The Socket That Killed A Man...and a Titan, too.

[Schurkey]

I visited the Titan II Missile Museum south of Tucson, Arizona a couple of weeks ago. Nicely recommended; it's small and it's focused, but where else can you visit a Titan's home?

http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/

Among the exhibits and displays--and aside from the semi-authentic Titan In The Ground which was a real treat to see, there's a listing of some of the tragedies involved in Mutual Assured Destruction. "FOD" is deadly real.

The socket was placed higher-up in the cabinet than I am tall, and behind glass that made my auto-focus camera somewhat unhappy. I can verify that the display socket--"identical" to the real one which is probably orbiting Mars--is a Cornwell. Best I can tell, it is part number 154100, but I can't be certain. At eight pounds, it is a bigass socket!

The socket knocked a hole in the fuel system; they evacuated and vented but hours later the thing went "boom". "...blowing the 740-ton launch duct closure door 200 feet into the air and some 600 feet northeast of the launch complex."

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2543

 

[Jarhead0408]

...So that's why Cornwell plays second fiddle to Snappy!

 

[thieltech]

cool stuff

 

[softailgarage]

Now thats a badass socket, only 8lbs and blowin up a missle silo! Lets see Snappy try that ****.....no, better not. Cornwells Bad *** Socket, I wonder how much it cost?

 

[montanafordman]

Now thats a badass socket, only 8lbs and blowin up a missle silo! Lets see Snappy try that ****.....no, better not. Cornwells Bad *** Socket, I wonder how much it cost?

Since it was a government contract, I'm sure it "cost" more than you make in a year.. Whether the number reported to the government budget office and the sum paid to Cornwell were actually the same number is unclear.

 

[bad luck]

Killer socket, we need more government regulations on those damn things.

 

[CoopVA]

What size would an 8 lbs socket be?

 

[wbrian63]

If you want an interesting read about how many times the US has come VERY close to having a major nuclear incident, read Command and Control by Eric Schlosser.

The book starts with the story of the socket, and covers many other situations starting with the original Manhattan project up to the socket incident and how fantastically lucky we are to not have turned several populated areas of the US to radioactive slag.

Command and Control is also available as an audio book for those like me that don't have time to read but spend a lot of time in the car.

And to be exact, the silo wasn't located at the Little Rock AFB - they don't site missle silos at AFB's for obvious reasons. It was most indeed in Arkansas, but just not at LRAFB.

 

[txvwnut]

So all this govt. money spent on missile defense systems when all we need is an 8lb Cornwell socket and one ******* to drop it?!

 

[honcho]

Little Rock AFB was the maintenance and support center for the Titan II missiles silos scattered around central Arkansas. Growing up in the area you would occasionally see strange convoys of vehicles that were so conspicuous in their attempts to be inconspicuous. Folks who live near bases like FE Warren in Wyoming and Minot AFB in N. Dakota will know what I'm talking about.

As to the socket and its cost. In a later portion of my life I worked in military procurement and there are some things the government gets extremely good prices on and there are some things the government definitely pays too much for. The famous $800 toilet seats and hammers were the result of paying the prime contractors to provide those items as part of procurement packages. We paid for the hammer and a whole lot of bureaucracy as that is how companies legally make money in government contracts. It's like making sausage, you sometimes really don't want to know what all goes into the process.

I spent over 5 years of my military career with nuclear weapons duties. I thank God we never had to use them and pray that such a day never comes. We have a robust system for protecting and deploying nukes and it is tough duty--defects and mistakes aren't tolerated and it takes a toll on the people who work in the system for any length of time. While we heap praise on our deployed soldiers, sailors (navy & coasties), airmen and marines, don't forget to remember the men and women--uniformed and civilian--who operate, maintain and protect our nuclear arsenal. (yep, even you Panhandle Texans in Amarillo!)

 

[CobraChevelle]

And they say Harbor Freight tool put your lives in danger

 

[arz71]

And they say Harbor Freight tool put your lives in danger

Now that is funny!

 

[CobraChevelle]

Now that is funny!

If that was a snap on scoket that fell, I bet that Missile would of blown up on impact.


On a serious note, that is interesting but also sad what happend.

 

[arz71]

If that was a snap on scoket that fell, I bet that Missile would of blown up on impact.


On a serious note, that is interesting but also sad what happend.

Interesting, but the comment on the Harlet-Freight was comical.

 

[Steinmetz]

If you want an interesting read about how many times the US has come VERY close to having a major nuclear incident, read Command and Control by Eric Schlosser.

The book starts with the story of the socket, and covers many other situations starting with the original Manhattan project up to the socket incident and how fantastically lucky we are to not have turned several populated areas of the US to radioactive slag.

Command and Control is also available as an audio book for those like me that don't have time to read but spend a lot of time in the car.

And to be exact, the silo wasn't located at the Little Rock AFB - they don't site missle silos at AFB's for obvious reasons. It was most indeed in Arkansas, but just not at LRAFB.

Agree. Command and Control was a very interesting book. Well worth reading.

 

[BK13]

Holy ****, can't you yahoos with a hard on for HF leave an interesting thread unspoiled by your hang ups?


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[tweedlestan]

Holy ****, can't you yahoos with a hard on for HF leave an interesting thread unspoiled by your hang ups?


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Lighten up, Francis.

 

[BK13]

I probably deserve that, but the HF bashing gets enough play in the threads where it's relevant.

And you touch my stuff, I'll kill you. LOL


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[BikerDad]

So all this govt. money spent on missile defense systems when all we need is an 8lb Cornwell socket and one ******* to drop it?!

Yes, but they must be SAE sockets, to insure that maximum damage is inflicted upon Russki/Chicom/NorK metric missiles.

The ******* can be of any variety, the trick is finding a ******* who won't screw it up.

 

[oldtools]

If it was a Snap On socket, it probably cost more than the missle.

 

[oldtools]

They could have use a Titan socket for the Titan missile.

 

[BikerDad]

The famous $800 toilet seats and hammers were the result of paying the prime contractors to provide those items as part of procurement packages.

Sigh..... I worked for Lockheed at the time of the $800 toilet seat brouhaha. The only scandal was the reporting. The toilet seat was a $17 seat or some such, sourced from the local plumbing supplier. The $800 was for the toilet COVER. Why would a toilet need a cover you ask? Think about the last time you used the restroom on an airplane. (no, not the time in your dreams when you joined the Mile High Club with a Victoria's Secret Angel). Was it a normal toilet? No, it was a normal toilet seat on a "deck" which covered the tank that held the nasty.

THAT is the part that cost as much as it did. Why? Because they are a) aircraft parts, which means gobs of QA costs, and b) because they were hand made parts in small quantities. The # needed at any given time was too small to justify tooling for a less expensive per unit production run.

There are excesses and stupidity in gov't purchasing. The toilet seat cover? That's not one of 'em.

 

[lwlobo]

That is a very cool tour of the Titan II site in AZ, did that several years ago. I remember noticing how well made and robust everything was. The doors on the conrol center were 8" steel, weighed literally tons, and the hinges were so good you could easily move them with one finger.

IIRC, the silo door is permanantly halfway open so satelites can see in and the rocket replica can't be swapped or launched.

 

[DanielC99]

The night that happened I was awakened by the sound of helicopters and sirens screaming past on Hwy 65. The silo was in Damascus, about 15 miles north of me. At that time I had no idea what was going on. My BIL worked for the Office of Emergency Services at the time. (Not sure if that was what it was called at the time). He was headed to Damascus as part of his job. He crested a hill just as the thing blew up and saw the explosion. Later told me he fully expected the light from the explosion to be the last thing he ever saw due to the expected nuclear explosion. Thank God that didn't happen. And thank the engineers that built the safe guards into those things.
I later worked for an industrial electrician that had a job working on the building in the LRAFB building where they worked on the warheads. They had I think 18 silos in Central Ar, and 19 warheads. They would swap out warheads in each silo and bring the 19th into the base to do maintenance on it. When we first went into the building they had armed guards watching every move we made. After about a week we were on our own. We could have climbed all over the warhead if we had wanted to. We just didn't want to...

 

[Grimly]

Cornwells Bad *** Socket, I wonder how much it cost?

Twenty million dollars, in the end.

 

[Buckgnarly]

Now thats a badass socket, only 8lbs and blowin up a missle silo! Lets see Snappy try that ****.....no, better not. Cornwells Bad *** Socket, I wonder how much it cost?

Snap On would not have slipped....

Kidding....but seriously, they went with Cornwell because there would be no one (dealers) to blame!......I kid, I kid....

 

[Engine]

If it had been a Snap On socket, it would be the ORIGINAL one on display -- not an "identical" one.

 

[CNGsaves]

I remember reading that mistakes like this (ie dropped socket) led to procedural changes where EVERY item had a tether . . . . ie the socket SHOULD have been on a rope.

I'm sure NASA had same procedures in space where items had tethers so "lost in space" item could be reeled back in !!

 

[3baygarage]

Interesting fact there, Schurkey.

I wish the part number was clear so we could look up the socket size, but even then it would have to be a rather obscure Cornwell being both old and that large.