From 1963 to 1993, soldiers went underground every day in remote locations around the U.S. not knowing whether this would be the day they would start a nuclear war.
It was a peacekeeping mission, according to the military. Thousands of miles away, in the Soviet Union, missiles with the same capability of destruction were aimed at cities throughout the U.S.
In many ways, it was the 20th century’s most dangerous game of chess: a constant build-up of weaponry, with each side determined to keep up with the other. A miscalculation on either side could have started the next world war.
These tensions began in the years following World War II, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. My mother, who was just an elementary student at the time, recalls participating in drills at school in which students crouched under desks to increase their chances of survival during a nuclear attack.
Years later, in the 1980s, I went through similar drills at school, but it was to protect students against falling debris in the event of a tornado or earthquake.
To me, outside of a muscle-bound boxer that gave Rocky Balboa all he could handle, the Soviet Union didn’t seem like much of a threat. It was a just a place that got very, very cold in the winter.
In 1991, after negotiations between the two governments, the U.S. and Russia signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to reduce and limit their nuclear weapons.
Missile launch control facilities throughout the Great Plains closed, including one in Philip, S.D., about 70 miles east of Rapid City where I live. It was turned into a museum and is now owned by the National Parks Service. For $6, a park ranger will give you a tour of Launch Control Facility Delta-01 Compound.
The entrance to Launch Control Facility Delta-01 Compound in Philip, S.D.
Our tour guide, a young man named Ted, met my wife and me at the entrance of the compound, which is still protected by a chain-link fence. Everything was just like the military left it in 1993 when the site closed, down to the typewriters and faded issues of Time Magazine.
We walked past the officer’s sleeping quarters and into a factory-like cage elevator. Ted bolted the door twice — multiple layers of security are commonplace throughout the facility — and we were lowered into a bunker, fortified by concrete thick enough to withstand a nuclear attack.
The entrance to the bunker.
Two officers stayed in this room 24 hours a day between 1963 and 1993.
In the event of an attack, the red box would have been unlocked, allowing officers to fire missiles at the Soviet Union.
The door to this silo would have blasted off, allowing the missile to fire.
Until the 1990s, the silo contained a fully operational Minuteman Missile.
As the tour came to a close, Ted told us about the handful of times that a miscalculation almost led to war or, using his preferred term, “mutual destruction.” Both sides experienced radar failures during the Cold War that made it appear as if they were under attack, but chose not to fire because they couldn’t be certain.
It was only through extreme restraint, Ted says, that “mutual destruction” was avoided.
Slightly Reworded 
Nice piece, Jimmy.
Like your mom, I remember the “duck and cover” drills in elementary school. I also remember my father taking me and my sister to see defensive Nike missiles angled at the ready on mobile launchers in basement-deep, underground sites somewhere around the airport just across the road from our suburban home In Long Beach, CA. In junior high school, at the peak if the Cuban Missile Crisis, we saw some people in the Southern California drain and cover swimming pools with decking and dirt to fashion crude nuclear fallout shelters. I worked after school selling Good Housekeeping magazine subscriptions, going door to door in neighborhoods a mobile manager dropped us off in all over the Los Angeles area. I remember wondering what I should do if nuclear war broke out while I was off in some strange neighborhood peddling periodicals focussed on orderly domestic life.
Would strangers let me in their swimming pool bunkers or leave me to fend for myself in the dark, miles from my home and the Nike missiles?
Hi Roger,
That’s a really interesting story. Thanks for sharing. That must have been a very scary time for people on both sides of the planet.
Thanks Jimmy. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Michael, I appreciate it.
Growing up so close to Los Alamos and having parents that worked at the National Laboratory there made the Cold War very real for me. I can remember seeing heavily armed convoys leaving the lab area heading for parts unknown that were carrying what I can only assume was a newly designed weapon of mass destruction. I’m old enough to have gotten a small dose of that “duck and cover” bs as well and it scared me to death. I think that our country is still traumatized by the fear that we could all cease to exist any minute and that isn’t going away any time soon. That said, I would be fascinated to see this piece of history in person. We have access to some pretty interesting stuff here but an actual missile silo takes the cake. Cheers, E.
Thanks for sharing, Erik. The SD site is definitely worth visiting.
Always an interesting read.
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Great story…and NOT fiction!
I love the history.
It’s an interesting part of U.S. history that sometimes gets overlooked.
Thanks man.
Thanks Ellen, I appreciate it.