It was the autumn of 1962 and the world stood on the brink. It was the time of the Cuban missile crisis and it was the peak of the cold war. War could happen any moment and we would have less than a half hour before nuclear bombs would wipe us out. I lived in Somerset County, NJ and figured the duck-and-cover drill was simply a matter of protocol because if the bomb hit, I would be in a good position to kiss my ass goodbye. Of course, it the bomb did drop, I wouldn’t have time to kiss anything goodbye.
Though I have lived in the New York City metropolitan area all my life, I just discovered that the Soviet Union aimed more nuclear missiles at rural farmland in South Dakota, my newly adopted state, than at New York. The reason? Places like Exit 127 along Interstate 90. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what town is at that exit. The highway signs do not tell you. Go off at the exit and to the south is a paved road heading to farmland. And to the north is a dirt road. The Soviets had three nukes aimed there. Why? Just off the dirt road was Launch Facility Delta 01, an innocuous building that housed the control center for firing 10 Minuteman ICBM missiles armed with 1.2 megaton warheads aimed at Moscow.
If Soviet missiles hit their target, everything within a 40-mile radius would be annihilated. Back in 1962, President John F. Kennedy referred to the Minuteman missiles as the nation’s “ace in the hole.” The missiles were what were known as a deterrent. With their solid fuel instead of the liquid propellant seen in space program missile launches, they could be launched within five minutes. The certain knowledge that if the Soviets launched a nuclear attack on us that we would retaliate within minutes of their launch assured mutual destruction, the end of mankind.
Most of us knew about these sites. They were “somewhere” in the Midwest, but most of us never knew for sure where they were. But the Soviets did. Nationwide, there were 450 Minuteman missile launch sites. Following the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed by President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, the launch sites were destroyed. Delta 01 and a nearby launch silo, Delta 10, were preserved as a historic site.
We tend to forget that the Interstate Highway System, often called the “Eisenhower” Highway system after President Dwight D. Eisenhower who led its construction, was designed for national defense as well as transportation. That reality became quite apparent as most of these launch sites were manned by personnel from Ellsworth Air Force base, located near Rapid City.
Personnel from Ellsworth travelled to the sites for three-days on/three-days off shifts. On the ground floor, six enlisted men would staff the facility, mainly providing security support and support for the two officers who were underground in a steel bunker designed to withstand the earthquakes caused by the launching of ten missiles or an attack. Now you might think that the officers would be seasoned and mature. In fact, most of them were just out of officer training and on their first assignment. The thought was that younger men would obey orders better than older people, especially if they were married and had families. Our tour guide related a story about how the wife of one officer asked her to call if the missiles were launched. The man said “sure honey,” but the fact was that the missiles had to be launched within five minutes and the wife, living near Ellsworth, would be dead no matter what happened, as a nuke would surely hit it.
The officers and staff knew that if the keys were turned and buttons were pushed, they were dead. Incoming missiles were already launched. If you stayed in the underground control center, you would have about 24 hours of air before dying, far too soon to emerge and be safe from radiation.
Security patrolled the area in a Peacekeeper armored vehicle with a machine gun mounted to the top. The missile silos were surrounded by chain link fencing and if touched, would set off an alarm. And the men would respond right away. The Peacekeeper was nicknamed the “coffin car” because its air conditioner would burn out the engine in the summer and the heater didn’t work well in the winter. South Dakota has summer heat of 100° every day I’ve been here and is often among the coldest areas of the continental states in winters.
The most frequent causes of these alarms were tumbleweeds or cows. Our guide related a tale where a second Peacekeeper was called out because the report of the first group was very suspect. A camel had set off the fence alarm. It turned out that the beast was from a nearby zoo facility and was lent to a church for a nativity pageant. It panicked and bolted. .
Delta 09 and nearby missile silo Delta 01 are now historic sites run by the National Park Service. And tours are given. Park rangers give photography of the living quarters and underground feasibility. The launchntrol area has three circular spots that appear to be missile silos, but are actually antenna facilities. The site would have “soft” antennas that could be destroyed by an attack, but cement bunkers contained “hard” antennas that could be raised afterwards. The missile silos are actually at least a mile away, with special cable wiring connecting them to the launch center. There were no launch control personnel anywhere near the silos.
And so I emerged, relieved that the cold war is over and we are not anywhere near the end of life. But then I read the brochure: “There are no longer active ICBM silos in South Dakota, but 500 nuclear missiles are still deployed in the upper Great Plains. While threats of the Cold War era have subsided, the nations defense systems remain on alert.”
I’ll look for you when the war is over, an hour and a half from now.
