Titan II

A History of a Cold War Missile

By: David Stumpf

Narrated by: Douglas R. Pratt

Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A comprehensive study of the missile system that formed a critical component of the United States' nuclear arsenal.

The Titan II ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) program was developed by the United States military to bolster the size, strength, and speed of the nation's strategic weapons arsenal in the 1950s and 1960s. Each missile carried a single warhead - the largest in U.S. inventory - used liquid fuel propellants, and was stored and launched from hardened underground silos. The missiles were deployed at basing facilities in Arkansas, Arizona, and Kansas and remained in active service for over 20 years. Since military deactivation in the early 1980s, the Titan II has served as a reliable satellite launch vehicle.

Titan II will be welcomed by professionals and laymen, and by the many civilian and Air Force personnel who were involved in the program - a deterrent weapons system that proved to be successful in defending America from nuclear attack.

©2000 Department of Arkansas Heritage (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The author breaks new ground on the history of the Titan II weapon system... [A] masterpiece of scholarly research." (Rick W. Sturdevant Staff Historian, USAF)

Great audio book!

loved it, great stories! I want to listen to another of the like. It's a true rocket enthusiasts book. If you love history and especially rocket or military history this is for you.

It worked only because it's my special interest.

My dad worked on Titan II & told me lots about it, so I was able to enjoy this very dry history. I am surprised a book with such a narrow subject got an audiobook. I can listen in traffic but I could not sit down and read a book like this, so it worked for me. The couple of parts where the narrator flubs his line and starts over were welcome comic relief. I was glad he finally started pronouncing SAC (Strategic Air Command) as "sack" as they did in the Air Force instead of spelling it out, though this started about halfway thru the book. There were other terms he pronounced correctly that I have heard pronounced incorrectly in other rocket books.

Several errors, inconsistent pronunciation

There are at least two instances of the reader stumbling over/mispronouncing words which for some reason were left in the final recording?

Disappointing: Lacks a coherent story

I was really disappointed with this book - the subject matter is interesting, but it's almost a regurgitation of memos, rather conversion of memos and research materials into a book. There is constant ad-nausium list of the staff present at the time of various events - i.e. read direct from the memo. This just becomes tedious, repetitive and unhelpful - it doesn't add anything to the story. In fact, there is no story - the author should have taken the materials and converted them into a narrative and done additional research to provide other information and perspectives. Unfortunately, there is no analysis and critical review of the material. The narration was dry and monotonous, while I don't expect the narrator to understand the materials, it was a completely dry read - there are even sections that were supposed to be edited out which weren't. As an engineer, I have a suspicion the author didn't understand an amount of the content either. I almost gave up on this book.

I would highly recommend "Command and Control" instead - you won't be disappointed.

Couldn't Bear to Finish Listenting

I wanted it to be good. The reviews on Amazon.com where great. I even restarted my Audible membership to buy it. But the narration was simply unbearable. It was like each sentence of the book was a bullet point in the longest Power Point presentation from hell. The narrator sounds like his expertise is reading the Federal Register. Pass on this one and listen to Command and Control by Eric Schlosser if you haven't already.

No Plot

This is just a person reading technical reports on the Titan 2 ICBM without a story of it’s importance or relevance.

Abort the launch!!!!! This book is a no-go!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Just about anything would be an improvement. Sadly, almost the ENTIRE book is a list of dates and associated activities, such as one missile being removed from its silo and placed into another, or a new replacement part being installed in a given missile. It actually sounds like the narrator is just reading down a maintenance log.

What could David Stumpf have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

At the risk of repeating myself, the author could have written something that was far more pleasant to listen to than a seemingly interminable laundry list of missile maintenance, upgrades, movement, etc. I don't think the audio sample on Audible.Com was representative of what the rest of the audiobook is like.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No. I hate to say it, but I think I wasted a credit on this one. The audio sample sounded great.

Any additional comments?

Okay, I've never written a book, so I have no idea how difficult it is. I admit it. But, it almost sounds like the author just grabbed reams and reams of Air Force missile maintenance logs, placed them in chronological order, then called it a book.