So, I'm watching this 60 minutes special from a few years ago where they go inside a nuke missile facility and talk to some missile crews.



Has anyone here served in this capacity?  I've never been in the military so I'm curious if that kind of power and heaviness weighs on you?
It seems like if you're in any other role like a soldier or fighter pilot, you'd be fighting for the guys next to you.  But, if you're one of those in the silos and you turn the key, you know that it's the end of everything.

@Limaxray is our resident key turner

It’s like this all the time

First rule of nuke club.....

Folks get mad when you hump one.

.....post a good recipe

I watched that too.

Interesting that when the reporter polled the folks that sit in the bunker and turn the key for most it wasn't the job they wanted.

One of the guys was a West Point graduate. How hard is it to get that job?

Fixed stuff on the b-52 for a short time at barksdale.

So, crap broke on the aircraft . Went out to fix it. Had to get access through the bomb bay. So i got to touch a nuke. It was a cruise missile.

thought touching a nuke was pretty cool.

Grade A cool story bro material .

No pressure actually. I worked hands on, as in literally every day, for several years. It was actually calm and peaceful, no one pushing you to speed up, you were actually encouraged to slow down, be deliberate, make no mistakes. I preferred my time there over most other work. Plus you do get an initial sense of awe and a feeling of it being very surreal.  I do struggle these days with the keys on my IPhone sometimes when the webs in between my fingers get in the way.

My coworker was a Tomahawk specialist in the Navy, he's probably worked with them.

Pulled alert on nuke armed Buffs for many years.  Pretty serious stuff to deal with knowing that you carried enough retribution to kill millions of people.  We got a ‘Positive Control’ launch message once (that’s the ‘go to war’ message).  It was cancelled just before we reached the runway, but was an eye opening experience.  Talk about your nuts sucking up inside your belly!

Has anyone here served in this capacity?  I've never been in the military so I'm curious if that kind of power and heaviness weighs on you?

Yes, I was a cog in the SAC machine. My job was nuke maintenance, making sure they would work.

SAC did a lot of “exercises”. These exercises were meant to make sure people were willing to do what it took to be a part of the most lethal killing machine the world has ever known.

It weighs on my soul a little bit. I’d do it again though.

Huh?

One more thing.

SAC was brutally clean cut. You were allowed exactly 1 mistake, first one and last one. It’s written that removal from a SAC job would never be punishment. And it wasn’t, some people were OK with it, some not.

Due to pretty strict personnel reliability procedures, manning in the missile fields is prioritized over most other officer career fields.  You get a lot of non-volunteers as a result.

Also a lot of washouts from other career fields;  they're given a choice of separating at 3 months, or becoming a conehead The pilot washouts are especially fun to deal with; usually referred to as "unit morale officers" for their sunny disposition and motivation to be there.  

60 Minutes isn't wrong, you can see more than a few upside I-25/80 in WY/NE. Hell I did an illegal trailer repair right next to the one at Dix NE.

Yep!

Dammit, you can't just come out of the gate with that.

You need to wait until some rando starts arguing with Limaxray, and telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Im on an SSN, not a BN, so we dont have any missile techs. That being said, even though its not in the spirit of the question, all of the steam-pigs ive worked with think they're the bee’s knees!

#ConerGang

As and NCO that helped train crews no one seemed to smile while around the trainer.

Turn your key, Sir!

On the nuclear bomber side of the triad......

the first time you take custody of 20 ALCMs that are loaded on your jet it's very HEAVY.....you need to make sure that all documentation is 200% correct.

You eventually get used to working around them but you always make sure that all documentation is spot on and always to be in view of your partner inside a no-lone zone....you can't be alone around them

You do know that one man can turn both keys don't you.

What was the question?

classified

Recruitment propaganda.

Too bad others have them and more are getting them.

If you thought the cold war Era was ruff. With all the close calls. Just imagine what the next 50 years will bring. Honestly if we make it that long.

Not as a missileer.

It's at the same time one of the most boring, and the most stressful, jobs out there.  Think like the stress of being an air traffic controller, for 24 hours at a time, with about 23 separate ways to go to jail on alert, and oh, at any time, your actions could lead to someone interrupting the President...and at the same time, the boringness of being a firefighter waiting for a call.  

As a missileer, you need to know, cold, the four feet of classified procedures and regulations involving emergency war orders; two feet of your own technical data and regulations on how to run the system; weapon system, security,  communications, code handling, safety, and maintenance procedures.  There were 179 different job tasks I was responsible for in my OWN job, and while I was on alert, I was responsible for everyone, and every one of THEIR actions in my flight area (which, at Malmstrom, was about 1100 square miles, and contained my site, plus 10 remote launch facilities, and could potentially include all 50 sites in the squadron); and I needed to know everyone ELSE'S job in the flight area at a detailed enough level to know when they were doing something wrong, or at least didn't seem right).

Then there were other...factors, that caused the scandals that led to that 60 minutes show.

I like to remind people that the cheating scandal was NOT cheating to pass the test.  It was cheating to get 100% on the test, while the published passing grade was 90%.  Why?  Because we had some EXTREMELY toxic leadership habits at the time.  The only real metric squadron commanders could use to rack and stack their people, or themselves against other squadron commanders,  were A) evaluation scores, and B) monthly recurring test scores.  Evals only happened once a year, so....

There were three recurring tests each month--weapon system, EWO, and code handling.  There was a BUNCH of artificial pressure, by said commanders, to keep those scores as high as possible.  It was so bad that if you got a SINGLE question wrong on ANY of those three tests (30 question tests each, so missing 3 is still 90%, or passing), you could kiss your career goodbye--as in, not get selected for any follow-on "good" assignments in the career (selection as an instructor or evaluator, for example), AS A 2LT. So incredible pressure on the crewdawgs to ace all three tests.

And then you had to do it again next month.  And again for all 48 months on your crew tour.

A documentary about missile command.

We could solve the moral and human element by building a computer that would analyze the situation and decide if the missiles should be launched.

We could name it Big SAC.

No....not really.  While you could call it "propaganda," that video accurately captures the mindset of the nuclear operators in the United States Air Force.

Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks.

"THIS CITY IS INFESTED WITH KILLER COCKROACHES!!! I SAY AGAIN, KILLER COCKROACHES!!!"

George Peppard in one of his finest roles.

Some of the artificial pressure we apply to chase metrics and stats really has caused more damage than people realize.... don't get me wrong EPRs and OPRs have their place but people chasing bullets has really fucked up a really good thing

Of course this is coming from a 19yr E-6 who now gets to run a museum talking

Saw that when it first came out. Loved the armor plated cockroaches.

PRP sucks.

Well you can still get blackout drunk.

But you need a dr script for that over the counter ibuprofen the following morning.

Ask your ELTs if they still carry the "Radiation Area when Nuclear Weapons are Present" signs from back in the subroc days.

Also, "Coner" is no longer politically correct.

We now refer to you as "Forward Area Guys."

SD Air and Space???

Why are the MRE's not on the other side of the giant door?

My brother 2W2.

That is all

Yeppers, aside from being a FCC on BUFFs it's probably the best job I've ever had in the USAF

I read Arfcom shit posters get in free.  

eta - Will be passing thru this summer with some grandkids.  I will check it out!!

My buddy worked around nukes in the Air Force. He said it was intense at first but he got used to it. What really blew his mind was the reality of a bunch of kids (like him) in their early 20s guarding and handling nukes. Both scary and impressive at the same time...

The inspections were always a fun and exciting time that made you want to suck start your M-4.

Tedious

Holy shit the algorithm knows we are both on arfcom and I posted this video as well in another thread WTF