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The Disgruntled Guys Who Babysit Our Aging Nuclear Missiles
Lasrick writes This is a rather disturbing read about the troops who guard our nuclear weapons."'The Air Force has not kept its ICBMs manned or maintained properly,' says Bruce Blair, a former missileer and cofounder of the anti-nuclear group Global Zero. Nuclear bases that were once the military's crown jewels are now 'little orphanages that get scraps for dinner,' he says. And morale is abysmal. Blair's organization wants to eliminate nukes, but he argues that while we still have them, it's imperative that we invest in maintenance, training, and personnel to avoid catastrophe: An accident resulting from human error, he says, may be actually more likely today because the weapons are so unlikely to be used. Without the urgent sense of purpose the Cold War provided, the young men (and a handful of women) who work with the world's most dangerous weapons are left logging their 24-hour shifts under subpar conditions—with all the dangers that follow."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The obvious solution is to automate this stuff! What could go wrang?
Letter To Iran
One thing not well documented (but it is covered if you take the tour at the Minuteman National Historic Site):
A missle will not launch until at least two capsules "vote" for launch. For a capsule to "vote" - both operators must engage the key within N seconds of each other.
So a person would need to, in addition to stretching their arms, twist two additional keys in a separate capsule using some sort of portal technology. Someone with such techology likely does not need nukes.
Also, as I understand it, in addition to the key turn, there is additional validation of launch codes by computer nowadays.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Reminds me of Silo, a neat little short film about a caretaker of an ICBM (who does a very poor job) and is forced to fix up the place... and well, any more and I'd be spoiling. You're best watching it...
Shift their responsibilities to the bomber and submarine forces. Land based missiles don't offer any benefit over the other two legs of the triad. Bombers can be recalled and submarines are much more likely to survive to deliver a counter strike. Both bombers and submarines lessen the need for launch on warning. The missile forces as constituted are an artifact from a very different technological era.
This same thing gets reported every single year. We all know nuclear weapons will never get used, but we can't get rid of them because it would then make us seem weak. Like it or not, this is the only thing standing between us and another large scale war.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Part of the reason that morale is so low is that not only is the work long and tedious, but it's also horrible in terms of career path. The most desirable/promotable career path in the Air Force is that of a pilot, and (at least as I understand) the missile officers are about as far from that as it gets.
I was a Minuteman Missile Combat Crew Member back in the 70s, and I want to alert you that there are factual errors in the story about alert shifts and the like. I should also point out that Bruce Blair, as it says in the article, is anti-nuclear missile. I've read comments by him for a long time, and he has his opinion, but I don't agree with him much of the time. I would suggest finding additional articles and commentary by additional people to get a more nearly rounded view of the situation for Missile Combat Crews.
From: http://www.esmerel.com/circle/...
Gruntled, however, is now in the dictionary, in use since the 1920's, from people taking the "dis" off of disgruntled.
One thing not well documented (but it is covered if you take the tour at the Minuteman National Historic Site):
A missle will not launch until at least two capsules "vote" for launch. For a capsule to "vote" - both operators must engage the key within N seconds of each other
Or, a missile can also launch if there's a hardware or software bug in the mechanism, or if there's a hardware or software failure.
I'd be pretty seriously disgruntled if I was stationed in North Dakota. Being in a deep hole in the ground might be the best part of it.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
You sure? He did mention MacGyver!
With Minuteman you may be correct (I have no idea - never looked into them.) However with the original Titan silos there was only one capsule and one key. (photo of it right here: https://www.facebook.com/photo... ) I've got a whole album with 156 photos from the silo tour up here if you want to view it: https://www.facebook.com/Nicke... (must be logged into Facebook to see the photos - sorry about that - can't be arsed to put them up elsewhere)
- In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
I was a Titan launch officer. There were two keys, one at the commanders console and a second one at the deputies console. In order to launch a message would come down with a series of letters that would have to match a sealed packet, kept in a safe with two locks on it. The keys were also kept in there. Additionally, we would receive a series of numbers to unlock a valve to allow fuel flow in the first stage.
blame the anti nuke crowd for causing the mess. I mean we all dont want nukes but alas, we have them. so we need to take care of them, and the people maintaining them
Or, we could, you know, dismantle them if they no longer serve the purpose intended for them. Then we wouldn't have them, they wouldn't need maintaining, and there would be no risk of misuse or accident.
The cables between sites are contained within pressurized conduits buried pretty deep. You'd have to dig down to the cables without a patrol seeing you, then you'd trigger a bunch of alarms the moment you breached the conduit (drop in pressure triggers alarms)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?