| On August 17th, I was in Buffalo, NY and visited the USS Little Rock (CLG-4) which is on display there. Some of the areas I found interesting were those that I never saw while on board. This page is of the missile house interior. Bruce Noel was on board the OK City from 1977 to 1979, working in the Missile House as an FTM3/2. He sent me some wonderful descriptions of what is depicted in the photos below. I've added his descriptions and my notes are in italics. Thanks Bruce!!! Ray Carini ET2 1968-72 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 1 This photo is of a pair of training missiles or "T-SAMs" These were used primarily for rollouts, also known as dog and pony shows. All training rounds are painted blue. The photo shows the launcher elevated for show, which was typically around 15 degrees above horizontal. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 2 This shows the blast doors. The round observation window is located between the blast doors. The window is shown in the open position. Normally it would have been rotated 90 degrees to close off. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 3 Another angle on the T-SAMs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 4 Another angle on the T-SAMs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 5 This photo is taken from the Port Missile Test area which was located right behind the bulkhead that the blast door are on, looking forward towards Area 2 which is the ready service area. Ray's wife is standing at the fire door that separates Area 2 from Missile Test. The grey boxes on the right of the photo are the power supplies for supplying missile power during test. The white box just forward of the power supplies is the hydraulic pump that supplied hydraulic power for the TALOS during test. The TALOS was brought out of Area 3 (storage) or Area 2 (ready service) by means of the air powered cart showin in photo 16 which traveled on the rails. At this point, only the missile was brought in for test. It would not have been mated to the solid propellant booster here. At one time, they used to have the ability to refuel the missiles here also -- they used JP5 jet fuel. That practice had long since been retired when I worked on them. The test equipment for the missiles or TATTE (TAlos Tactical Test Equipment) was located above the ceiling in this photo. The ladder leading up to it can be seen lying on the deck plates on the left side of the picture. From where Ray was standing, right above him would have been the warhead hoist used to transfer the warheads from the top of the missile house where they would have been received during an UNREP, down to the warhead magazine via a hatch located by Ray's feet. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 6 This photo shows Port Area 2 looking back towards Port Missile Test. The missile components, missile and booster would be brought into this area via the rails on the right side of the picture, to be mated into a complete assembly. Once connected together, they were hoisted using the yellow overhead hoist to the ready service ring on the left of the photo. The ring consisted of 2 sets of seven cradles for servicing the port and starboard launcher rails. The system could launch 14 TALOS missiles before additional missiles would have to be assembled. The dark overhead rail at the top left of the picture leads out to the wing and fin area and ultimately the launcher. The black door at the aft end is the blast door that separates Area 2 and Wing and Fin. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 7 This photo shows Port Area 3 which is missile and booster storage. Here the separated components were kept waiting to be assembled. The missile would be stored in between the rails located in the foreground and the booster between the forward rails at the rear of the picture. The grey plates between the rails folded down to allow the gunner's mates access to the inside stacks. Missiles and boosters were stacked 3 deep in this area. I don't recall the exact number of missiles back here, but I think it was 15 port and 15 starboard. (Ray's note: You can see holes in the side of the rails. I believe that the holes were used to hold "dividers" which separted the missiles in the stack.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 8 This photo shows Area 3 looking from port to starboard. You can see the forest of rails used for storage. I't hard to count but it looks like 5 or 6 sets of rails so that would be 15 or 18 missiles. (Ray's Note: I don't remember how many sets of rails were there but there was a sign that said the Little Rock carried 50 missiles. If there are 6 sets port and 6 sets starboard that would be 36 missiles and the 14 in the ready service ring would make 50.) The Yellow hoists used for lifing the missiles or boosters out of the stacks can be seen at the top left or center of the picture. The starboard hoist is the one down at the bottom of the stack. It appears to have a missile attached. The whie indicator boxes along the rail indicated if that stack was locked or unlocked for removal of missiles or boosters. The controls for the hoist would be on a catwalk above Ray's head. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 9 This photo shows a missile in the starboard assembly rails attached to the air powered cart. The red hose along the wall is the air supply. The red blocks on the deck between the rails were the adjustment rails used to mate the booster to the missile. The booster would be placed in the chocks and it could be micro-jogged using air motors, into position to mate with the missile. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 10 This photo shows the open, starboard blast door separating Area 2 and the Wing and Fin. The red circle x-ray door could be used for access between wing an dfin and area 2, but normally we would go through missile test. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 11 Here we are looking across the wing and fin area towards the system control panel. The racks on the fight show the ins that had to be hand installed just prior to the missile being sent out to the launcher. I say hand installed, but usually this was done with very large rubber mallets, not shown. On the left side of the picture is the wing rack which housed the trapezoidal shaped wing, also hand installed. The control panel in the center handled the movement of the missile from Area 2 to the launcher. (Ray's note: The hazy reflection is from plexiglass that restricts access to but allow viewing of the wing and fin area. From memory, the wing and fin area was 3-4 feet higher than missile test which is where I was standing.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 12 This photo is looking from starboard missile test towards area 2. This was my work space during my time on the Oklahoma City. The ladder leading up to the TATTE is missing in this picture. It would have been on the right bulkhead (up to the square black opening right behind the red light in the upper right -- Ray) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 13 Starboard wind and fin area or Areas 1 as it was known. The fin racks show the aft missile fin and booster fins. Across the space, kind of left center is the power supplies used to supply power to warm up the missile prior to launch. They were vacuum tube technology and like an old TV, they had to warm up before you could use them. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 14 Starboard Area 2, looking forwards the bow. In the missile house, everything is kind of bass-ackwards. We would think of forward as the direction to get the missile out to the launcher but in reality, it's aft. In my descriptions, I'm using forward as meaning towards the bow. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 15 (Ray's note: This is looking into the back end of the missile sitting in the assembly rails as shown in Photo 16, below.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 16 Shows the starboard missile test with a close up of the missile power supplies and hydraulic pump. On the Oklahoma City, our phone was located up in TATTE area, not on the bulkhead as shown. It could have been moved because it looks lie the TATTE areas have been secured. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTO 17 Shows a close-up of the TALOS missile warhead area. The actual warhead would have been behind t he nose cone. The silver rod at the top of the warhead was used to sense air speed and pressure. The 4 silver antenna around the missile were used to sense the target during the final homing phase of flight. That flange that's bolted onto t he top of the warhead cone isn't stock. It was probably used to keep the nose cone from being pulled off. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||