As President Obama and world leaders conclude the Nuclear Safety Summit in Europe, “On the Radar” travels to the frozen plains of Nebras...
As President Obama and world leaders conclude the Nuclear Safety Summit in Europe, “On the Radar” travels to the frozen plains of Nebraska and Wyoming to meet the men and women in charge of the US nuclear missile arsenal.
“Our mission is to provide the president with an option to launch nuclear weapons,” Capt. Mark Wullshleger explained during a tour of a 20th Air Force underground missile bunker. “If he wants to utilize us, we're always here, and we're always on alert.”
We traveled underground to a Missile Alert Facility, a capsule secured behind blast doors and five-foot thick concrete walls. Eight times a month, officers like Wullshleger “pull alert,” going 60 feet underground for a 24-hour shift at the launch controls for the world’s most powerful weapons of mass destruction.
“Pulling alert, it's a different animal,” Wullshleger said. “Going underground for 24 hours at a time without seeing daylight is kind of an experience.”
Launching a nuclear weapon isn’t as simple as flicking a switch. In fact, it takes four switches. But the warhead is always at the ready.
“If we were ever to get direction from the president of the United States to actually employ our mission and actually launch our missiles, there are certain procedures that we take that insure that those are authorized, valid commands from the president,” he said.
They are run through intense training and testing. But it’s all for a mission they hope never to complete.
“I definitely think about the ‘what ifs’ when I’m on alert,” Lt. Rachel Lovelady said. “I hope that it never has to happen.”
Lovelady said the destructive capability of the weapon she’s trained to launch is not a weight she carries lightly.
“I think most of us here think about that pretty much every time we're on alert,” Lovelady said. “There is a very high sense of, I guess, nervousness when you're on alert or always being ready to pay attention, because these are nuclear weapons and they are massive, and their destructive capabilities are pretty scary.”
To see what it would look like inside the command center if they were to prepare to launch a missile, check out this episode of “On the Radar.”
No comments