![]() Interestingly, if the state had decided to split away from the rest of the country, North Dakota would have been the 3rd most powerful nation in the world. While during this period of time, Russian visitors weren’t allowed to visit the state, the missile sites were far from secret in fact, school kids went on field trips to tour their nearest missile silos.īy the next year, 300 Minutemen missiles were fully armed with nuclear warheads. Soon, the North Dakota prairie was spattered with hundreds of missile sites boasting America’s latest technology. At Minot Air Force Base, Strategic Air Command (SAC) activated the 455th Strategic Missile Wing in November, and in less than a year, the first Minuteman arrived from Hill Air Force Base in Utah. School children were taught to hide under their desks in case of Russian attack, and families were putting stores of purified water and non-perishable food in the bunkers they built beneath their lawns.įield construction began in January of 1962 to house the new Minuteman I Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) complex. The Cold War was in full swing, and everywhere people prepared for the worst – nuclear holocaust. It was feared that a possible strike could come from over the Arctic and down into North Dakota, so the Air Force quickly chose sites across the state and within the year, missile sites were sprouting up in our wheat fields. One year later, on October 6th, 1961, President Kennedy urged Americans to build bomb shelters to protect them from atomic fallout. See also ARCHITECTURE: Cold War Architecture / WAR: Cold War.On this day in 1960, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his desk and declared to U.S. Not much of a silo is visible from above, but the depth of a missile silo that accommodates either a Peacekeeper or Minuteman missile exceeds 100 feet. The missiles are stored underground to provide protection from the elements and from attack. Stored below is the missile that, in a true launch situation, would emerge after the door was blasted off the silo opening by explosive charges. ![]() Visible from the surface is each silo's 110-ton blast door, which looks like a well-guarded slab of concrete. Armed guards routinely inspect each site and respond immediately to any attempted unauthorized access. A chain-link fence, barbed wire, and an array of motion-detection devices enclose each silo. Warren Air Force Base includes portions of western Nebraska, northern Colorado, and eastern Wyoming, an area of more than 12,000 square miles. Missile silos are scattered across such vast expanses so that potential adversaries would have to target each missile individually. Each of these missiles is stored, ready to launch, in its own hardened launch facility, commonly called a missile silo. ![]() Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, and Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, has oversight and control over the missile force, which is comprised of Minuteman III and Peacekeeper missiles. Each of the three Strategic Missile Wings at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, F. Across the Great Plains, from northern Colorado into western Nebraska and throughout Wyoming, North Dakota, and Montana, are the missile fields of the United States nuclear program.
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