Deep below the soil of the Midwest, an Air Force officer receives an alert message. Along with her counterpart, she controls a weapon of terrible power, only to be launched as the very last resort. Hundreds of hours of training and practice kick in and guides her motions as she quickly reviews launch procedures.

 

Long ago she has driven the question out of her mind "Drill or for real?"

 

It is real until the alert is called off.

One of the exhibits of the National Museum of the United States Air Force is the Missile Gallery, built and lit like it is a Cold War missile silo. The lighting is stark and the effect is chilling, despite the side exhibits about the Air Force's contributions to the peaceful exploration of space.

 

Included in the gallery are the Minute Man 1A and II, Jupiter, Thor, Thor Agena, Titan I and II and Peacekeeper.

 

It is like walking through a Cold War nightmare.

 

(Overhead photo by USAF Museum: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/FactSheets/Display/tabid/509/Article/196028/boeing-lgm-30a-minuteman-ia.aspx )

 

Other missiles are mentioned in the exhibit. One that is close to my local interest is Atlas. These liquid fueled vehicles were stored on their side, raised, and then fueled before launch in a procedure that was both time consuming and dangerous.

 

Some of the early batteries were located around Omaha, both in Nebraska and Iowa. The remains of two of three launch sites (with 3 missile barns each) still exist. Atlas missiles are on display at both Offutt AFB, and the Strategic Air and Space Museum (shown below).

For those of you old enough to remember the 60's and 70's, if single warheads were not scary enough, the introduction of Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) warheads really upped the arms race. This "bus" was designed to carry ALL of these warheads on a single Peacekeeper missile.

 

USAF Museum photo:

 

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/FactSheets/Display/tabid/509/Article/197973/peacekeeper-re-entry-vehicles-deployment-bus.aspx

The Peacekeeper program also considered another innovation... missiles mounted on rail cars.

 

This was a real oddball exhibit... it is in the outside air park standing in a field by itself.

 

There is not one exterior marking that reveals what it is.

However, for the sharp eyed rail buff, the special shock absorbing suspension below the car betrays this is no ordinary train.

 

As far as I am aware, the plan was never implemented.

Getting back to our launch officer and her facility...

 

While early missiles such as Atlas were in above ground facilities, Minuteman was consigned to underground locations, both for the missiles and the Launch Control Center.

 

From the USAF Museum website:

 

"This model depicts a Minuteman II alert facility. The complex was surrounded by a double fence with sensitive motion-detecting alarms. Each Launch Control Center (LCC) served 10 Minuteman missiles in individual hardened underground silos, typically spaced about 4 to 14 miles apart. Individual silos were not manned because the solid-fuel Minuteman II missiles could be stored almost indefinitely and launched from the LCC. They required only periodic maintenance and security visits.

 

Cold War requirements to build up U.S. nuclear defenses speeded up Minuteman site construction. Builders often labored year-round in three shifts, seven days a week. The Army Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office and its contractors built 1,000 silos between 1961 and 1966."

 

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/FactSheets/Display/tabid/509/Article/197674/missile-alert-facility-model.aspx

 

 

Our launch officer and her counterpart are shown within the steel walls of the Minuteman II Mission Procedures Trainer, this one displaying "Minuteman II systems operational from 1966 through 1991."

 

Although looking a bit outdated by today's electronics, the displays and keyboards were well ahead of civilian equipment of the day.

 

 

Launch code box?

 

Note the seated officer is sitting on a chair mounted on rails that allow her to move along the full range of launch equipment.

This is just a sample of the missile exhibits available at the USAF Museum.

 

You can see a lot more of what they have to offer on their website:

 

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/MissileGallery.aspx

 

Some of these exhibits also overlap with their Space Gallery:

 

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/SpaceGallery.aspx

 

 

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

See also the Titan Missile Museum. Don't be claustrophobic! The Cold War was serious business.