Discover what is hidden “Beneath the Plains” !!!!!!!!

[Engineman1960]

So !!!!!!!

I was watching TV (Military Channel, about Pathfinders) thinking about Adamredlines move to Nebraska. And things to do.

So I remember that in the Nebraska panhandle the USAF has active LGM-30 Minuteman III missile silos and launch facilities. The 90th Missile Wing.

90th Missile Wing LGM-30 Minuteman Missile Launch Sites - Wikipedia

Using Apple Maps:
Just East of Gurley, NE the 320th missile Squadron has a Minuteman Silo (H-09, on Road 46, just West of Road 119). Further down Road 46, just East of Road 127 is the MAF ( H-01, Find the Missile Alert Facility) Launch Control facility.

South of Dalton, NE, State Highway 385, head East on Road 56 -- H-10.

The National Park Service has an deactivated MAF and Silo you can Visit.

https://www.nps.gov/mimi/index.htm
There used to be a guided tour of the Minuteman Silo training facility at Ellsworth Air Force Base, outside Rapid City, South Dakota (the facility has stairwells instead of ladders).

https://www.sdairandspacemuseum.com/tours-and-events

 

[TerryMiller]

We went to the Minuteman Missile Visitor's Center and the missile silo last year when we took a week to go up and see Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. The visitor's center is just across the interstate from the highway that takes one into the badlands at Exit 131. We didn't do the tour of the launch facility because that took having a reservation and paying a fee. We didn't have time to book the reservation.

Also, we didn't have time to check out the SD Air and Space Museum either. It wasn't until we went to see the badlands that I even knew there was a museum at the air base.

 

[GeneW]

If you get to Tucson, go south on I-19 for about 22 minutes or so to the town Sahuarita/Green Valley AZ and visit the Atlas Missile Silo Museum. It's way cool and awesome. Although I live in OKC, I hope to have a winter home in that area, I have visited it numerous times. I am a member of the Green Valley Amateur Radio Club (ham radio) and we are authorized to operate from there on their giant antenna, which still works just fine. In fact, any ham radio licensed operator is allowed to operate on Titan Missile antenna, just go in and sign the log first. You want to get a pileup going, it will.

There are some great YouTube videos of this, just search for Titan Missile Museum.

Link to Titan Missile Museum

As a kid growing up in SW Oklahoma, pretty close to Altus AFB, I saw quite a few of the Atlas Missile Silos. I vividly remember seeing the missiles up and out of the silos, it's still sobering to realize each had a nuke onboard, and the guard had authority to shoot to kill anyone approaching who was not authorized. They're all decommissioned now, of course, but if you want to you can take a day trip and drive up to most of them. I have walked across some of them. A year or 2 ago, our local Costco had a book about the Titan Missiles in Oklahoma, very interesting.

 

[Gadsden]

There are still many silos located in NE Colorado too. Back when I first began my career in LE many years ago I used to pass by them while patrolling the county. Most were abandoned but not all. I found that out very quickly one day when I pulled into the driveway and parked outside of the gate to do some paperwork. It didn't take long before I was "visited" by approximately 14 troops armed with automatic weapons. They definitely appeared ready to 'eliminate any potential threat' even though I was in uniform and in a marked patrol car. Once they realized who I was and I explained why I stopped there they were very nice, but also made it very clear that I needed to find somewhere else to stop and do paperwork.

 

[GlockPride]

We went to the Minuteman Missile Visitor's Center and the missile silo last year when we took a week to go up and see Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. The visitor's center is just across the interstate from the highway that takes one into the badlands at Exit 131. We didn't do the tour of the launch facility because that took having a reservation and paying a fee. We didn't have time to book the reservation.

Also, we didn't have time to check out the SD Air and Space Museum either. It wasn't until we went to see the badlands that I even knew there was a museum at the air base.

We did that trip three years ago to Rushmore, Badlands, Deadwood, Sturgis, Ellsworth, etc. Such a cool area. I could probably live up there.
We did do the museum at Ellsworth, spent a couple hours there. It was well worth the visit and time. As an aviation buff who gets to see the Bone up close sometimes, it was cool to see them doing touch-and-go’s at Ellsworth. We, too, missed the tour because we didn’t have a reservation. Would really liked to have taken the tour, though I don’t think the wife would’ve liked it, but the boy (9 yo then) would have loved it.

 

[dennishoddy]

We toured Quebec 01 this summer in Wyoming.
It’s the only accessible Peacekeeper Missile Alert Facility left in the world. Operated as a state park.
When it was abandoned, the last officer in the facility penned a note on the blast door.

We got a briefing about living conditions above ground, then went down an elevator to the actual launch facility, first going to see the emergency electrical generator and the reserve breathing air room, then through another blast door to the operations area that was 4’ thick and could be moved with finger tips to open or close.

Here are pics of the actual work stations. The chairs moved back and forth on tracks in the floor. The work stations with the launch keys were far enough apart that it would be impossible for one person to make a launch. Took two working together for a launch to happen.
There is one bunk and a shower behind a plastic curtain as the crew had to stay in there for a couple of days.

If by chance there was an attack with the facility above destroyed, there was a hundred yard long tunnel filled with sand that could be dumped into the module giving the crew a way out.

The following pic is the actual navigation module of a Peacekeeper nuclear missile that has recently been declassified. Once set and launched, there was no way to alter the guidance system. The peacekeepers were in use until 2005.

 

[Engineman1960]

At the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, the museum is working on a restoration of a Looking Glass (Code Name for the airborne Command and Control Aircraft that controlled the missile force, in case the ground facilities were taken off line) EC-135. The EC-135A on display at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum was also tasked for the Looking Glass mission.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Looking_Glass
https://www.sdairandspacemuseum.com/exhibits
I found this article that read the Navy had the same requirement to communicate with their Submarines; they now use the E-6B TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out), based out of Tinker AFB, but prior to that aircraft the used modified Marine Corp KC-130 (designated EC-130Q).

https://nuke.fas.org/guide/usa/c3i/n19980922_981443.html

 

[Hodrod]

If you get to Tucson, go south on I-19 for about 22 minutes or so to the town Sahuarita/Green Valley AZ and visit the Atlas Missile Silo Museum. It's way cool and awesome. Although I live in OKC, I hope to have a winter home in that area, I have visited it numerous times. I am a member of the Green Valley Amateur Radio Club (ham radio) and we are authorized to operate from there on their giant antenna, which still works just fine. In fact, any ham radio licensed operator is allowed to operate on Titan Missile antenna, just go in and sign the log first. You want to get a pileup going, it will.

There are some great YouTube videos of this, just search for Titan Missile Museum.

Link to Titan Missile Museum

As a kid growing up in SW Oklahoma, pretty close to Altus AFB, I saw quite a few of the Atlas Missile Silos. I vividly remember seeing the missiles up and out of the silos, it's still sobering to realize each had a nuke onboard, and the guard had authority to shoot to kill anyone approaching who was not authorized. They're all decommissioned now, of course, but if you want to you can take a day trip and drive up to most of them. I have walked across some of them. A year or 2 ago, our local Costco had a book about the Titan Missiles in Oklahoma, very interesting.

I grew up in Quanah Texas just across the border from Altus Ok.....my family drove by one of the Atlas silos that was between Eldorado OK and Olustee Ok on our drive to Duke Ok to visit my grandmother for Sunday dinners. I also remember all the B-52's landing and taking off from Altus Air Force Base.....its something I'll never forget

 

[GnometownHero]

Good friend of my daughter owns a coffin top Atlas silo and launch facility in Kansas Flint hills SW of Topeka. It is one heavy duty piece of concrete work and a very cool residence

 

[TerryMiller]

Opening scene of the movie "War Games."

"Turn your key, Sir!!"