Ever wonder how a skinny farm kid from small town Texas ends up face to face with a heavily damaged nuclear warhead in the middle of a Cold War crisis? That is the journey at the heart of Failure Not an Option: A Cold War Memoir from Nuclear Crisis to Senior Federal Law Enforcement Officer by Bob Hicks. In this true story, Hicks walks you from dusty fields and rattlesnakes to top secret missile silos, undercover operations and national security command posts. The memoir is not about glory. It is about pressure, fear, duty and a simple rule he carried for life. Failure is not an option.
Growing up in Somerset, Texas
To understand Bob Hicks the nuclear crisis hero, you must start with Bob Hicks the farm boy. He grew up poor but rich in what mattered. A crowded house, gospel singing, hand me down beds and clothes, rattlesnakes in the fields, and parents who insisted on integrity even when money was tight.
Somerset, Texas gave him two priceless things. First, a work ethic built on fixing things instead of throwing them away. Second, a web of adults who expected him to show up as a decent human being. Educators such as Superintendent Bill James and FFA mentor Kenneth Taylor were great influences on him, relied on him and made it obvious that character was more important than test scores.
He was neither the best in his class nor the biggest athlete. Most probably he would not have even considered a college education. But he had already got the good habits of through-the-roof thinking, taking responsibility and never giving up when something went wrong. That quiet training in fields and workshops would later matter far more than he could have ever imagined.
From nervous recruit to nuclear weapons specialist
When Hicks walked into the Air Force recruiter in 1963, he was six feet tall and only 129 pounds. Too light to qualify in the military. A heavy lunch and a bit of mercy from the examination staff put him just over the line. That is how his military story begins.
Basic training felt like another planet. New rules. New language. People from every background. The turning point came when his training instructor told the flight to look around and remember one thing. They had all signed a paper saying they were ready to defend the country and, if needed, die for the person standing next to them. That snapped him into a new mindset.
Because of his high aptitude scores, he was quietly tracked for nuclear weapons work. FBI agents checked his hometown for the highest level security clearance. Officers grilled him. Then came the shock. He was headed to Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado to learn how to maintain and handle nuclear weapons, the most destructive objects humans had ever built.
The physics almost beat him. He had never seen a periodic table. But an instructor who admitted his own early confusion and a classmate named Rob helped pull him through. Five months later, Hicks walked out with a qualification that carried more weight than any school diploma he had ever imagined.
The night everything went wrong at Lima 2
The core of the hero story in Failure Not an Option is a night in December 1964 at a Minuteman missile site called Lima 2 in South Dakota.
A team working on the site heard an explosion underground. Smoke filled the missile equipment levels. When the dust settled, a simple and terrifying fact stood out. The missile was standing there. The re-entry vehicle that held the nuclear warhead was not on top of it anymore. It was somewhere down in the silo.
Hicks got the call. Drive the configured semi, in winter snow, to Lima 2. On the way, a state trooper pulled him over and pointed to smoking hot trailer brakes. A small mistake, reversed air hoses, could have turned that rush into another disaster. They fixed it in the snow and pushed on.
At the site, Explosive Ordnance Disposal experts were on scene but had little experience with this new warhead system. Someone had to go down, ride the swaying work cage, pin the missile stages to prevent ignition and assess the condition of the warhead and the missile itself. Hicks stepped up without hesitation.
From missiles to federal law enforcement
The nuclear crisis at Lima 2 was only the first act. In Failure Not an Option, Hicks goes on to describe how that same mindset carried him into a second career with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
He worked undercover with the FBI to expose faulty aircraft parts. He ran complex fraud and corruption cases against major defense contractors. He responded to terrorist incidents in Europe. Later, as a senior civilian Special Agent in Charge, he helped oversee cases that recovered hundreds of millions in taxpayer money and coordinated national security ground responses during the 9/11 attacks.
Conclusion
The pattern is clear. Every new phase looks like a completely different world. Nuclear silos. Undercover stings. Terrorism response. But underneath it all sits the same foundation he formed back in Somerset. Integrity, hard work, quiet courage and a promise to himself and his family.
From Texas farm boy to nuclear crisis hero is not just a catchy line. It is the straight, hard road that runs through Bob Hicks’ life and through every page of Failure Not an Option
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