When Dropping a Wrench Almost Caused Armageddon

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code FOUNDOUT at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: incogni.com/foundout

[@MrJC1]

"and BOOM!!!!! Someone has your social security number" - fact boy. :D.

[@dc4825]

No thanks.

[@dc4825]

It's been confirmed that these services are ineffectual, bordering on a scam. And you get better results manually reviewing your emails. I'm not going to link to the actual studies, that's his advertising team

[@SparkyLabs]

maybe check your sources, if I am not mistaken you literally just read out portions of the book "command and control" unless of course its text used publicly available information.

[@billmullins6833]

Most people today are unaware that when the Soviets orbited Sputnik 1 they very proudly told the world how big (heavy) it was. While many will say "Big deal. They told us how big the thing was." in truth this was an extreme departure from normal Soviet practice. The Soviet Union was an EXTREMELY secretive society. They seldom told anybody anything they didn't absolutely HAVE to. And yet with Sputnik they were very transparent. What most people don't know is there is a well defined ratio between the amount of weight a given rocket can put into orbit and the amount of weight that same rocket can throw into an intercontinental ballistic trajectory. The minute engineers and scientists heard how much Sputnik weighed they knew that the Soviets had a delivery system to drop a nuclear warhead on cities in the U.S. By telling the world how big Sputnik 1 was they were announcing to knowledgeable people that they could drop an atomic bomb pretty much anywhere they wanted in the West and there was nothing we in the West could do about it!

[@MrJC1]

@@billmullins6833 apart from... nuke back? Lol.

[@kevinfoster1138]

Everyone thought we were all racing to the moon in reality America's government was scared shit less the USSR was putting nukes in space.

[@foo219]

@@MrJC1 Not at the time. Took a while for the US to catch up, despite having better Germans.

[@bigginsd1]

I also remember reading somewhere that later the USA were ahead of the USSR in miniaturising nuclear weapons. Consequently their ICBMs didn’t need to be as powerful, whereas the USSR could modify theirs to get a man into orbit more easily as they were built to lift heavier warheads. The Saturn rockets were the first to not be designed as an ICBM first, and the Saturn 1B was cobbled together from Jupiter rocket parts so really the Saturn V was truly the first designed from the ground up as a manned launch vehicle with no military application.

[@miscme6046]

thats a fun fact i would have not known about thank you random youtube commenter

[@poisonedivysaur]

At this point, Simon, you should just do a list on how many times we almost shot off an atomic bomb or started a war because something stupid happened.

[@RetroGenetic]

I don't think he has the time for that xD

[@turtleboy4111]

​@RetroGenetic He'll pretty much read anything written for him, as long as it's not shit, historically inaccurate, or plagiarised. If it's written, good, accurate, and both Davin and Simon are happy with it, they'll do it.

[@adamd5849]

......... The video would be at least 28+ hours considering the stupidity of some members of humanity

[@Fossillarson]

We are winning in arkansas 😅 got proof also lol 😅

[@JamesG-k5f]

The number of nukes that were dropped is ridiculous. At least one wasn't even recovered.

[@meakimon]

That boom almost broke my ears Simon!!! XD

[@Viralityoflife]

It got my attention. Thankfully. I was driving, hoping the video would help (mostly didn’t) then, the “BOOM” scared the shit out of me and I was wide awake 😂

[@xHappySnowmanx]

but he still gets quieter as he progresses through each sentence. so annoying when he goes overboard with that

[@STWLandO]

Louder than if that atomic bomb had actually went off

[@delilaperez82]

I threw my phone 😂

[@djrbaker1]

1:42 i'm sending you a bill for my blown speakers. expect to hear from my attorneys

[@theenzoferrari458]

He's not responsible for your volume controls. Perhaps you should sue yourself for having the volume way up lowlifer.

[@djrbaker1]

@@theenzoferrari458 we'll talk again when your period is over

[@thedurbec9591]

​@@djrbaker1You think the period is over yet 😂

[@jayfro8340]

Get a life

[@djrbaker1]

@@jayfro8340 muricah

[@Talisguy]

There's something a little comforting in knowing that no matter how badly you screw up, you're almost certainly never going to screw up _this_ badly.

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

Someone could screw up so badly they start nuclear war?

[@lancerhades971]

I screwed up a lot in my life. But yeah, this is comforting

[@Panushkin]

Unless u invented leaded fuel

[@ngantnier]

​​@@PanushkinFor real. If we didn't have all that tetra ethyl lead in the air being breathed in I doubt we'd have had all these crazy wars. An entire generation gone mad.

[@miscme6046]

@@ngantnier yea but hey all that lead and chems from pesticide and fire extinguishers could have fulled the a-10,f-15 ect

[@lordnul1708]

The morals of the story: -Always have the RIGHT tool for the job -Safety First -Don't screw up the procedure

[@mhult5873]

And use ear protection, when watching this video.

[@sandhilltucker]

1:43 Wearing earbuds. Thanks a bunch. Doctor says I should try to get more arrhythmias in my life.

[@Jared-91]

😂

[@trishapellis]

Seconding, that was really not cool.

[@keiffitz689]

Bro I was dozing off to this in the background and then suddenly adrenaline rush

[@SnakeDocter15]

scared the shit outta me

[@szulerinio]

Not cool. I am done watching this vid WTF man

[@Dan-yk6sy]

The guy who went back into the propellant leak for his buddy after replacing his melted helmet needs his own documentary, I've never heard of that one.

[@Divineskulls1]

1:43 actually scared the shit out of me lol

[@chandleryoung9515]

Same lmao i had headphones on and I was literally in the middle of walking to my kitchen and I bout fell 😭

[@gino9895]

Not sure if it's just a coincidence, but my speakers shot craps right at that moment, lol. Simon owes me new speakers, lol.

[@monicafamalett855]

All y'alls, thanks for the warning 😅

[@Jamii.pages.]

Thanks for the warning...but he still made my jump😂

[@biffmarcum5014]

glad I saw this before I got to 1:43 so I was warned!

[@EMKA__]

1:43 I was about to fall asleep. Scared the hell out of me.

[@Monkey_D_Luffy56]

Simon Whistler isn't safe to listen to fall asleep now since in the past few months he has the habit of suddenly raising his voice

[@darlenefraser3022]

It’s still safe to fall asleep to Casual Criminalist

[@jack00scarecrow]

he's blazing

[@piratepenquinn]

Ikr I thought this channel was more chill 😭

[@JohnJohn-e4m]

He almost blew my TV speaker. Maybe he does not want us to sleep to his content. I had a teacher in school who raised his voice like that randomly.

[@Viralityoflife]

It’s a speaking technique. Though he’s speaking REALLY loudly and it’s a bit too much. I love listening to this stuff while you my to sleep.

[@d00vinator]

I remember reading that a guy dropped a wrench at a missile silo. There was a welder at the bottom, he apologized, climbed all the way to the top again and dropped the wrench again. When he got back to the bottom his wrench had been welded to a beam.

[@katbailey1334]

I love this!

[@WorldOfTess2024]

That's beautiful. The welder was more forgiving than I would be, I might have welded the wrench dropper himself to the beam... 😂

[@taylorprice5813]

I saw the title and went "Oooh, this is what was described in Command and Control!" Fun times!

[@gigitrix]

Command & Control is such a great book - I'm glad it's referenced here

[@doconabike7915]

I grew up about (as the crow flies) 30 miles from the Damascus silo. Our windows shook. We were told at the time there was “never any danger” of the warhead (the largest yield in our arsenal) exploding. Later learned, “Eh, we didn’t exactly tell the public everything.” I was privileged to tour the active Titan II silo near my hometown of Heber Springs, Arkansas when I was about 10 years old. It was quite an experience.

[@gremblorthesackgoblin7953]

Touring an active ICBM silo is the most violently American thing I have ever heard. I love it.

[@doconabike7915]

Being a Cub Scout was great!

[@dalzellrenegade8649]

It's no longer active, but I've been to Site 571-7, now the Titan Missile Museum, in Tucson, AZ. It was so much fun to see that piece of history!

[@GatorScientist]

I was stationed at Blytheville AFB, AR (about 170 mi/275km NNE) when this explosion occurred. We wound up sending a bunch of equipment and an accident investigation team to the site. Everyone was pretty nervous until they found the warhead and confirmed it had not been breached

[@MeriaDuck]

I read the book Command and Control (mentioned in the video) about this where events are laid out in great detail. The chance of the nuke going nuclear were quite slim. The shaped charges need to go off in a very precise manner and can burn safely, that is without going boom. The drop from a plane was a freaking lot closer to go boom, the only fail safe being a single arm switch. And reading about the Cuba crisis still gives me shivers.

[@iitzfizz]

Yeah there are a number of things that need to happen within milliseconds to trigger a nuclear explosion. As you said, the shaped lenses of the primary need to be fired with millisecond timing to properly compress the pit symmetrically other wise there would . The main danger was having radioactive debris scattered everywhere.

[@paxhumana2015]

@MeriaDuck, et al, the fact that it nearly happened AGAIN, like this year (2024), should scare you too.

[@ferretyluv]

I heard Gorbachev or someone else told us after the Cold War that they were ready to launch the nukes and were ready to attack a moment’s notice.

[@NetIncomeBuilder]

Highly recommend Daniel Ellsberg's book, 'The Doomsday Machine' if you enjoyed Command and Control. Goes into a good deal of detail on the (relative lack of) C&C, and has a great section on the Cuban Missile Crisis, too.

[@mostly_rust]

i fell asleep to the audiobook of Command and Control for months a few years ago. 😅

[@smithandshortdogs]

I remember back when I was an Airman and heard about this the first time I was like, "how could a socket cause all that damage"... Then I saw a picture of one. Turns out it weighd 3.5 kg...

[@RedBeardTheFirst]

1" drive im guessing, i work on helicopters and i have a pretty good idea of how big. I always thought it was a 1/2" drive and the skin was just that weak.

[@myrlyn1250]

And it fell 24 meters, too. According to the "Splat Calculator", that's 78 kph or 823 joules when it hits.

[@davidgessin-mccully3919]

I thought splat calculator was just an exaggeration imagine my surprise when I saw that that’s an actual mfkng thing 😂😂😂

[@sjenny5891]

I've obviously been watching to much Brain Blaze. Reading through the comments about how the yelling was unexpected, I thought he was rather calm today.

[@ryanc473]

You guys should do a long-form video about all the publicly known "broken arrow" incidents where the US just kinda, you know...misplaced weapons of mass destruction and gave up on recovering because, well, what's the worst that could happen leaving them lying around?

[@ianmacdiarmid1249]

Broken Arrow or Empty Quiver? Related but different events.

[@stevepupkar9772]

The nuclear weapon still buried in NC is....interesting to say the least

[@mattt233]

I guess they never read/saw THE SUM OF ALL FEARS...

[@mattt233]

​@ianmacdiarmid1249 yeah empty quiver I think k is the proper term used for a lost WMD. Broken Arrow, at least for the Army, means you're about to be overrun and to have all air support in the area to your location.

[@marcbeebee6969]

Are you sure Simon did not cover the broken arrows already? I was certain he did already. Still interesting

[@yz250ftony]

My grandfather worked at aero jet in the 1950s/60s. He told me about a guy who blasted a hose into what he thought was an empty steel drum that had been uncapped "venting" for days. The propellant crystalized and on contact with the high pressure water, the guy "turned into a red mist". Grandfather worked on the liquid fuel stages.

[@taras3702]

In other words, the residue exploded on contact with the water.

[@ladyrazorsharp]

Whoa. Chemistry makes us all her beeches.

[@tthappyrock368]

Never heard about this, but it doesn't surprise me. Back in the early 80s, I researched nuclear power plant accidents for a college assignment. Somehow, I got hold of some DOD/DOE reports that stated they didn't think radiation would go beyond facility boundaries in the event of an accident or meltdown. Like the radiation is going to just stop. Yeah, no, it's not.

[@Purplebass]

We still live under that threat it never went away. We just got used to the idea.

[@Jim-hk6rd]

I was there that night as part of the PTS response team sent by the Airforce to rectify the situation. Jeff Kennedy and David Livingston were members of iur team. 21 of us were injured and i held David in my arms while we rushed him to an Airforce helicopter 40 miles away. The documentary Command and Control gives a very realistic petrale of what it was like to be there.

[@derekspringer6448]

If this is true (which I've no reason to believe it wouldn't be) that's crazy! I bet you'd have some interesting stories to tell. Thanks for your service you absolute stud.

[@djjeeveslarue3499]

It’s grandpa Buff!! 3:07 and he said the intercept word .. where the kid?!

[@RedBeardTheFirst]

Shhhhh....... Stop saying the "I" word

[@voshadxgathic]

I was working on the wheel hub of a boatlift once while I had a coworker above me in a manlift working on the structure beam. There's a distinct sound when you casually drop your tools into the bottom of a man lift, usually coming from a height of around 3 feet to the bottom of the cage. So there I am, crouched in front of this wheel hub when the sound hits wrong. It's too high pitched, more like a tuning fork. Before my coworker had managed to say anything I'd leapt backwards about 5 feet, to watch about two pounds of a steel tool land where I'd been standing.

[@derekspringer6448]

So what was it that made that different sound?

[@smithandshortdogs]

On his list of near disasters I feel Simon should have listed the heroism of Stanislav Petrov. I know it doesn't 100% track but I think of him everytime I hear 99 Luftballons/Red balloons

[@AG3n3ricHuman]

Also Vasily Arkhipov, who was nearly killed a year before he prevented the use of a nuclear torpedo during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[@clintpmk2405]

25:05 70,000 metric tons of tnt would be roughly a 60-70 kiloton nuke. These number can not be accurate. That would mean it was almost 4 times a powerful as "fat man"... the nuke dropped on Nagasaki. From a non nuclear explosion these kinds of numbers are just not possible.

[@Mosoman42]

yea there would have been no survivors and a massive hole in the ground

[@walterfechter8080]

This video provided a new definition for the phrase, "nightmare fuel" (no pun intended).

[@pooryorick831]

B-58 Hustler. I saw them when I was a kid in San Diego. They were built at the Convair plant. I was infatuated when I was a kid. I built plastic models of planes and the 58 was my favorite. As kids in the cold war in a military town, we all knew our military aircraft.

[@deanbuss1678]

Simon, you made my cat jump to the ceiling with your BOOM !😂

[@Jody_VE5SAR]

Audio compressors work... interesting story... didn't expect my speakers to be clipping.

[@Darkinu2]

2:45 To skip the in-video Ad and save your eardrums 😂

[@stormhawk2595]

I had this playing in the background and that “BOOM” scared the crap out of me, it made me stumble walking to my car 😂

[@Darkinu2]

​@@stormhawk2595😂😂

[@ReddCharlie]

I live less than an hour away from Damascus, AR. Love this story!

[@faolannus]

That boom during the ad read scared me

[@danielhaigler556]

I grew up 10 minutes from rock kansas. My grandparents where evacuated when that silo accident happened. Honestly, probably the only significant thing to ever happen to Rock kansas.

[@Derekzparty]

The missile is too round. It needs to be pointy! Round is not scary. Pointy is scary! This will put a smile on the faces of the enemy!

[@bipolarbear9917]

For a fascinating in-depth documentary on the ‘Damascus Incident’, watch ‘Command and Control’. It’s mind-blowing.

[@ReddCharlie]

Forgot to mention that the Arkansas State Democratic Convention, with Governor Bill Clinton and US Vice President Walter Mondale, was in progress at the time about 50 miles away in Little Rock

[@domp2423]

Fun fact Palo Verde High School in Tucson Arizona has a Trojan warrior like mascot throwing a missle. They are the Palo Verde Titans after the silos near Davis Monthan Airforce Base.

[@mrpizzawizard]

Who?

[@mrpizzawizard]

Asked

[@domp2423]

Not a soul, yet here you are.

[@DG_plusrandomnumbers]

25:01 There's no way that number is right. A 70kt explosion would make this the largest non nuclear explosion ever by a factor of about 24 times

[@BoostedSpeedDemon]

Exactly, especially considering that would be five times the force of the fission bomb dropped on hiroshima

[@swayzic8743]

I was also wondering this lol I was like “I could’ve sworn the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima was like 15kT or something… was this thing really that big??”

[@_PITBOY]

LOVE how Simon describes distances at a US military accident ... as kilometers, with no imperial translations. Perfect.

[@Cloud30000]

While it would have been a devastating tragedy, it would be no more likely to cause a nuclear war then Chernobyl was. No one is confusing a single silo detonating as a full scale nuclear first strike.

[@motocrossman007]

Thanks!

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Thank you!!! :-)

[@dawica]

3:14 - "The advantage always lies with the defender" That's simply not true with ICBMs. The technology to destroy/disarm them is vastly more complicated than the technology to deploy them

[@daveray44]

Only the fot/e tests have destruct function. A real missile does not

[@tremorsfan]

NORAD didn't stop using floppy disks until 2019.

[@stevensteve6617]

yeah cause you can't hack a floppy

[@chrisscheidt9643]

My dad did PTS at Vandenburg, and a few months after the Arkansas disaster he was stationed at Little Rock

[@lloydevans2900]

The V2 was not actually the only weapon which killed more people during its manufacture than it killed when fired in military action: A close runner up for this was Japanese torpedo manufacture during World War 2. Unlike American or British torpedoes which used Torpex (a mixture of TNT, RDX and aluminium powder) as their explosive filling, some types of Japanese torpedoes used trinitrophenol, aka picric acid. This was mainly down to picric acid being easier and cheaper to manufacture than TNT: The precursor (phenol) was cheaper and more readily available than the precursor to TNT (toluene) in Japan at the time. Also, nitrating phenol is substantially easier than nitrating toluene, requiring less of the concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids, as well as lower temperatures. With a bonus that picric acid has approximately 70% greater explosive power than TNT. However, picric acid is also significantly less stable than TNT. More to the point, if it comes into contact with metals, it forms metal picrate salts, which are no less explosive but are even less stable, being highly sensitive to heat, shock and friction. As you might imagine, this would happen pretty reliably when the steel torpedo casings were filled with picric acid. A result of which was fairly common explosive incidents in Japanese torpedo factories, which would often result in severe injuries and deaths of workers in those factories.

[@lolmao500]

To think North Korean ICBMs work on the same fuel that these missiles worked on... its only a matter of time before a big accident happens in Nkorea... if it hasnt already happened but they covered it up.

[@taras3702]

Indeed, China and Iran also have missiles that use the same type of fuel and oxidizer. Big booms in the making.

[@davey7452]

Fun fact at that time many ICBM’s were made with thin metal walls to save weight for maximum range flights making them vulnerable to the slightest skin damage.

[@gaborrajnai6213]

No Simon in modern pits you dont actually need a symmetrical shockwave to reach supercritical conditions. They are not shaped as spheres but as precisely crafted ellipsoids so assymetrical shockwaves can ignite them. That was a major breakthrough in weapons miniaturization. Altough with a normal thermonuclar weapon of the 80s it would be quite impossible to set it off without arming it first for multiple reasons there would most likely be an additional neutron source needed to increase the yield to a sufficient level to start the fusion process, a levitated pit requries the removal of the filler material etc.

[@sawyeri6751]

that boom was personal

[@thelegendarywizard]

A man bad a KZbin video autoplay while falling asleep, this is how his ears shut down

[@bhgtree]

Thanks Simon for another great vid, even though I'm now deaf in one ear lol.

[@iitzfizz]

These older warheads and gravity bombs were much less safe than the ones we have today but there was still very little chance of an actual nuclear explosion even with the W53 warhead that was atop of the Titan II. There are a number of things that need to happen within milliseconds to trigger a nuclear explosion and it all has to work in a very specific way. For example the shaped lenses of the primary need to be fired with millisecond timing to properly compress the pit symmetrically other wise there would not be a nuclear explosion. The main danger was having radioactive debris scattered everywhere and of course the leaking hypergolic fuels would cause their own nasty problems.

[@wilhelmvonn9619]

More like microsecond timing in fact. Part of what makes nuke design difficult.

[@Jim-hk6rd]

I just want to stand up for David Powell. He could have been anyone of us. I had the honor of working with David and calling him a friend. The tool combination he used was standard practice for years. The reason he forgot the torque wrench was because it was a fairly new procedure to use the torque wrench. Having previously done the procedure many times in the past without the torque wrench it did not seem to be a big deal to continue with the regular socket wrench. Keep in mind this was an extremely large socket that weighs 9 pounds. During the investigation after the accident the 9 pound socket was attached to the torque wrench he should have used and it fell off every time they tested it. This proves there was nothing David could have done to prevent the accident. The Airforce failed to add a secure method to prevent the tools malfunction.

[@stirlingalexander9543]

Simon, I don't know if you'll ever read this but I just wanted to give you two different kudos one. This is a really interesting episode and two the ad read for the data broker. Was an absolutely fantastic ad read!

[@JS-ed2hg]

I've watched and read documentaries regarding this accident. The two-man team went to evacuate while one went back. There was never any threat of nuclear fission as that requires a controlled and precise shape charged explosive around the core. The silo did however explode killing and injuring many people. One man recounted as he was literally blown back sliding across the dirt for several feet. Emergency vehicles evacuated the area if it wasn't for one returning there would have been more casualties. The man who was blown back several feet across the dirt also was lucky enough to Dodge the multi ton blastdoor that landed very close the warhead also landed nearby intact.

[@joeschmoe5009]

This story is definitely not forgotten by me. My dad was on duty out of the McConnell crew, and on site of 1 of the Kansas silos when the incident happened. Ive heard the story many times. Pretty crazy story for sure

[@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789]

This massive of a disaster in terms of human casualties, and material loss, because someone had to be a mechanic style dummy about things instead of sucking up to their own forgetfulness. How many times I havent had to walk stories upon stories and take this and that on and off just to fetch a tool or other object I forgot..

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

The thing I like most about the Titan II is the engine startup sound. The turbo pumps supplying the rocket engine with fuel and oxidiser needed something to get them going before the rocket engine can keep them running, so they used a small solid rocket to spin them up.

[@nova___3236]

Is there a video on one of your channels about the operation paper clip?

[@jonrabben3007]

SENSATIONAL HEADLINE!!! It is true we lost the missile and warhead, but we were never remotely close to the warhead detonating. The warheads could only detonate if numerous actions occurred in a preset sequence and then only if a human-generated valid launch command happened. Mr. Today I Found Out, get your facts straight.

[@jpablo700]

No. Everyone almost died. Accept it. *Today You Found Out

[@bandit6272]

Lol, "RUUUUUNN!" As if it would make the faintest difference if that warhead went off. You'd just die tired

[@n1ckyh1ck9y]

That ad read broke my tv speakers

[@BrandonBerkhan]

I'm from Arkansas! Really appreciate you making this video my guy

[@tommunyon2874]

I was sent to a nuclear security class at Fort McClellan Alabama in 1985 on my way to be Security Officer at Naval Magazine Guam. A complete overview of the silo accident was given during the class. I was a bit relieved that we had left Lawrence, Kansas in January 1980 and were no longer in the region when the accident happened. The dropped socket was described as being the size of a coffee can, a more relatable analogy in those days. Those searching for the warhead had been heard searching for "it" over non- secure communications.

[@Pugjamin]

25:08 I’m not sure that blast yield is correct, 70,000 tonnes of TNT, 70kt?

[@ladyrazorsharp]

My grandpa worked at Camp Cook, later Vandenberg, during the 1960s, welding/pipefitting on the systems for the Titans and Minutemen. My uncle and dad joined him in the 70's and 80's, eventually transitioning from the silos to systems for the planned (but after Challenger, sadly never used) Space Shuttle launch complex. Was cool to hear you talk about things and places that were our dinnertime conversation when I was a kid.

[@ladyrazorsharp]

Edit to add: I thought folks might be overreacting re: your BOOM but dude, I'm not even on headphones and my Mac's poor little internal speaker almost sent up a white flag. Love your work my guy but maybe lay off the espresso before recording your videos. Also: For those who are concerned re: "wow this almost caused Armageddon/lol no it couldn't, this was clickbait" - Having grown up near a Titan base and with people in my family who worked with the missile systems (see above), Cold War tech is no freaking joke. Back then, if a missile exploded - even in its silo - who knows who might have misconstrued what happened. The phrase 'hair trigger' applies here. Thankfully I was a kid and so was able to not be too concerned but I'm sure my parents worried about nuclear war. There were a slew of made-for-TV movies in the US and the UK (see:'Threads', if you dare) about such things; it was in everyday discussion. Even if the warheads didn't detonate, as this video illustrates, the danger of maintaining the US armament was very real. And for those of you whinging about how the 'story' didn't start until some time into the video: Context is important. If we forget WHY such things as missiles existed, we're headed for a bad place indeed.

[@maryscott9430]

10:20 gravity bongs? Surely thats not what he said? Ive rewatched it 4 times and thats what it sounded like….

[@kreiner1]

He did 😂😂

[@jameshpotato2675]

Sounds more like bombs than bongs, even youtube's subtitles say bombs

[@daveray44]

I was stationed in MT, working with Minuteman, when this incident happened. One thing we knew 1st hand, was that Minuteman used solid propellent, vs the liquid fueled Titan used. During one of our monthly missile safety classes, we saw 1st hand pictures of the silo, the moved 900 ton blast door, and how far away the warhead was found

[@DeSentos]

Thank you for that sudden shout, Simon. I hope you didn't blow out anyone's speakers.

[@joshsg6525]

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge nuclear annhilation

[@danielgay1772]

I live not far from where this happened

[@jeremyschulthess63]

To quote John Oliver "in rock - paper - scissors logic, wrench shouldn't trump nuclear bomb."

[@Yupppi]

There were so many side tracks that I lost track on which story was which. But I'm surprised the evacuation meant they stayed outside the facility watching and thinking they should go back in until shit hit the fan.

[@cassiebloemendaal7694]

Your yelling Boom when talking about the sponsor was a good jump scare, Simon

[@davidwestfall4336]

I was 16, living in N central Missouri then; I don't recall hearing about this. This is something I would have definitely been interested in.

[@bryanschwering8588]

R.I.P. Earbud listeners after that add read

[@JohnJohn-e4m]

I came here seeing that there are no new Why Files episodes. subscribed!

[@litterpicker1431]

20:29 Simon said "crombat."😆

[@lancerhades971]

Did he say "in order to square this circle"? What kinda phrase is that lol

[@gabbyn978]

It means that it is an impossible task, as you can not do it with simple means like a ruler and a compass.

[@lancerhades971]

@@gabbyn978 oh cool! Thank you for the explanation

[@dudeman8323]

Some writer should be embarrassed for the part of this video that says we needed an alternative delivery system after the B1 and B2 then goes straight to the '40s... 3:48 yeah, the B2 was a failure in that decade 🙄

[@CommandLineCowboy]

26:00 HIghy enriched Uranium. Really? I checked, yup the W-63 had a primary of Oralloy or highy enriched uranium. Odd! The tamper for the fusion secondary is depleted uranium 238. Not sure if that means there's more u-238 than u-235, my guess is that tamper is heavier. The dispersal of 100 Kg (or more?) of Uranium poses more of a chemical toxicity risk than a radiological one.

[@CaptainBadHorse]

Jesus Simon you shouted during the advert and I about spilled my water onto my work computer.

[@thelittlethings-unboxed]

Me trying to find a podcast to fall asleep too Simon in the first two minutes: 💥BOOM💥

[@noahkleugh9323]

After the Damascus Broken Arrow kicked, the fire department I was in was placed on standby to respond there for support.

[@Jaysin412]

My uncle was a roofer back when I was a teen 20+ years ago and fell into hot pitch/tar, and I remember visiting him in the hospital, and him looking like a zombie, or two-face from batman.... @26:16 is pretty much what he looked like when his burns actually healed... burns are no fun

[@dirt007]

I've been waiting for this one!!

[@diyeana]

This video is a terrifying reminder of what can happen when we ignore rules and safety protocols due to our own ego and laziness. 😢

[@PieMoe]

People here on autoplay after falling asleep getting engagement-baited by a jumpscare sponsor like:

[@cascadianrangers728]

It was actually a great big ol socket for a wrench, wasn't it? The Titan II was a massive missile, and that's one reason why it was actually pretty fragile in many places: Weight was at an absolute minimum, in fact the Titan II was so thin and light it could not support it's own weight without a full load of fuel, which basically kept the missile inflated

[@ladyrazorsharp]

I'm pretty sure either my dad or my grandpa (both of whom worked on the systems for the Titan) told me this exact thing back in the day.

[@WorldOfTess2024]

I was in high school about 100 miles away when this happened... yikes.

[@timmellor2599]

It is amazing it took this accident to cause a rule that all tolls should’ve tethered when in use. Even as you were telling the story, that answer immediately came to my mind. The effects of the blast were as impressive as they were potentially very scary

[@mtlgrsldx]

About halfway through the video before Simon is done with the intro and gets to the actual story? Yeah, that checks out...

[@Sptn051]

Air Force Security Forces veteran and nuclear weapons security specialist reporting here: every single plane-dropped nuclear weapon here in the US can be rendered useless with either a rock, a hammer, or a rifle barrel. There are three ports on each weapon that are used to arm and configure the weapon; take out these ports and the weapon is useless and has to be rebuilt from scratch. If you were to destroy the floppy disk containing the launch program, you can render our land-based nuclear missile silos inert. Of course, both of these solutions actually require a person to actually be on-site which is a feat that cannot be accomplished by any nation currently. Addendum: idk shit about the Navy's weapons at all, you'll have to talk to a Master at Arms for that info.

[@kms_23]

That BOOM at the beginning was aimed at all of us who put on your videos to listen to fall asleep wasn’t it?

[@davisgillies-holt8405]

Reminds me of that cop and the acorn

[@adamkahn8645]

i wish i could have been able to listen to the rest of your video but you blew my speakers