3...2....1..... lift off!

Yesterday, we visited the Minuteman Missile National Park. Now, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about - this is the location of the Delta 1 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launch area. We got to go into the launch area (30+ feet below the surface - you know like in those movies where the guys are locked in and hold the fate of our country in their hands!) and we got to see an actual missile in it's silo! This was vital to our country's defense during the Cold War. You might wonder why it was so important. Well, during that time (1946-1991) the Soviet Union had liquid fuel missiles. What is the importance of that, you ask? Well, the liquid fuel missiles took twenty-four hours to fuel up. Why, you ask, didn't they keep them fueled? Because it would basically rot the missile.

Meanwhile, the US moral is high...

Why?  Because the Minuteman Missile was years ahead of the Soviets! The Minuteman Missile was a technological wonder!

The five launch stations in South Dakota: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo; where in control of 10 missiles each (50 in all). These missiles worked on solid fuel which could sit for weeks (even years) on end without any maintenance and be ready to launch in thirty seconds.

The missilers (people who would be firing the missiles) would have been given an encrypted message from the President to fire, and they would have to decode the message, turn two keys simultaneously and (if another crew, of two missilers in a separate silo, agreed on the mission to launch) they could fire within thirty-seconds. Within thirty minutes the missile could reach its target almost anywhere in the world!

The Minuteman Missile mission acted as a deterrent during the Cold War, because by the time the Soviets had fired their missiles we could fire ours! In the end the US and Soviets signed a treaty called S.T.A.R.T. in 1991.

So long
Dyl