09Dec2010
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LAUNCH AN ICBM
People know Schrade Radtke as the senior marketing manager of T. Marzetti Co., Columbus, Ohio. But in the Air Force, he was a Missile Combat Crew Commander, in the Strategic Air Command Titan II (ICBM) system, the booster missile for the Apollo space launches.
How’d you wind up in the Air Force?
I joined the Air Force ROTC program, during college, because it was during the Vietnam War. I knew that I would join the military and wanted to go in as an officer. Immediately after graduation, I went on active duty and spent the next six months training in all aspects of the Titan II ICBM weapons system. I was then assigned to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, in Tucson, Arizona, a Strategic Air Command base, where they trained F-4 pilots for Vietnam. It was also the primary base for U-2’s spy planes, and one of three Titan II missile bases.
Was it a strange feeling for an English major to be working on the missile program?
Absolutely. Here I was, a second lieutenant, who had just turned 21 and looked 15, carrying a .38 gun, in charge of a $100 million dollar ICBM and launch complex. Plus, the two Senior Master Sergeants on my four-man crew had a combined 60+ years in the Air Force, and, yes, I called them “Sir!” The other Crew Commanders in my wing were mostly field grade officers —majors and above, and many were former pilots with 20+ years in the Air Force. Basically, we were babysitting an ICBM missile, waiting 60 feet underground, for a message that would direct us to launch. We were always on a very high alert status, because of the Vietnam War, so there was a real possibility that we could have received a launch message. We went through extensive training and testing, where all sorts of problems at you, to see how you’d respond, if you could manage constantly changing priorities and whether you were still qualified to maintain your position.. I loved the competition and the pressure, and my crew was named the top Titan II missile crew in the Strategic Air Command.
You actually did a launch once as a test.
Yes, the launch was in November, 1968. Every several years, SAC HQ chose one of the three Titan II bases to run an Operational Readiness Test, and that year, Davis-Monthan was selected. The top missile crews from our wing were chosen to go through three months of highpressure testing on simulator trainers. I was very fortunate that my crew won the competition and was selected to launch the missile, from Vandenberg AFB, NASA’s Western Test Range.
What was your target?
Our target was an uninhabited island 5,000 miles away in the Southwest Pacific. It was really interesting sitting in the launch control center, 60 feet underground, and conducting the whole launch process, just like they do on all the NASA launches. It felt like hours between when the “fire engine indicator” lighted and the “lift-off” indicator lighted. I was concentrating so hard on the control panel and looking at the launch indicators lighting up that I almost forgot what was happening. Then I heard a loud noise and the ground rumbled and I realized, “Wow, we actually launched a missile.” I was told that our missile was a quarter mile to the left and a quarter mile short of the target, and was the most accurate launch to date.
