code and find a matching authentication card for the first two letters and matched them up with the first letters of the announcement.

Launch order is legitimate. With that, we entered our personal code into a keypad. This unlocked a keyhole.
The last order of business was to set the code. The commander walked over to the code wheel and set the seven digit code.

Finally, the commander gave the order, "Lieutenant Colonel Anderson, turn key in 3, 2," at this point I was beginning to feel my heart pounding, "1."

We both turned the keys in unison. A few seconds later he gave me the order to release. There were two lights glowing. One green light that said "LAUNCH ENABLE" and a white light that said "BATTERY POWER."

Once both of those lights were on, there was no going back.

An orange light came on that read "APS POWER."

At about that same time, another orange light came on that read "SILO SOFT."

A dark orange light lit up that illuminated the words "GUIDANCE GO."

No more than two seconds later, there was an incandescent light telling us of the engine start and the fire in the launch bay.

Finally, a bright red light illuminated and displayed the words "LIFT OFF."

With that, the giant Titan II missile was off to the great beyond, soon to be a brilliant yellow mushroom cloud above its preset target in the USSR.