toured minuteman missle facility in s.d.

[jcurtis934]

Well, today we went to tour the Delta launch control center outside of wall, south dakota. The bonus was that the national park tour guide/ranger was a former air force missileer that actually manned the site in the seventies. The visitor center where you arrange a tour was a well done affair with good insight into what these folks went through in their duties and what the soviets were doing at the time. Real neat to go underground and through that big thick steel and concrete door to see the equipment and those two chairs with seatbelts. As a side note...as we were getting on the interstate, we were pelted with pea size hail from a large cell that was passing close by. Next stop, custer city for a week to see rushmore, crazy horse monument, wind cave, ellsworth afb museaum, devils tower, and more. John

[lostshakerofsalt]

We really enjoyed our tour of the Minuteman site. I loved the painting on the door of the capsule.

[DQDick]

Many years ago when I was an LEO in the county Wichita is in i had a friend who commanded the missile sites in our and the surrounding counties. They were really something when they were operational and the missile was down in the silo.

[WaltBennett]

Spent a whole lot of years in SAC, maintaining the command & control systems that would launch B52s. Then finished with 5+ years at the Pentagon, maintaining the display systems that showed 'the decision makers' what all the different sensor & satellite systems fed in so they'd know when to pull the trigger. That whole 20+ years is a period I'd rather not remember too many details of, since if anything happened, both sides would all be gone no matter what. Mutually Assured Destruction was really 'MAD' in a lot of ways, but it worked.

[stengels]

Can't remember whether it was the late 50s or early 60s, but my dad helped build the silos to the east of Wichita. Always thought they were a magnificent feat, and always enjoyed driving by them at night, looking for the green light. Made us all feel secure. Then would watch the B-52s take off at McConnell, even more security.

[pkbridges77]

So glad you got to take the tour. It's a part of history that our kids have no concept of - just ask them their understanding or opinion of Russia or Cuba. No clue what the Cold War really felt like. Several years ago I was working on a project for the FAA at Roswell and one of the controllers asked if we had ever seen a missle silo. About midnight he took us out to an abandoned Atlas silo that had been salvaged, closed, then vandalized. With flashlights in hand we trekked through that and climbed down the rusted, rickety spiral staircase all the way to the bottom. One of the scariest, dangerous, but most fascinating adventures I've ever had. Brought back some kind of actuator that was laying at the bottom.

[richfaa]

There is also a site open to the public in the Tuscon, Az area.

"The Titan Missile Museum, also known as Air Force Facility Missile Site 8 or as Titan II ICBM Site 571-7, is a former ICBM missile site located at 1580 West Duval Mine Road, Sahuarita, Arizona in the United States.

[mlh]

When I first started working for myself 35 years ago I made a lot of parts for the radar jamers for the military. It' was fun work with some very expensive and nice materials. With that background I would love to see those silos.
Lynwood