Episode 118: F*ck It, It's Friday (Damascus Titan II Missile Disaster)

In this week's episode, Abby takes the gang on an exciting journey as she recounts the tale of the 1980 Damascus Titan II missile explosion. Join us as we explore the realm of nuclear disaster near-misses and examine the one simple mistake that nearly wiped Arkansas off the map.

Credits:
Disaster Autopsy
This American Life Podcast, Episode 634 
Wikipedia.com
PopularMechanics.com

Music By:
Brokeforfree.com
Matt Edon

Edited By:
Michael

Website:
https://anxiousandafraidthepod.com/

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How's it feeling here? Okay, okay, so I'm not bad
at all, Rascoe and your dreams? Yeah right there, perfect, God,
stay there, that's the hard part, rascal idiot, now nod

(00:22):
saw your legs on your lips. Come come, come this way.
Oh my god, oh my god, it is. I just
want to be close to you, as close as I
possibly can understand. I want to crawl inside your body
if I could. Hello, guys, welcome, welcome. I'm Mabby and

(00:56):
I'm Shauna and this is anxious and afraid. Yay my back, Agay,
here we are.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I just want to preface I don't always call it
Roscoe an idiot. It's mostly just when we're up.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Here, yes, because there's so many things in so little space,
and he is so big. I love and dopey.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I love him so so much. But he has the
emptiest brain you'll ever meet.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Does not realize his size, he or that he's a dog.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
There's just so many chords and cables. He thinks he's
a cat.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
He's not. He wants to be on our laps. Yeah,
we could.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Rip every single thing off the table that's connected to
a cord or Yeah, it's so anyway, I don't verbally
abuse him all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
No, no, no, we love We love him so hard. He's
currently laying on my feet. He just wants to be
a co host, he really does.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
He loves us so so much. I'm sorry I called
you stupid. You're he's under the table. He's not your
fault that you're stupid. You're so cute though, cruscious boy,
he's the sweetest boy.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Anyway. Anyway, why are you in s and I'm afraid?
This week?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Uh well, this week Michael and I we're getting our
new fence in installed.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
So adult, I know.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I feel like all we do is just having a
house is such a scam. All you do is just
give everything as a scam. Every single penny we make
goes into this house. Just to keep it standing. Defence
was like literally updating. Yeah, it's like it's not like
you know, we're not like putting in a hot tub

(02:30):
or like just trying to keep the fence standing.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
The basics. Yeah, just the basics. And you're doing the basics. Yeah,
it's all of your money all the time. Yeah, everyone
wants your money. Don't keep it at all.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
And everything is at least one thousand dollars, like at minimum,
it's always just at least one thousand dollars and I'm
just everything's so expensive.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Everyone's like I want a house like you don't. Don't.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's a scam. It's all scam scam. But anyway, Yeah,
we're getting a fence. Good for you guys, thank you.
Goodbye money. Hello fence Uh so.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
So so exciting. We don't go on vacation. We just
buy a new fence. Uh yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
So that's what's getting done this week. Which it's good
because the last time, when THEO was born, the fence
literally fell down while we were in the hospital, so it.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Needed to be done for sure. Yeah. So that's been
fun checking it off your list and that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
So good check check check. And THEO busa his face yesterday,
which was really sad. That also made me pretty anxious.
His poor little mouth just full of blood and.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
He's okay, but he's getting scraped up. I know.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Boys, I mean, Toddler's just in general are just wrecking balls.
They just he's like fearless and doesn't they have no coordination.
They just trip and fall and it's they don't get
their hands up. So it's just the face that takes
it and poor kid. But we saw spider and that
was very distracting, and so thank you to that spy
for saving the day. And he's okay, but his lip

(04:03):
is like looks like he got some plumber.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
But anyway, he'll be fine. What about you, oh man,
I mean I wanted to talk about yesterday for me
because I took Tod and I took Violin to the
coast in Newport and we took her to the aquarium
for the first time. So magical. Oh, and she's like
at the perfect age. It was like a dream come true.

(04:30):
She was just like in awe of everything and just yes,
she was like splashing her hand in the water, like
we were holding her up so she can like touch
the little like starfish and she was just like wanted
to run everywhere, but then also stay at the same
place at the same time, like she was overwhelmed. And
it was beautiful and I loved it. Oh, did she
have a favorite? Hmm? I mean the jellyfish were pretty great. Yeah,

(04:54):
we actually had to buy her a jellyfish stuffed animal.
That's the one she chose. But you like, oh, on
the shark tunnel, of course. Oh, the shark tunnel. Like
when she first went in, she had like her hands
up like she didn't like she was like thought she
was going to touch something, but she was like whoa.
And then I was like look and you can walk
on the glass too, and she's like whoa. It was

(05:16):
so cute. So they have the sea otters there too, right,
did you get to see Yes, we got to see
like a glimpse of them feeding. It was just pretty crowded, so.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
We were just like, nah, yeah, it's hard when you
can only go on the weekend because that's whenever one
else goes.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
But yeah, but first Saturday on a hot day, like,
it wasn't that bad at all. Nice, So it was
like we felt like successful. That's so in our trip.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I want to take the yoto of the aquarium so bad.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh they love it so fun. Yeah, I feel like
it is expensive. Nothing's cheap anymore. How much is it
is it? Like? Is it still well?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay, I think the last time I checked it was
like thirty five bucks a person.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh my gosh, that's what I said. But it's thirty
dollars for adults and twenty dollars for child twenty dollars
for a child. Twenty dollars for a trial that's barely
a discount, a little more expensive than wild Life so far.
I mean we like Justified. I'm like, I guess they
need the money, and I guess it's worth the experience.
In the photos, it's so much money. I was like, wow,

(06:18):
this is this rough ouch.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
And then you probably spent your whole paycheck on that jellyfish.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, that was like twenty five bucks.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
When we went to wild Life Summer Food. Of course,
THEO threw up in the car, so we had to buy,
oh snap t shirt at the gift shop and I
was like, oh, change his shirt was so scared the
T shirt. It was at least like was it like
twenty five dollars?

Speaker 1 (06:41):
I don't know. We're tiny, tiny, Yeah, easily easily, But
she gotta do it making memories. Oh, it was worth it.
I mean it was for like us, but because you're
like living through her. Sure she's not gonna remember, but.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Like, you know, I spend that much on door Dash
in a weekend, so I could I could splurge the aquarium.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, I mean a memory photos and little videos are priceless,
and we need to remember all these moments to see
the video and oh yeah, I gotta show you. I
gotta post it. That's a that's precious. That's what I did.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
That's so fun. It's so cool that we get to
live right near the coast. Yeah, you just go there. Yeah,
Newport wasn't that. I mean, it's like an hour forty
five minute drive. It's not really, It's not.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Horrible at all. Yeah, even for a day trip, it
felt good.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
I think Wildlife Safaria is even closer. It's like, really, yeah,
it's not bad. It's all freeway, which is why I
was so shocked that THEO threw up because it was
like literally a straight shot and I was like, oh wow.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
He'd never gotten carsick before. It was the first time
and I didn't. That's a win for me. Oh wow,
you're the CARCCK queen. I know, and I didn't even know.
I did take my Nauja pills, so that helps me. Yeah.
We always have to make Sean to sit in the
front because I'd be carsick all the time. Yeah, that's rough. Yikes. Anyway, Okay,

(07:57):
oh my gosh, I mean it's you're trying to give
us an outsideld. I know.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Oh I am sorry. For the heavy breathing. You guys
might hear. I'm almost thirty two weeks pregnant at this point.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
She's on the yeah, the later spectrum of pregnancy.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, the baby just kicked me really hard. And he's like, hey,
stop whining. I could be making this worse for you. Yeah,
so apologize for the heavy breathing.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
It's probably just we all understand. It's just how it is.
You know, my lungs are squished. I mean I had that.
It was same for me. Everyone's aware and has to
deal with it.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
I don't realize it until I listen back and I'm like, I.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Can't even listen back. God, is that what I sound like?
I'm sorry, and we're just sitting here. I know that's
what I'm still sitting. That's what it's like. Okay, Okay,
we got you your fevre. Okay, we ready?

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, okay, so episode one eighteen nice, We're getting so
close to one twenty fun I know, Okay, Okay, So
today I have a story of disaster and destruction.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
My favorite. You know how much we love these they
are our favorite. Oh boy.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
This disaster occurred on American soil in nineteen eighty okay,
and although there was certainly destruction and loss of life,
the level of near miss cannot be understated. Okay, today
I will be telling you the story of one little
oopsie daisy that almost wiped the state of Arkansas off

(09:27):
the map and plunged the US into nuclear fallout for
decades to come. Oh whoa, Today we will be discussing
the Titan two missile silo explosion. Is this on your list?

Speaker 1 (09:42):
No? No, okay, I don't think I know this.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
I didn't think you would. And so when you were
like scared that maybe we're doing the same thing, I
was like, I really don't think. I really don't think.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, this is not I probably want No, I want
to have looked at this type of disaster. No, oh yeah,
I know. I was like, this is this isn't a
shann A disaster. Oh, but I want to hear all
about it. It's pretty crazy, Okay crazy? Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
So I also hadn't heard of it until recently. It
blew my mind. I don't know how it's not just
like the fact that we almost wiped Arkansas off the map.
Is the fact that that's not well more well known?

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Right? That's that sounds pretty like a like a big deal.
Yeah over a human mistake, Like it's always a human mistake. God,
stupid humans.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
If it's not Mother Nature just cracking off, it's us. Yeah.
So and another fun fact, this actually happened on your birthday.
Not the year obviously, but the day right. So that's fun,
so fun for me, so fun for you. Okay, let's

(10:50):
get started. So our story today opens in rural Arkansas,
near the town of Damascus. The year was nineteen eighty
and a young nineteen year old old man named Jeff
Plum was training for a new job.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Plum, I know, Jeff Plum. That's delightful, mister Plumb. Uh so,
I mean a new job that's a nerve wracking experience
for any young person. Oh yeah, but Jeff wasn't just.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Training to like mop the floors of a movie theater
or flip burgers. He was training to be a missile technician.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Oh casual. I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
I'm not like trying to be agis, but I don't
believe a nineteen year old and a missile should ever be.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Like it sounds a little young in the same together.
That's just me.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Apparently our military was like super comfy with the idea,
which I mean, if you think about it, I feel
like it's just teenagers for the most part in the
military anyway. Like yeah, it's just kind of wild when
you when you're this age and you look at it
and you're like, there's children with guns.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Children riding around, like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm crazy. It's
like when you watch college football and you're like, they're children.
Those are babies. They used to be so old to us,
and now their children, their children, they have acne. It's crazy. Okay.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
So young Jeff and his trainer, a man named David Powell,
were in a truck on their way to the job site,
passing through rural farmland and trees. They're probably listening to
the hits of the Song of the Summer, which is
in September, which is upside Down by Diana Ross.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Oh you know that one. No, I don't know, sad
damn no, nope, Okay, I don't really know the rest
of it. So that's that's all.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
The truck eventually made its way down a gravel road
and came to a fence. Beyond the fence was a
large concrete slab on the ground, accompanied by several antenna
protruding from the earth, very unassuming. It's giving no indication
that beneath that concrete slab an extremely powerful nuclear weapon
was housed, which is kind of wild. There's just there's

(12:57):
just places Key West.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Loki have a huge that can sload in the ground.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, but I guess you gotta put them somewhere, like you.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
I don't like that thought at all.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
So the two men had just arrived at the three
hundred and eighth Strategic Missile Complex three seventy four TOSH seven,
one of eighteen silos in the command of the three
hundred and eighth Strategic Missile Wing. So you know what
like a grain silo looks like?

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Right? Yes, okay, so I do I've so please, I
do actually know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Okay, So imagine one of those. But it's one hundred
and forty six feet tall, which is about the equivalent
of a fourteen story building, but instead of being above ground,
it's buried beneath that concrete slab. Okay, And of course,
as you can imagine, there are numerous security measures to
navigate to reach the stairs below that slab.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
I would hope that'll be right.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
There's secret pas codes there's gates. There's several thick concrete doors,
metal doors. I don't think they had the eyeball scans yet.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Or like the fingerprints or like the blood blood yeah,
I or something.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
I would want one of those down there, but I
don't know if they had that yet. So codes, Okay.
So once you get down those stairs, you hit a
hallway and you can go one of two ways. One
way leads to the three story control room where all
the computers and communication systems are located.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, I bet that looks epic.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Lots of buttons as well as the most or so
that's where most of the employees work at that space. Sure,
and it's buried deep enough to withstand a nuclear.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Blast, damn.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah. The other hallway led to the missile silo, which
contained the Titan two missile. Jeff Plumb was quoted saying
I was in awe when I would walk into the silo.
When you open up the silo door and you walk
in there and look at this, and sometimes the lighting
is in there is just right to where it just
loomed out of the dark like it was a bullet

(15:05):
and a chamber ready to.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Go, you know, EW, well, like EW okay.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
And it had this dark black warhead on top, pure
destruction at the fingertips of a couple of men.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Ew Like, that just seems so creepy and haunting to
look at.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, it's I'll post pictures of what it looked like
on the inside. It is such a huge missile. It's
hard to kind of comprehend, Yeah, what that looks like,
and then also what that giant warhead on.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
The end of it looks like. But it's very intimidating. Yeah.
The only thing I can think to like compare it
with is like kind of the thing of imagining like
deep down in the ocean and it's like so dark
and then all of a sudden, like there's a massive
like whale or squid in front of you or something
like that. And it really does look like a bullet
in a chamber, like a giant bullet in this gross

(15:52):
It just seems so like evil and scary. It's just
like just made to kill.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, it's just waiting like a lot to be launched,
like too much. Okay, So let's talk about that that
missile for a second, because it's a doozy So at
the time, the missile or sorry, the Titan two missile
was the most powerful weapon in the US's military arsenal.
The devastation that a single rocket, and we had several

(16:18):
could do was like mind boggling. To find an equivalent
example of explosive power, you would have to take every
single bomb dropped during World War Two, including both atomic bombs,
and then times that by three three to match the
power of a.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Single Titan two missile. No, both atomic bombs's and all
the rest of them, three of them times three. That's
I mean, you're saying the numbers, and it's still hard
to fathom. It's yeah, like how do you that's like
just complete destruction, Like how does the world, the whole

(17:00):
world not be affected. It's too much. It's too much,
is what we're doing. That's it's too much. Y'all are
doing too much, and I'm grossed out by it. Every
too many, just too many. I don't like knowing this
at all. Three E I'm just lit.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Okay, but there's a problem. So the Titan two missiles
were becoming dangerously outdated, specifically in their fuel systems.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Its like, okay, they can expire, they have a best
buy date, but then that's like potential for more danger,
right right.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Uh, so you have the warhead and sitting below the
nuclear warhead, So the warheads like on top, right, that's
like the pointness of the missile penis.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
I was gonna say the tip of the rocket, because
everything has to be everything's a penish. Also is the
lesson every just everything's penis. These pinas weren't made to
fly jinas, aren't aerodynamics. I can argue that point. Yeah,

(18:14):
just let us try. Okay, maybe we can make airplanes, cops,
Oh is genitals? Okay, took a turn. Okay, sorry, Oh mature,
I'm super mature. Okay, so what was I?

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Okay, you've got the warhead, Okay, that's right, right, And
sitting below the nuclear warhead are two tanks full of
highly volatile substances. By the nineteen eighties, it had become
common practice to use solid fuel substances that were more stable,
but the Titan two missiles were developed in the nineteen
sixties when liquid fuel source were the norm, and the

(19:00):
goal back then, during the height of the Cold War,
when the United States and Russia were locked in a
game of mutually assured destruction via nuclear warfare, was to
be able to launch a warhead as quickly as possible.
So you know, Russia got all up any and they're like.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Well, we're gonna blow you up. We're like, oh, we're
gonna blow you up. And then we just blow each
other up. What a fun time, A great time to
be loved.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
The liquid fuel made that possible, but it was also
extremely dangerous. One of the materials was an oxidizer and
the other was rocket fuel. Their names, I'm only gonna
say this once for all of our sakes. Di nitrogen
textas science chemicals, DI nitrogen techs, tetroxide yep, it is

(19:47):
the right way to say it. Probably not and unsymmetrical.
Dimethyl hydrozene. Wow, that one rolled off.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah you did that one.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Ce what dimethyl hydrozenei science. When the two materials are mixed,
they become what is called a hypergolic mixture, which ignites
instantly upon coming into contact.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
With each other. Scary.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yes, this is all well and good if they meet, well, say,
inside an engine to propel a nuclear warhead, but very
very bad if they were to meet under accidental circumstances.
Sandy did a big boom.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, we don't want the word accidental and explosion to me.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
No, so you essentially have a bomb sitting beneath an
even bigger bomb. Even on their own. The two materials
were extremely dangerous. The oxidizer was classed as a Class
A poison, which is the most toxic grade for a chemical.
It was also extremely easy to ignite and would ignite
spontaneously if it came into contact with leather, paper, cloth,

(20:51):
or wood.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Oh so it doesn't even need like a spark. Nah,
it just needs paper, nice to meet you, just or
some wood. Yeah, yep, I don't like this. This has
been uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's it's not a good material to be working with. Yeah,
if you don't know what you're doing. The rocket fuel
could ignite if it touched rust, or even just on
its own, if there were enough fumes in the air
around it and you like waved your hand quickly. No,
if it touched your bare skin, it would burn you
like acid.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Ooh.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
These factors made the technicians the fuel sources more than
the nuclear warhead and I mean valid.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
So what kind of people would be brazen enough to
take a job that could kill you in an instant?
Teenagers with a frontal lobe that still had a lot
of maturing to do.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
These missile technicians or propellant transfer system teams as that's
a professional name. They were largely young men raging from
eighteen to twenty years old, working on nuclear warheads.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
What wait to say that, because it sounded like you
said raging, ranging or raging Then I got lost on
that word. So they're young men eighteen to twenty years
eighteen to twenty children, Yeah, babies with the scariest weapon
to known ever.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, and they're just expected to just do maintenance and
like clean it up. Yeah, just get in there. Boys,
it's fine.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Oh no, yeah, so uh I mean but like, also,
if you think about it, who has less fear than
a teenage boy? Also true?

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Like they feel invincible, right hm. When asked, Jeff Plumb said, quote,
we could do anything that was our mindset. We were
invincible and nothing was going to stop us. Yep, makes sense,
you know a nineteen It just I didn't have any
fear of things at that point in my life.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yep, I remember those days.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
I mean even yeah, as a teenage girl, like the
amount of shit that probably almost killed me is staggering.
I had no concept of it. Oh yeah, no fear.
To demonstrate that point. For fun, they would fill a
bucket with rocket fuel and fill a ping pong ball
with oxidizer and then throw it into the bucket to

(23:16):
watch it explode. Idiots like boys, such boys.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
I guess. They were small little explosions, but like still
you're playing, you're still next to like the.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
You're playing with insane chemicals, Like if any of that
got on their skin, it would.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Just oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yes, okay, but the job was apparently pretty boring between
all of the high stakes, like adrenaline dumps. Okay, sure,
the missile so they're just like blowing off steam, I guess.
But yeah, so they're running around all day doing mine
numbing repair and maintenance tasks, working twelve to fourteen hour shifts.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Ouch. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
So and the missiles they're outdated, they're constantly needing repaired,
and so they had a lot of stuff like a
large workload and like old equipment that they're working with. Okay,
so before I get into the nitty gritty, let's just
take a quick break. Okay, we're back. It sounds that

(24:22):
sounded really natural and it felt good. Okay, all right,
so let's get back to Jeff Plumb and his trainer,
David Powell. The two men were going down into the
missile silo to do some routine maintenance on one of
the missile's fuel tanks, which was low on pressure. The
task at hand was to take off the dust cap.
It's kind of like a fuel cap for a missile.

(24:44):
You pump in more liquid and then you replace the cap.
Sounds pretty simple, right, The problem was getting to the
dust cap. The men were using a hydraulic platform to
get up to where the dust cap was, but the
platform had broken, so the were made to wait for
hours on a Friday while the platform was repaired.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Ouch okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
When the platform was finally fixed, the men were dying
to suit up and get this job done so they
could go enjoy their Friday evening. The suits were the
suits that they were required to wear were made for
handling rocket fuel. So picture those really bulky white suits
with helmets. They have their own air supply, kind of
like spacesuits.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah yeah, thick bulky gloves.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Like doing anything is awkward and kind of challenging. So
they get in their suits and they climb onto the
platform where they were lifted almost to the top of
the one hundred and three foot missile cakes, but there
was a problem. On their way up to the platform,
Jeff Plumb realized he didn't have the torque wrench needed

(25:50):
for the job.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
I'm sorry, that's such a buffer. I know you've already
been waiting like all day to do this, all the
way up there, and then you're like, oh wait, I
forgot and you put on this suit.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
They probably took forever, and he's the new guy.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Ouch okay, And.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
The military checklist for these repairs were extensive and detailed.
I hope, so okay, yes, right, you would hope. But
he couldn't imagine trying to do the job without the wrench.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah. They had just gone through all the freaking security
doors and secret passwords and the wrench was sitting in
the truck above ground. Oh okay, so even worse. It's
not even like at the bottom, it's like outside outside building. Oh.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
He looked to his trainer, David Powell for direction. David
was like, okay, a man, He's like, that sucks, but
I have this. I have done this repair with a
different wrench before and it was totally fine. It's not regulation,
but it worked at a pinch and fuck it, it's Friday.

(26:53):
Jeff Plumb was like, well, I mean, if you say so,
and so they continued to the platform.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
But it's also a nuclear weapon.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
It's fine, Shan that it's Friday. But the wrench they
brought instead is huge. It's like three feet long and
the socket ways up to Do you know what socket
wrench is?

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Uh? No, I don't.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Actually, can you hear Sean's alarm going up?

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Okay, it's alarm? Should I go? Yeah? I guess that
was louder than I thought. No one's missing that alarm. Okay,
alarm is handled.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
We're back right, Yes, Okay, we're good. Sorry, it's fine.
Was that for birth control or something?

Speaker 1 (27:44):
No, my.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Antidipressants important. M Okay, I hope you took those.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
I did. We're good.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Can't have you sad on my watch. Okay, So back
to this wrench. Okay, So the wrench they brought up instead,
it's like three feet long. It's got a socket on it.
Oh yeah, I was asking you if you knew what
a socket wrench was.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Oh yeah, if I saw one, maybe it's the one
that has that like little round thingy at the end
of it. It's oh and you kind of like crank it.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I know. Look at you. I'm knowing things.
What a man? What a man? Okay, So it's one
of those. But it's huge.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
A three feet three foot long socket wrench is absolutely
mass It's massive. Yeah, the socket alone, like the thing
on the end of it that weighs up to eight pounds.
Oh yeah. But it was also kind of broken. So
the handle stop the handle in the socket were supposed
to like click together, but they didn't. So when the
men got to the dust cap, one guy had to

(28:47):
hold the socket in place over the dust caps.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Not only are they already using the wrong wrench, but
it's a broken wrong run yeah, wrong one.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
So on one holds it over the dust cap while
the other guy turns the handle.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Wow to job.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Okay, not ideal, but the dust cap came off easy enough,
so it worked, okay. H Plumb then removes the socket
piece he hands he sorry. He turns to hand it
to Powell, who reaches up to grab it with his
like thick gloves. Plumb is like, you got it, You're good,
and Paul's like, yeah, just hand it to me.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
I got it. God stopping. So annoying.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
It was that moment. Stop, I'm scared when all time
seemed to slow down for these two bods. Okay, so
he goes to hand it, and they both watch as
the heavy socket piece slipped from Powell's belove and fell
to the floor of the platform. And they're all the
way at the top on this platform and this is

(29:47):
like a once in a lifetime like fumble. Like they
tried recreating this after the fact, and nobody could get
this to happen twice. Really, yes, So he drops it.
It falls to the floor of the platform. It echoes loudly.
I mean, in this giant silo, you're just hearing.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Echoe the big bang. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, it bounces before falling through the smallest space between
the platform floor and the missile. Jeff Plump said quote,
I literally watched it fall. We had dropped tools numerous times.
It wasn't the first time that we had ever dropped
a tool and watched a fall.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
It was common.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
It just happened that when this socket fell, it went
down seventy like eighty feet whatever it was, and it
bounced off the thrust ring that the missile sat on,
just this big giant round ring. And when it fell,
it picked up maximum speed and hit the top of
that thrust ring and just ricocheted into the side of

(30:49):
the missile. Oh I heard it hit boom and then
the next thing you know, I just seen fuel sprang out.
I just looked at it down there. I just looked
in awe. I just I just couldn't believe what had
just happened. The only thing I remember saying to David
was this is not good. This is not good. End quote. Wow, okay,

(31:16):
understatement of the year.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Okay, Like just you telling me that I couldn't take
a breath. Yeah, And so like in that moment, the
time is slowing down, You're watching it fall, You're literally
seeing the worst case scenario happen before your eyes. How
can you breathe? I you wouldn't be breathing. No, you
would be like so still, and then like at each
second would feel like a century, and then you would

(31:39):
be like, am I dead? And my dad is am
I dead? Have we all died? We're about to sload
to my dad right now? Yeah, we're dead?

Speaker 2 (31:48):
And can you just imagine the sound, like the feeling
of your stomach just dropping into.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Your butt, biggest drop into your butt. Yes, you're right.
Just watching it fall through the crack, I'd be like, like,
out of all the odds, I'd be also like instantly
pissed and raged.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, because it's like it's such a once in a
lifetime fumble. I would be enraged and like, I can't
imagine how slow time went when they just watched it
fall because they're high up, so it took.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
A while fall. This is over one hundred feet up.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, oh my, and it's that big ass heavy chunk
of metal too. It's not like they dropped a screw
or something.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Like, yes, this is not okay.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
No, And now there's fuel sprang out okay, which is
you know, rocket fuel not okay, like melt your skin.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
You can't touch it.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
No, So this is the moment where a pivotal decision
was made and how this whole disaster was going to
be handled unless just say, better decisions could have been made.
So no, Jeff Flow and David Powell simply stood staring

(33:03):
at the skin melting rocket fuel pouring out of this
missile below them.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, I mean I would still be in shock looking
at what I'm looking at.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
And they're just contemplating, like how on Earth. They could
unfuck this situation. It's like when you do something really
bad at work and you're like, how can I fix this?

Speaker 1 (33:19):
How can I fix this? How can I fix this
without telling anyone else? Getting in trouble? Bye? But this
is kind of on a difference. That's what happens when
talk about I'm perfect, I never never meeting right. Okay.
So finally David got on the radio because they're like, well, okay,

(33:39):
so they have a radio and not like we can
we need to tell somebody, can't just put duct tape
on it, like we got someone's and they're so high up.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah, So he gets on the radio. He contacts the
control team chief head guy. His name was Alan Childers.
He was an expert on the Titan two missile. Childers
was informed by Powell that there was smoke in the
launch deck. No, crucially, Powell left out that it was
actually fuel from a hole they had accidentally punched in

(34:09):
the missile. Okay, so yeah, it's worse these are They're
already trying to like cover the little highnees a in
a I mean, in a way, I do feel really
bad for them. They obviously knew they had royally fucked up.
They're trying to cover their ass, but there's a nuclear
weapon on the line, so it's probably just best to
stick with the truth at this.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Point, the highest of all high stakes, Like.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Just just take the verbal lashing, Like just take it,
and like hope that you don't blow everyone to kingdom.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Because just own it so somebody can actually fix it
the right way before everyone dies, which includes you. Yeah,
but instead they chose to play dumb so because egos,
and then it's just like little kids, I got in trouble.
They can't admit the full mistake. Oh it's so bad.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
So before Alan Childers could ask any further questions about
the situation and the launch silo, alarms began blaring loudly
in the control room because of course they have sensors everywhere,
Like yeah, this isn't just going to go unchecked. So
the control panels lit up like a Christmas tree as
all the sensitive monitoring triggers were or devices were triggered
by the fuel leak. When Powell and Plumb arrived in

(35:22):
the control room, they were met with a room thrown
into chaos. I mean, you've got blaring alarms, confusion, people
are trying to like turn off the alarms, but they
just keep turning back on.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Chaos.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, but instead of coming clean about what they had done,
the two men remained silent as the control center employees
scrambled to come up with the solution.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Dudes, dudes, dudes.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Powell knew that the fuel leak had disastrous implications, not
just because of the danger of the fuel itself, but
because of the pressurized tank it was stored in. Once
enough fuel leaked out of it, the tank would collapse
in on itself from the weight of the missile sitting
on top of it, a missile topped with a nuclear warhead,

(36:06):
just to remind you, which is also like the size
of a small car.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Big. The rocket itself is a small car. The nuclear
warhead on top of the missiles, oh, is a small car. Yeah. Yeah.
And they're like, it's like it's I was gonna say,
it's like a whole like skyscraper, it's a whole building.
It's it's a big ass it's going to collapse on itself. Yeah.
This is not good. It's really bad. It's really really bad,

(36:36):
really scary. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Uh So Powell knew all of this, and his main
concern in that moment was just to get the fuck
out of there.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Before the whole thing blew. Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
But they all remained in the command center for the
next half hour as the command center workers ran through
checklists and diagnostic procedures to try and find out why
there was smoke in the silo.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
They still think it's smoked. Yeah, they don't know what's
really happening. This is thirty whole minutes.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, and they keep coming back to like a big
fat zero. They don't nothing is making sense because they
don't have to cry.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Problem, that's so much time, yeah wasted. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
And so finally another worker in the command center turned
to Powell and Plumb and he was just like what happened?
Like what do you guys know that we don't, And
that's when David Powell started crying, Oh.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
Okay, come on, but like it's bad, but like oh,
he tearfully admitted that he had dropped a socket which
had pierced a hole in the side of the rocket.
Thank god, you finally like told the truth. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
All color left the commander's face at his admission.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Oh my gosh, can you imagine, like, like that's a
moment where you could instantly throw up. Oh, I would
poop and throw up all all the things would come
out at once. His body would avoid all material. He
pulled Powell over to of this is kind of funny.
He pulled Powell over to a.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Phone and told him he needed to call the command
post and tell them what he had done, because he
wasn't going to be the one who gave this bad news.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
I mean, he's like I would be. You tell him?
You say it?

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah, through sobs, how relayed so sad what had happened
to the command while the whole room watched. He also
has to do this like with an audience. Rosco, Oh, Roscoe, I'm.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Sorry, I don't have enough chord for you. Roscoe.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Is Michael has been fighting for his life for the
pastime five minutes.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Is not behaving. He's he's roaming around.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Michael took his ball away, and so he's just going
to make our lives help because he wants it back.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
He's betting tangled and all the course he's throwing a
silent tantrum.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
He's throwing a full dog tantrum over this ball.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Do you want to get kicked out?

Speaker 2 (38:54):
We will close the door and you'll be so sad. Okay,
Roscoe got kicked out.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
We're back. It had to be done, It had to
be done.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
It was three strikes that he was out. I love
you though, have fun out there. Okay, So you know, pwell, sobbing.
He's telling the story of what he's done.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
To the big Boss, which is sad. It is.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
I can't imagine when he was finished. Command essentially told
them to just sit tight while they discussed what to do,
and they were made to wait for hours.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Oh my god, in an.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Underground base that could explode at any moment.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Like literally every second ticking, they could be just massively
exploded and died and not even know it.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
I would want to go find like I think I
would go find the vending machine and just eat everything
in that lease, like this is my last meal, the candies.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
The problem was that coming to a decision wasn't a
simple thing. At this point, the hole couldn't be patched
because so much rocket fuel had poured out that if
anyone got even close to it, their protective suit would
simply melt off. Ooh, they could try and make a
run for it, but then you just have a bomb
waiting to go off and a potential nuclear fallout.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
There was also the opinion that staying inside of the
control center was actually the safest option because it was
built to be able to withstand a nuclear blast.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
But like the people inside, so it die.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Well, No, if you're in the control center, supposedly you
would be safe even if it did blow up.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Oh shit, Okay, supposedly. I don't know if I would
trust that. I would just assume instant death and then
hope for the best.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
But like, even if you did get out, like, how
are you gonna get far enough away?

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah? In time. I just I wouldn't want to suffer.
I would want it to be instant.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Like, actually, I'm just gonna hug I'm gonna hug the rocket.
It'll be the quickest way out.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah. So no easy, safe decision. Really terrible yeah situation. Yeah,
I wouldn't want to be calling the shots on this one.
I mean, I'm glad they didn't make a rapid decision
because oh my gosh, right, but hours an hours sucks. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
So finally, a colonel named John Moser made the call
to evacuate. His main concern was getting people out before
anyone got hurt, but Alan Childers disagreed with the decision.
In his mind, they were in the safest place they
could be if an explosion occurred, and it didn't sit
right with him to abandon his post when the base
was still active. He also argued that if they did

(41:43):
come up with a solution to fix the situation, everyone
would be gone and there would be no one there
to enact the plan. But orders were orders, and everyone
was told to evacuate the facility via an escape hatch,
which had never been used before. Once the team was
on the surface, they were met with more Air Force
personnel in an eerie scene like by now it's deeply nighttime,

(42:07):
so night had fallen. There's smoke escaping from ground vents,
with this noxious smell of rocket fuel thick in the air.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Oh so they're like breathing it.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Yeah, And it's at this point that a cascading chain
of bad decisions begin to be made even more Air
Force Command.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
Even more by the most important people of all time. Yes,
they're just left and right. No one's pig get a
good call.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Oh my gosh, let's just take another quick break real fast. Okay,
So after everyone had evacuated, Command saw the wisdom of
foot Childers had been saying, and decided to order two

(42:51):
people back down to the command center.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Great.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Even better, though, was the mystifying decision to not have
them go back down through the gay patch, which they
had just crawled out of, and instead have them break
into the front doors of the complex. Why I don't know,
but like yeah, like why it doesn't make any sense.
You know, those like super secure doors made of steel
and thick concrete.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yeah, I just just casually break into all of that, like.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Super hard to open. They want them to just try
and break in with some what they have, screwdrivers, crowbars,
hydraulic can pumps, because the problem was, like you couldn't
open those doors from the outside. They had to be
opened from the command center, which was now empty.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
So this any sense? Yikes?

Speaker 2 (43:38):
So it's taking them forever to get past these doors,
and all the while they're wondering if they're about to
be blown apart when there's an open Eskay patch. It
doesn't make any sense, Okay, So yeah, I don't understand it.
So two men were sent in fully suited up to
continue busting through all the security doors while rocket fuel
flames just waffed through the building.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
My.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
After thirty minutes, another team of two men was sent
in to relieve the first team because they were like
running out of bear.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
Oh my god, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
One of the two men was another PTS team member
and the best friend and roommate of David Powell, who
was the one that dropped the socket. So his best
friend is.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Now going in out okay. His name is David Livingston. Uh.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
It's like it would be like if you and I
both worked there and then you got the call to
come clean up my mets at work, only this is
like nuclear disaster.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
I could die for you, like classic Abbey. It would
be the other way around. Honestly, truly, I drop that socket, honestly,
like I had a conversation about how clumsy I am
dropped that. She just busted a hole in the rocket, Like,
please fix it for me, silly girl, Let me go

(44:57):
down there.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
So now David Livingston and another man named Sarge Kennedy
venture inside and they make it all the way to
the blast door, where there is a meter located to
tell them the level of fuel readings present in the
launch silo. The meter was completely in the red. It
was ready to blow.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Oh my God.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Shortly after relaying this to command, the two men were
ordered to evacuate, but and they began to make their
way out of the base. But in a last effort
to remedy the situation, Livingston was ordered to turn on
the ventilation fans in the silo to hopefully vent out
the explosive fumes. Okay, The men hurriedly climbed the flights

(45:39):
of stairs back to the surface, with Kennedy making it
out first. But thirty seconds after being told to evacuate,
an eight and a half hours after the leak first occurred, Oh,
the silo detonated.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
No. No.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
It would later be theorized that the act of turning
on the ventilation fans created another friction in the air
to spark the explosion, which dozed it.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
It costs stupid like, of course, of course, the why
why even risk it? I know? So?

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yes, okay, so Colonel John Moser, who was calling the
shots from Little Rock, Arkansas, about fifty miles away, suddenly
lost all communication. He knew that this would have occurred
if a nuclear blast had taken place, and even though
he wasn't a religious man, he about dropped his knees
to pray as he waited to be wiped off the map.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
Yuck. I mean I would too, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Because like, am I about to die in like three seconds?

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Like, oh my god, there's no way to know. They Oh,
that's no okay.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Back at the Damascus missile site, the men on the
surface watched as night turned to day in a stunning explosion.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Oh what like an opposite like thing you would think of,
I know, Okay, anyways, sorry, this is intense.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
It's very intense. So they feel this explosion is huge.
They feel it through their entire box.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Everything gets like bright white, yeah, blinding in the in
like the middle of the night. Oh my gosh, so eerie.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
The blast wave hit them in a breast dealing blow.
As the stunned men watched on in horror. Alan Alan
Childers remembered looking at the other men and realizing they
were all somehow still alive. And how could that be
the case if the nuclear warhead had just been detonated.
So he's like, wait, but he didn't really have time

(47:34):
to dwell on that before debris began falling from the sky.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
This is not okay.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
So massive hunts of concrete and other materials were raining
down all around them. The men began running for their
lives as debris the size of cars and school buses
limited to the earth around them.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
You literally can get smashed the Oh okay, this is
all violent. Okay, it's terrifying. Okay.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
The only light to see by was the fires set
by the explosion. The grass and trees were all ablaze
as the men ran through the absolutely apocalyptic landscape.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Many were injured by the falling debris, and Sergeant Kennedy,
one of the two men who had been sent inside
and narrowly made it out, had severe burns to his body,
including the skin being completely burned off of one of
his hands.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Yuck. I'm okay, there's pictures like the No. I don't
want to see that face. No, no, no no.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
He also suffered respiratory effects of inhaling the toxic fumes
out okay. As for David Livingston, the best friend of
David Powell who had dropped that socket, No, he did
not survive the ordeal and perished a couple of days
after the explosion after inhaling those toxic fumes. I mean,
can you imagine it feels so bad like he just

(48:56):
dropped the thing and his best friend paid the ultimate price.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Price for it. It it's just like it was tragic.
That's like the guilt. I can't imagine living with that guilty,
your best friend the guilt, Oh my god, I mean roommate.
So we had to go back to like an empty
apostae with all the stuff. That's that's harsh. It's really
it's just really fucking sad. Yeah. Uh.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
The next day, the news about the explosion made headlines
as the military tried its best to keep the whole
thing hush hush.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Of course they did. Nobody needed to hear this. It's fine,
it happened.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
It was we're just doing some testing. The official story
was that the fuel around the missile had exploded, but
the new had knock gone off obviously because Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Is still there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
At the Damascus missile site, clean up and investigations were
underway as the military tried to contend with the disaster
on their hands. They discovered that the one point five
million pound slab of concrete and steel that had once
been the missile silo's door had been blasted lean into
the air, where it spun like a top before landing

(50:08):
over five hundred feet away.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Oh my gosh, it's a huge slab, but like it's nothing,
like it weighs nothing, just like boop you.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
What was even more alarming was the complete absence of
the nuclear warhead itself. It wasn't in the missile silo,
and it obviously hadn't been detonated, So where did it go.
It was eventually discovered, still fully intact, in a ditch
about a quarter mile away. WHOA So luckily Apparently it's

(50:41):
kind of hard to detonate a nuclear warhead like just
on its own. Like there's so many things that you
have to do correctly to get it to detonate.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
I mean, thank god, right, hey, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Okay, and that's why we still have Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri,
and Indiana.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
Okay, not just one state, but like a handful of them.
I mean that.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
I mean, it would have maybe not blown them all apart,
but like the fallout would have at image would I mean,
it would have the whole country, I would think, but.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Honestly, truly stressful. That is so stressful and sad.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
In the aftermath of the event, the Damascus missile complex
was never repaired and was closed for good. It's now
listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
In October nineteen eighty one, President Reagan announced that all
Titan two missiles silos would be deactivated and liquid fuel
for the missiles was phased out. That any of the
missiles were eventually repurposed and used to launch satellites into
space as late as to the two thousands. So yay
for cycling. Yay they got a second life. And that's

(51:46):
all I have on this one, you guys.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
So wow, that's like one of.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
The many stories of mankind's power to end its own existence.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
That was so close to being so so so is
all bad bad, still so bad, but.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
The fact, I mean, one person dying is too many.
But the fact that, yeah, just one person pasted is
also which an explosion like that, like yeah, kind of crazy,
the highest of stakes, that's so intense like that through
like I went for a ride, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Like you're awesome, you did a very good job. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
I remember, Yeah, I watched that disaster Autopsy show, which
is so corny, but there's a lot of really good
stories on there, and I was like, what is this
story and why have I never heard of it before?

Speaker 1 (52:32):
And it's kind of unique, like like yeah nuclear wow.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Yeah, like that was so close to being so so
bad and not that like long ago, no, nineteen eighty wow.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Yeah, so that's wild wild stuff. Good job, thank you
to you didn't kill all of ourselves. Hooray, hooray, pray
for us.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
I don't think I tried to look up the aftermath
for David. Mm hmmm, what was it David and mister Plum.
I think mister Plum kind of had a breakdown late
later he didn't last very long in the military. But
I can't I couldn't find anything on on the other guy.
But the David, the best friend, David, he like didn't

(53:16):
do interviews, like.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
I would not want to talk about that, yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
And Jeff Plum said he didn't tell his family for
years and years and years, like oh, they just didn't
talk about it.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
And I was like, I don't blame you. I wouldn't
want to talk about it either. I mean, yeah, I
mean go to therapy. But also like rough, woof, woof, yikes,
I don't have any more after that. Okay, Okay, let's
let's are we ready for City of the Week? Yeah?
Do it? Okay, So, how do I pronounce it dusel

(53:56):
dwarf Germany. What An, They're like, you guys are crazy,
these two girls. Yeah, duceeldor, thank you for listening.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Sean was really stressed about the pronunciation, which is fair.
There's like a little umlau. I mean, what do we
do with that?

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Don't that's what it's called an umlao? I think? So
when do you know that? What a fun fact? Two
little dots, right, Michael Law. We don't know anything we
did beforehand. I don't know. I just expect you to
know everything. He is. We just don't want to offend anybody.
But thank you so much for listening.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Yeah, we appreciate you. And how how cool and international
of you to be listening.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Oh yeah, how special, it's really cool. I still can't
like my brain can't like.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Register comprehend that. I don't mean neither no that anyone listens,
let alone someone in Germany.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
What right? What? Well? Thank you? Thank you? Thank you?
Are you watching or listening to anything you want to
talk about? Oh my god? Sure? Okay, So another thing
I did this weekend, and I'm so proud of myself
because I was like, I need to see this movie
and I'm gonna you went to the theater. I went
to the theater. I haven't seen a movie in the
theater what in like years at this point, it's been

(55:04):
years for me. Yeah, Like I used to go so
much as a kid, and it's so different these days.
But I had to watch the live action remake of
Leland and Stage. Oh, that's a good one to go see.
How was it? I love it. I'm not mad at
it at all. There is a few changes, but most
of them work. Okay, Okay, we're gonna really critique, Okay,

(55:26):
but I still like lost it and cried and it
was the best and I had such a fun time
watching it. I was so glad I did it. That's fun.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
That's actually when I've actually had THEO kind of get into.
That is Lelo and Stitch, and I'm like, I forgot
this is an underrated.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
It's an iconic, one of my top top top favorites.
Great soundtrack, absolutely the coolest of its time. Yeah, and like,
who didn't have a crush on the older sister and
David of course a crush on both of them. Beautiful. Well,
I'm glad. It's good. That gives me something to look
forward can you guess at what time I went to

(56:03):
go see it? Are think really later? Really early?

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Was it like eleven am?

Speaker 1 (56:11):
No officsite end? We went to see a nine fifteen
I'm already in by PJS. Why didn't Yeah? I mean
I was pretty comfortable, but yeah, we didn't get out
until what like eleven past eleven. I was like, who
am I? Like? Am I twenty? Am I in my twenties?
Like going out past nine o'clock? Children's movie? I know?

(56:32):
The whole point was like there's gonna be no children
late at night, So that was Oh, that's a good point. Yeah,
I mean there was some that's smart. Actually, now they
think about it. It was for the adult time. Yeah,
there's no like screaming. It was for me kids in
my millennial heart. Ah, that's a good idea. Still live
your life and go see a movie. Yeah, I had
We had popcorn delivered through our seats. What And I

(56:53):
was just like, what is life like this? This? They
delivery delivered concessions. Now you can ordered ahead of time
and they deliver it to your seat. You order it
ahead of time. I was like, wait, how does that
even work? I mean you have to be a part
of their like membership thing. Of course, you know there's
money involved, of course, of course. But it's like the

(57:14):
movie's experience has changed so much obviously, and I'm just
like such an old person, like what we get delivered concessions?
That blows my mind. Thank you that was the thing
at all. Thank you. Wow, times are changing. They deliver
you a drink too, just anything. Yeah, you can order candy. Wow, Yeah,
they just bring it to you. That's wild of me. Honestly,

(57:38):
how has it happened earlier? But yeah, I guess, but
also amazing.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
But now are things so different where you have to
like reserve seats and like.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
I know, you can't be such a free for all. Yeah,
it could just be like, oh, you want to see
a movie, let's just go get the ticket out the window. Yeah,
and now you can't really.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
Do that and you just pray that you get a
good seat because there's no way to you just like
finduper early.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Wow, life Yeah, times changed? Well what about you? That's cool,
that's what I update. I like it. Have I watched anything?
We're still watching Severance? Absolutely? Yeah, what episode do you know?
Like seven? Okay, you're seven episodes in? Yeah, very proud
of you guys. Oh my gosh, how are you? Are
you like sucked in? Are you addicted? Like? Fully?

Speaker 2 (58:22):
I actually we were gonna watch it last night, but
I was crushing and I was like, you know what,
you have to pay attention. I can't watch this and
crochet because there's so many context clues and you have
to pay attention.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
You literally have to look at the background like all
of the time and appreciate like the colors all of
the time. Yeah. You always talk about the colors, so
I always like pay attention to the colors. Yes, it
just gets more intense. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
So I was just like, Okay, we can't watch this
tonight because I need to be able to fully be immersed.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Yes, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Yeah, we're really enjoying it. It's very good, very good.
I don't think we're really watching anything else besides that. Well,
there's some good documentaries on Netflix right now, Like there's
The Friend Rose West one I'm working through.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
I kind of don't want to, like, I kind of
don't want like I have it on my list, but
I'm like, I'm never gonna be in the mood to
watch the yet. It's a little much. Yeah, I mean
they're gross. It's gross.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
You just know it's gonna be gross. Yeah, it doesn't
make you feel good. But I watched that in little pieces,
so yeah, I'm consuming it slowly.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
Yeah, you would have to, but I think that's about
it for me. Sure for sure. Yeah. So yeah, cool,
we're cool. Great job. Yeah, thanks? Okay, well until next time.
All right, good up, and good night. We did it, okay.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
For my sources, I watched the show Disaster Autopsy. I
listened to this American Life podcast episode six thirty four.
I went to Wikipedia dot com, Popular Mechanics dot com.
Our music is by brook for Free and Matt Eden,
and we are edited by Michael.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
All right, should I list our social media please do?
We have a lot of our things that Anxious and
Afraid the Pod. So that's our handle for both of
our Facebook page and group, along with our Instagram and Gmail.
We have a Twitter at AA Thepod. You can support
us on Patreon dot com forward slash Anxious and Afraid.

(01:00:19):
If you do that, you get some pretty nice perks.
You get ad free episodes that are released a whole
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tell your friends, yeah, we would appreciate all of it.
Do right now the p