S.L. Sanger
Conversations, part 1
DURING A FEW YEARS of being interested in Minuteman III nuclear missiles, I have had many conversations with people who either live with the missiles or live around them. The attitudes of those who live with the missiles, the Air Force missileers, and the ranchers and townsfolk in missile country who live around them, are not all that different. You could say the attitudes could be described in several similar ways: mundane and occupational, indifferent, nonchalant, calmly fatalistic.
“THEY ARE HERE; they have been here for decades. We are used to them.” That would be a typical non-missileer opinion. The professionals who mind the missiles and have, so to speak, their fingers on the launch keys, consider they are doing an important job and are reasonably confident the missiles will not leave their silos, rockets alight. If the missiles were launched, all agreed life as they knew it would be over.
One missileer told me, “If we ever launch, there’s no sense in going home."
A retired Air Force missile crew veteran said, “Turning the key was something you trained for and practiced for and hoped the day never came.”
This comment was echoed by two ex-missileers, retired officers who had served in Montana’s missile force – Col. Terry Pehan, a former base commander at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Great Falls, and Lt. Col. Bill Records, a former launch officer and later on the staff at Strategic Air Command headquarters.
Pehan, at the time he was interviewed was president of the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce, a long way occupationally from his 28 years in the missile business in maintenance and operations. “People don’t ask me much about my missile background. Of course, these missiles have been around here a long time and are not considered anything unusual.”
His feeling on turning the launch key was that it “was like being a cop. You don’t want to shoot anyone, but you better be trained to do it if ordered.”
Records said something similar. The launch control capsule work was “very much a job. You are involved with work partners, not outsiders.” Heavy philosophical questions did not come up. “Everyone knew why they were there. It was a job. They knew how to turn the key.”
As far as the public was concerned, Records said the security teams did meet locals, partly because the teams roved the missile field and spent a lot of money on food and gas. (Malmstrom overall is a critical part of the north-central Montana economy with 4,000 civilians and military personnel at the base, which has a $219 million payroll.)
Records, typical of retired military men, was not reluctant to tell an anecdote or two about other ways the missile force was connected to local people. “Sometimes an airman might get involved with a local rancher’s daughter or somebody might shoot an antelope with an assault rifle. Drunk ranchers sometimes fool around at the launch sites, but they stop when they realize they are facing an 18-year-old kid with real bullets. Sometimes peace types are involved around the sites, but they aren’t serious problems.”
This typical missile launch site is one of the 450 Minuteman III sites in the United States.
THE GENERAL PUBLIC seems mostly ignorant of the missiles on alert. People think the era of nuclear missiles ended with the end of the Cold War and are amazed 450 land-based H- bomb Minuteman III ICBMs are located in five western states (Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska) as well as the Trident ballistic missile-equipped submarines always on secret patrol. Plus, dozens of nuclear bomb-capable aircraft to carry the fairly old-fashioned gravity bomb are available on short notice. The total U.S. nuclear warhead and bomb inventory adds up to an estimated 4,760 weapons of which some 2,080 are deployed, which means operational, ready to go. The Minuteman III force, aptly named, is capable of being on the way to the target in less than a minute after the launch keys are turned.
RUSSIA'S NUCLEAR WARHEAD TOTAL is roughly equivalent, which means the United States and Russia together have about 95 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons. Nine countries possess nuclear arms for an estimated total of 17,300. It is not known for sure how many nations have global missile capability.
This information, when related to most people, is greeted with incredulity. Young people, in particular, are amazed, even while admitting ignorance of such matters.
Half a dozen retired journalists having lunch together in Seattle were asked if they were aware of America’s 450 land-based missiles. All were surprised and amazed. For one thing, they wondered why so many are on constant alert and for another thing they were slightly embarrassed at their lack of knowledge. All were reasonably well-informed and current with news, they thought. Basically, they were almost as uninformed about the world of nuclear weapons as the young people interviewed.
The retirees asked about targets, assuming the end of the Cold War more than 20 years ago meant a relaxation of tension. I told them the missiles were aimed WOA, which stands for “wide ocean area,” but aiming points can be changed almost instantly if so ordered. “Right now, the only casualties in a nuclear launch likely would be a few whales,” one ex-missileer said.