November-33: "Ace in the Hole"

November-33: "Ace in the Hole". Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site. You are on the access road to November-33 - one of 150 Launch Facilities (LF) of the 321st Strategic Missile Wing (SMW) of Grand Forks Air Force Base. In this underground silo, from 1966 to 1997, one of humankind's most powerful weapons-a nuclear-tipped Minuteman missile-stood waiting to be launched. , Approximately 15 miles away was a launch Control Center (LCC) that controlled this LF. In the LCC were two Air Force "missileers" who could respond to a presidential order to launch the missile. Although this order never came, if it had, the missileers could command the Minuteman to launch from the LF and race 6,000 miles at 15,000 miles per hour towards its target. Upon reaching its target the missile could unleash a 300+ kiloton nuclear explosion. (For comparison, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions were approximately 13 and 21 Kilotons). , Despite it destructive power, the primary mission of the Minuteman was not to destroy but to deter. The U.S. would only use the Minuteman if the nation came under nuclear attack. This strategy earned the Minuteman its nickname: America's "Ace in the Hole." , In 1991 the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and agreed to eliminate some nuclear weapons. To fulfill its treaty requirements, the U.S. deactivated the 321st SMW. The 150 LFs and 14 of the 15 LCCs were emptied and imploded. The topside of this LF and the Oscar-Zero Missile Alert Facility, with its underground LCC, were preserved for historical interpretation by the State Historical Society of North Dakota. , Photo Captions , A Launch Facility diagram produced by the 321st SMW Training Control Division in the 1980s. , A 1981 test launch of a Minuteman missile from an Launch Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. , An Air Force sergeant with the 321st Organizational Missile Maintenance Squadron inspects a Minuteman missile inside a silo in 1989.