I am hopefully going to branch missiles if I get into the AFROTC program. Now I am just curious as to what, the contingency plan would be for said operators of a site. Say the world is nuked wtf are you supposed to do,and even more so what is one stocked to do in the bunker? Do they have their own water supplies, food stores etc? Furthermore, I wonder if one is able to do scavenging runs from the silo and then retreat back into the silo via a decontaminate area? Anyway, just curious as to if anyone knows about this or may have some reading about this topic.

Here's an old fascinating thread in the archives that team members can look at

http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=773576

Well according to the titan missile site in AZ there was only 3 months worth of supplies in the silo, after that its time to go topside.

But realistically if we nuked someone who also had ICBM capability you would have 30 minutes to think about your impending death.

Pretty sure you would be targeted and die.

IIRC there is a guy here who was a missle guy.

Thanks a bunch! Remember browsing through it a while back

SIR...... TURN YOUR KEY!

I thought the silos were hardened? But anything outside of NORAD, and the other complexes that are undisclosed would be toast?

Silos weren't heavily stocked to last a long time.  Once your birds fly - your mission is done.  With the accuracy of ICBMs these days - I wouldn't worry about sitting around the silo for long.  Frankly - you'd be fortunate to get your birds aloft.

MISSLES???? Are you serious???

They are "STRANGE RANGERS" to say the least....

I was at Ellsworth AFB for two years, and had them in my unit too.....ACCS unit

On average, they would wreck a suburban a month on the road to and from the missle fields...

They would leave their secrects at Wall Drug from time to time....

They would think up ways of launching a missle without authorization, and show it off in the simulator....

BUT, you DO GET A FREE MASTERS DEGREE out of it.....

All US launch sites were targeted for DIRECT STRIKE yes the facilities are hardened, but they would only survive a nearby strike not a direct one.

from the other thread

I want site staff to IM me before I ban 20 million people!!



 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReJ3RltihME

Go army

Talk to LimaXray, I'm pretty sure he's Space and Missiles.

I  was a MCCC in the 66SMS at Ellsworth from '71 - '77 and '82-'84. I pulled a lot of alerts in the LCC shown in the archive and was
the Flight Commander for Charlie Flight that was located about 50 miles away (near Philip,SD).
I have no idea what Missile duty is like now but it was good in 71-77 and fair in 82-85. I would guess that it has become
pretty Mickey Mouse since then as has a lot of the military. I retired in '85.

I'll answer any specific questions I can but my info may be really out of date.

He was.  He's doing something else now AFAIK.



 

Was not a launch officer, but I work missile security (at the minuteman museum site, Delta-01 infact)





Some things are still classified and/or For Official Use Only, so I won't go into those.  About the only thing I can say out of all that you asked is that if you launched all of your missiles and went out into a contaminated area, that's it....you're contaminated.  The MAF's/LCF's were not set up for decontamination.  



 

Probably the best officer job in the mil, AC, pizza, surf the web, Cable TV, PS3's, those guys probably can work tough second jobs and sleep their shifts in the silos.

Oh the pranks we played on the Missile Officers. When they started having female crew one of my buddy's got fragged when she overheard him call her a Minute Maid. Good times!

Can you get pizza delivery to a silo?

IIRC the minuteman silos were hardened to withstand a near miss.  In reality, no missile silo is truly designed to withstand a direct hit.   If a 1 Mt warhead landed right on top of any silo it's going to destroy it.



 

Titan 1's were built as a basically F us F you system.  They even let Russian spies infiltrate the building process so they leaked back how strong they are to make the Russians think twice about pre-emptive launches.  That brings us to the Grim part of the Titan 1.  It's not a first strike set up, It's pure retaliatory.   Did they talk about the blast valves?  Once they close, NO MORE AIR.  You're stuck breathing what you sealed up with.  There no outside draw except for the main intake to the Generators.  

Titan 1's could withstand a 1 megaton "near miss".   Survivability went up from there with newer generation systems.

Hey there jebt.  I used to work your patch of the woods too.  from 84-85 I did SETs, Campers, but most Fire Teams.  Been to Charlie-01 alot.....hated it.  Shitty water.  





 

Yup, when we were at Mike site, just a few miles away from Sterling, Colorado, we'd order pizza and go pay for it at the end of the access road to the site.

Mike flight area had crappy water too. on the third night we'd have to go into town and get the water jugs filled. Remember the GI parties the last night too. We had to strip and wax the floors. Then of course they carpeted the facility. Fuckers.

Yes.  I think it was Kilo-01 in the 66 SMS that was just outside of Belle Fourche.  There was a Pizza Hut there in Belle Fourche and they would deliver to Kilo-01.  Not to the actual missile crew, but to topside security.



 

The Titans were a "Scapegoat" system.  When they were being developed and the plans were laid to start building them, the Minuteman system was already on the drawing board and it was known then that the Titans would automatically be an antiquated system.  The reason they went ahead and built them anyway was so they could force the Soviets to give up something else via a treaty.





 

'the contingency plan would be for said operators of a site'

A buddy of mine was talkin to me about this that did this work. 'Sure, ya might survice the blast. but not the 600 foot drop to the bottom of the crator'.

If the balloon went up, your odds of survival are pretty good in a Minuteman command capsule. Keep in mind the command centres are typically miles away from the actual silos, they are also sufficiently hardened to survive anything but a direct hit from a megaton class warhead.

As far as I know the Minuteman CCs are stocked for 30 days of operation buttoned up. Don't forget that in addition to being launch command centres the command capsules can also function as a communications node following the big show.

Do they have beds in the silos? Do they take turn sleeping? the only thing bad abourt that job is probably tring to find ways to kill the boredom

I can't find a decent photo to describe it, so I'll try to explain it.  Minuteman Missiles are based in 10 missile "Flights."  Those 10 missiles are spread out miles apart from each other.  Also out there is the Control center for those 10 missiles.  The acronyms changed over the years, so the newbies will have to pardon me....The control center is the Missile Alert Facility, or MAF.  This is an above ground structure that is not hardened.  Looks like a large ranch house.  The MAF houses the Security Forces Response personnel as well as a Facility Manager (FM) (person responsible for the daily care of the site, and takes care of any needs of the launch officers), and a cook.  If you step into the Flight Security Controller's (FSC) office (like a police dispatcher for his Flight area) there is a door that takes you to an elevator shaft.  Depending which site you're at it's either a 50' or 75' ride down to the Launch Control Center.  You walk out of the elevator and over to a 15 ton blast door and walk into what's called the Capsule, because of how it's shaped.  The capsule room is actually suspended on cables inside of a larger capsule.  The reason for this is that if there was a near miss the shock wave from the blast would not kill the launch officers, instead they would ride it out.  Inside the capsule is the Launch Center, this where they "turn the keys".  It has a toilet (used to be an open toilet until women became launch officers, but there still isn't much privacy...just hope your partner didn't eat burritos before coming out to the field!).  A one bunk bed and of course all of the control equipment.  
Launch crews are on duty for 24 hrs.  Each day new crews rotate out at every MAF.  At mealtimes the cook will come into the FSC's office and ask them what they want to eat.  Typically the FM will take their meal down to them and bring up their dishes from the previous meal.  Last I knew of (early 90's) there was satellite TV, and I would bet they have internet.  
Delta-01 Launch Facility  This link is to the Delta-01 Launch Facility that is out by Wall, SD that was turned into a museum.  There is alot of information there that will explain the setup as well as photos of them.  
I found a photo of Ellsworth AFB's Missile field.  

If you look at it, it's broken down into 3 big color areas (Squadrons) Inside of each squadron there are 5 areas (Flights) that are labeled with a "1", such as A1, B1 and so forth, these areas are the MAFs.  Now within those areas you see numbers 2-11, these are the actual missile silo locations.  A missile silo is known as a "Launch Facility" or LF.
FYI, everything I've talked about is public knowledge and can be found easily on the internet
 

I was a PRP cop but thankfully not a missile one.


If there's birds in the air?

Turn your key, watch them turn theirs, punch the button. Shoot the other guy and then shoot yourself.

Quicker than radiation poisoning or watching a nuke drop on your position.

 

If I had to do it all over again, that's what I would do

limaxray I think was a missile jock.

I did the same thing (sorta) with the GMD program.  I was crew commander for the missile defense system in Alaska.
Fucking hated it.  shift work sucks.  Recert sucks.  And my system actually required decision making and tactical decisions.  
The strike side is turn your key like a monkey when the time comes.
If thats your thing...

Beats being out in the bush, I am sure they got Olympic weights and barbells, I bet all those guys are ripped

Wait in the event of a nuke exchange, basically as security you have no shelter and are toast since you are topside?

Yep when I was an FM at I-01 south of Sidney NE, we could talk the late night shift delivery guys into dropping a pizza or two off on their way home; good tips go a long way to making it happen. Haven't tried to get Pizza delivered at my new site. Most of the time we can get the Fire Teams to grab something from Sidney while they are out and about doing their checks. SART teams have been told they can't do comm stops anymore.



I can't go into what kinds of supplies we have on site, but if we were not directly hit, we might be able to survive for a while. The MCC would probably survive a non-direct hit, but they would still have to get back up topside. Those of us topside might be alright if we could get to the bottom of the elevator shaft or into the tunnel junction, but again it might be a problem getting back up stairs.



For those USAF NCOs (Any AFSC) in the ranks of E-5/6 (Not taking E-7s at the moment from what I hear) take a look at Special Duty AFSC 8S000 (Facility Manager). Decent job if you are self motivated and like not having folks breathing down your necks back at base. It can get boring at times, but as long as you are one of those folks who like to be on your own and in charge; you are in charge of a Chef and the operations topside at the MAF. You have your own room with Sat TV/Internet/Phone...basically you are in charge of a USAF motel out in the middle of nowhere. I like the job and prefer it over an office job back at base. Normally I go on base 8 days a month; trip out, then trip back in few days later, normally 5 days off, then do it all over again. They try to keep the maximum days in the field at 16 (4ea 72hr alerts), but I have worked as little as 12 days a month. Your off time is your off time, grow beard, go camping, hunting, whatever, then show up with your bags on your trip out day ready to go for your alert. The officers have it a little worse then us enlisted; they are always having to do training stuff and their days off get interrupted by this.



I am currently on a profile that is keeping me from going on alert, but once it is over and the Docs say I can start my physical therapy, I'm going to do my best to get back in shape to get back out to the field. I hate being stuck back here at main base.

If we knew there was a nuclear attack inbound the security forces, FM and cook could go downstairs and we could wait it out in the corridor outside the LCC, but it's not a contained area with NBC protection.  We could only live if there wasn't a close near miss...meaning it would have to miss by alot so that we wouldn't have to worry about being exposed to radiation or the shock wave traveling through the ground killing us, or just the building collapsing in and blocking any hope of going topside.



 

The ground would be blown around ones position and they would fall?

 

Yea, that's one of the big problems, the SILO is hardened, but the earth around it isn't.

At ellsworth there were different schedules while I was there. 24 hrs, 36 hrs and 48 hrs.

The 24 hour shift was 24 hrs in the Launch Control Center (LCC) and then relief and back to base. 36 was 12 hrs in the LCC
12 up stairs and 12 back down and back to base. 48 was 8 down, 8 up, 8 down, 8 up, 8 down and home. Sometimes you could use the bed and sometimes not, depending on what SAC felt was the current " No Lone Zone" policy. The guns, 2" Mdl 15 S&W, were only required when the blast door was open, not this BS about shooting the other crew member if he wouldn't turn his key. If only the two on duty crew members were in the LCC we just hung the guns on one of the racks. I carried my own water and food and a coffee pot and ate as few meals from the kitchen as I could. I built a 1911 from parts while on alert and knew one crew who cast thousands of bullets, then sized/lubed them.
Read, study for your college courses, watch TV. Pretty good duty most of the time. In the 80's it got MM but I would have done it until
I retired. I was on alert for the 73 Arab/Israel war and thought we were going to launch. Keys were inserted and I really expected we would
launch.
Spent 7 days at Alpha in one snow storm, went out on Sun and got home the following Mon. Lots of training when you wern't on alert but a lot of time off also.  71-77 was about the best duty I had in the AF. I wonder what it's like now.

How often were the keys inserted and mission go or the thought near?

I have a hard time believing this...

But in all seriousness if you let the missiles fly, you are dead. Like the guy said above, complete the mission and shoot yourself in the head. A 2 way nuke fight everyone loses. I also don't ever see the use of stationary land based missiles ever happening. If we need a nuke strike chances are is coming out of the back of a boomer. The only reason why we still have silos in the first place is because the Russians still do, iirc no other country besides allies have ICBM capability.

edit: correction China also has ICBM capability

If we need to strike first it'll be with the B-2.  There'll be little to no warning.  An SLBM is just as easy to track as an ICBM and it still gives a country with a credible ICBM force plenty of time to launch a retaliatory strike.  





 

Damn I was hoping the Navy could steal the Air forces Thunder

B2 strike makes sense, just not a very quick way to get a payload on target

Gotta give'em an airshow before we nuke'em into the dark ages.....



I"m sure there are several factors that will come into play if we were ever to conduct a nuclear strike against a country.  As an example, Iran.  Although it doesn't have an ICBM force, with it's work on nuclear technology there is a concern that they could have a weapon already developed and we don't know about it, and then they could use it in a post strike phase.  One issue is how many nukes are used?.  If an SLBM is used then there has to be a minimum of 10 targets, vs 1 target for the B-2.  Use of an SLBM might be construed by the global community as an offensive strike rather than a "surgical" strike to eliminate a nuclear weapons making facility/facilities.  And of course time would be a factor.  If it was something that had to be done immediately or the chances that a nuclear weapon would be moved by Iran prior to using it (say against Israel) might necessitate a SLBM strike.  There is also, depending on the position of submarine assets the use of nuclear tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles that would also keep the target number down to one and still keep the Navy in the game...
So don't worry....you squids mights are still in the game.....



ETA:  There are alot more factors to take in consideration, and I know I haven't named all of them.  These are just a few off the top of my head.  Also have to consider weapon size vs the target.  Maybe the warhead(s) from a Trident missile would cause too much destruction (collateral).  Also if the targets are buried/hardened a trident warhead might not be able to take it out.  Anyway as you can see, there are alot of things to consider.
 

Their not called "silos", they are Manned Alert Facilities (MAF).

OPSEC wise I really don't want to go into great detail about what's down there, but they are quite hardened. You would have enough supplies to last around 2 to 3 weeks food and water wise. If you want an extremely boring and frustrating career, become a missile officer.

Just finished AFROTC myself.  Headed to a Space and Missiles base but as a Civil Engineering officer.  AFROTC was a blast.