The two historic sites which make up the park are four miles (Launch Control Facility Delta-01) and 15 miles (Launch Facility Delta-09) from the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is located immediately north of I-90, exit 131. Have a story idea? Contact him at or on Twitter Support his work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is located at three sites along a fifteen mile stretch of Interstate 90 in western South Dakota. Be it news, outdoors, sports - you name it, he wants to report it. Reporter Miles Blumhardt looks for stories that impact your life. "Everything has a backup to a backup to a backup,'' said Deane Konowicz, vice commander of the missile wing, who used to live in Fort Collins.Īnd if you happen to be taking in the rugged beauty around the Pawnee Buttes National Grasslands, know it's best to view the missile sites from the road - this group takes safety of the missiles as seriously as it does the launching of what's underneath the prairie. Those events include, among other things, a coded message from the president sent to the launch control center, coded verification of the message and multiple levels of safety measures requiring both officers on duty to flip their individual switches.Īs an extra safety measure, other command centers can veto the launch. And just in case a nuclear strike disables the control center, Air Force planes are equipped to take flight and take over launch command. In reality, it takes a series of events for a launch, which has never happened since the missile program's inception. What it doesn't have is a big red button, often depicted in thriller movies. Then there's a door several feet thick with lock pins the size of your fist, a small fridge, a tiny sleeping quarter and four support pillars on a suspension system to absorb the blast of a nuclear strike and still keep critical communication lines open. The center is a claustrophobic - think submarine - cell with walls made up nearly entirely of banks of electronics. More: Traveling Vietnam memorial wall comes to Fort Collins this Memorial Day weekendĪn elevator ride reveals the heart of the launch control center, where two officers serve 24-hour shifts watching walls of screens for alerts sent from sensors at missile sites they oversee as well as other sites around the country. Jacob Nevills, the center's facility manager stationed at Warren Air Force Base the past three years.īut what makes this hidden facility much different than the surrounding ranch houses is what's below it. "When you are out here, you are away from your families, so we want to make this place as comfortable as we can for those staying out here,'' said Staff Sgt. It includes a basketball hoop, horseshoe pit, cornhole boards, video arcade, full-service kitchen, dormitory-like sleeping quarters and workout room that doubles as storage for maintenance machinery that includes a large loader. The completely self-sustained launch center could pass as any large ranch house, save for the prison-like perimeter fencing, Humvees in the parking lot, helicopter pad and that excessively tall antennae. They serve weeklong shifts before returning to the base or their homes in places like Fort Collins, Timnath and Severance before rotating back in. The missiles have been part of the nation's strategic deterrent forces under the control of the Air Force Global Strike Command for the last six decades.Ĭrews at this center include a chef, maintenance personnel, security forces, medical staff and officers authorized to flip the switch. More: Hikes to try: Horsetooth Falls is gushing in glory thanks to abundant spring precipitation They are among those who oversee a cluster of such missiles that lie underground in hardened silos spread over 9,600 square miles of prairie in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This launch control center with a view of Pawnee Buttes in northern Weld County houses about 20 members of the 90th Missile Wing of the F.E. Meadowlarks sing, their voices piercing the ever-present wind, all putting your mind at ease.īut behind this innocuous knoll in a submarine-like cabin deep underground are two officers with the keys to flip the switch to Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets 6,000 miles away should the president direct them. NORTHERN WELD COUNTY - If it weren't for the 184-foot tall antenna tower stretching far above the prairie, many might not give a second thought to what lies nestled behind this gentle rise carpeted with green prairie grasses and ground-hugging wildflowers wrestling the wind.Ĭows lazily graze in pastures. View Gallery: Oscar Missile Alert Facility near Grover, Colorado, hosts media tour
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