Titan II

history & protest from Tucson, Arizona

Once there were three cities each with a Titan ring

Little Rock and Wichita, like Tucson, had this thing

So the U.S.A. could face the world like military king

Defended by the Titan II

 

So Tucson, Arizona, was once on the Russian's map

For twenty-one years we sat with nuclear weapons 'round our lap

If someone nuked us first, why we'd give them an equal slap

With our missiles known as Titan II

 

Eighteen missiles formed a ring around old Tucson town

Ready in their launching pads three stories underground

Each one a double rocket with a genocidal crown

And these weapons were the Titan II

 

Accordion-type pleats were built into each silo wall

That way if Tucson "took a hit" the structures would not fall

And we could still retaliate; three minutes that is all

It takes to launch the monster known as Titan II

 

A huge radar antenna stood right by each missile's side

Any critter who approached its radiation soon was fried

And once a day someone cleaned up the animals who had died

In the shadow of the Titan II

 

To the Indian reservation as a propaganda ploy

Davis-Monthan sent a Santa to give everyone a toy

To camouflage their nukes with a show of Christmas joy

Season's greeting from the Titan II

 

In Nineteen seventy-eight the first women joined the crew

To staff the missile and help launch it, were the order to come through

The Air Force called that "women's progress," unlike a feminist view

Which regards as patriarchal the Titan II

 

There were inevitable accidents; the Air Force called them flukes

The people who protested were called radicals and kooks

"And how can Tucson grow?" they asked, "without jobs from war and nukes,

And our missiles known as Titan II?"

 

In 'Eighty four the Titans were retired as obsolete

They only carried one warhead, their size was indiscreet

"We need more modern missiles if the Russians we're to beat"

So Tucson lost its Titan II

 

One missile sight was salvaged, a museum it became

To educate the tourists to "our heritage," they claim

While they display this death machine without regret or shame

Because they are proud of their Titan II

 

The Titan II is history, an antique museum piece

Where once we feared the Russians, we now bomb the Middle East

And the modernization of our weaponry continues to increase

With tragic implications beyond the Titan II

 

We have a giant arsenal of weapons in reserve

Nightmare high technology which no good end can serve

Abolition is all these weapons do deserve

And rejection of the Titan II