March 20, 2012
Titan II Museum - Peace Through Deterrence. As a child of the Cold War who practiced "drop and cover", visiting this site fills in many questions about how the USA would respond to an attack. All titan missiles have been destroyed and this is the only silo that remains open as an example. The rest have been blown up, filled in and the land has been sold. There is a Methodist Church on the old missile site in Catalina, AZ.
Watch out for rattlesnakes, a common sign whenever we're outside. We never saw any snakes at the national parks or along the hiking trails.Lovely blossoms on the prickly pear cactus.
The control room where 2 technicians stood at the ready to respond if we were attacked. Our guide explain how a 6 digit secret code would be transmitted and then 2 more steps would be required to actually fire the missile
Pima Air and Space Museum - so many airplanes
One of 6 whimsically painted airplanes
My favorite - the Super Guppy use to transport space capsules 
We signed up for a special bus tour through the "Bone Yard" off to the side of an air base.
This is where the B52 airplanes(the large planes that carry atom bombs) are destroyed as part of the nuclear weapons treaty. The Russians come here and the USA goes there annually to inspect each other to be sure the big see the planes are being destroyed. Spare parts for just about any type of airplane are kept here. The dry heat and firm sand are a perfect warehouse.
How strange to see rows of airplane parts.
This is picture of the super secret stealth bomber.(It is a joke- you know, an invisible bomber) 
