Originally aired December 14, 2001

For the first time in history, the United States has backed out of a nuclear weapons treaty. President Bush decided creating a Missile Defense System was a higher priority than obeying the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. If that seems like foreign policy far removed from Nebraska, think again. With Stratcom headquarters on Vebraska's eastern edge, and dozens of nuclear warheads buried in panhandle silos, this is very much a local story. Statewide's Bill Kelly recently visited Nebraska's missile complex.

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Bill Kelly.


Deep below the rugged scrubland of the panhandle, behind a steel door thicker than a Honda, two young men carry on the daily duties completed by nuclear missile crews here since the early 1960s. Their tiny capsule home is not changed much in forty years. The basic duty is much the same, launch a nuclear missile when the commander in chief tells you to launch.
[Capt. Jeffrey Greenwood] "This is actually where we sit and turn our keys. This is our key switch and our other launch switch. It comes time to launch a nuclear weapon; I will have to perform my actions on this side with a key and a switch. And the deputy on this side will have to use the two switches and turn simultaneously."
When Capt. Greenwood went to his high school reunion, it was hard to explain his job to a generation that did not know firsthand of the cold war. Of the nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union.
[Capt. Greenwood] "I sit in a hole 24 hours. I launch nuclear weapons. I defend this country. It's hard to talk to civilians that don't understand the military and understand what we do. I don't think many know that we exist; that we're out here 24 hours a day doing this mission, deterring any kind of aggression towards America."
[Film] "A special visit by the President expresses the nation's great appreciation for the officers and men of our Strategic Air Command."
The Strategic Air Command began as a force that kept planes in the air or ready to take off the instant a threat from Russia was detected.
[Film] "There is no doubt that it contributed greatly to the maintenance of the peace and the security of the United States."
Missiles cocked and ready eventually seemed the better way to prevent other nuclear nations from making the first move.
[Film] "They are powerful. And they are accurate."
That was the point. Each side had enough firepower that neither side would dare start anything. No one did dare so most would argue that policy, nuclear deterrence, worked.
[Film] "This is SAC's Minuteman. Store it underground. The reaction time a few seconds. I'll tell you this, when a Minuteman goes, it blows a mighty big smoke ring."
Nebraska's Panhandle was on the frontlines almost from the start. The Minuteman missile silos were in service here by 1964, home to three generations of weapons. The civilian neighbors pretty much take it all for granted now.
[Lt. Col. Mike Vaughn] "The people here are pretty much attuned to what we do here. They understand the national defense. They understand the mission that these weapons do provide. They're very supportive of it, but it does become… they do become complaisant. They do understand that it's there and it just becomes part of their daily routine."
Now SAC is StratCom, but the missiles still stretch from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Lodgepole, Nebraska and into the prairies of Northeast Colorado. Two hundred missile silos spread over twelve thousand square miles.
[Lt. Col. Vaughn] "These sites were designed to be remote. They were designed to be safe, secure. They were designed to last a long time with very little maintenance, very little activity to take place out here. They don't need to have a lot of activity on them. And so on any given day you'll find it to be a very quiet place."
Keeping them quiet is part of the mission of F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, home of the 90th Space Wing.
[Briefing Officer] "Your current DefCon in Juliet have seven-day calibrations."
The world changed well before many of these men and women even signed on as crews for the country's nuclear weapons force. Col. Jeffrey Kwallek started his career as an airman ready to turn the key.
[Col. Jeffrey Kwallek] "We have the whole generation where the mindset is different. And our crewmembers come from that; but I am so impressed by the professional commitment and professional attitude of our crew force today."
The world changed, the Soviet Union crumbled, there's no need for sixteen thousand targets in Russia anymore and that list has been cut substantially. The commanders running the nuclear program at the Strategic Command state emphatically there is still plenty of worthy enemies to keep in line using nuclear deterrence. So who are we deterring?
[Col. Kwallek] "Any potential adversary. Not just the former Soviet Union, not just Russia, not just China. Our job is to convince any potential adversary that it simply would cost them too much to launch an attack against the United States of America and our people."
We spoke with Col. Kwallek five days before September 11th.
[Airman] "Alert force, alert force, klaxon, klaxon, klaxon. Launch all intercontinental ballistic missiles ASAP. Unlock codes are as follows…"
It is clear today that nuclear weapons do not deter all attacks. They may not stop a terrorist with some nuclear capability from using it.
[Airman] "On my mark, 3, 2, 1, Mark."
Still, the training of missile crews continues with the understanding that nations with nukes in their arsenal are likely to think twice about using them if faced with their own destruction.
[Missile Crew Trainer] "In order to launch a missile, at first we have to enable the missile, which is sort similar to cocking a pistol. So that's what they've dropped is enable codes to say, hey we really want you to go. It gets the missile ready to launch. Once they key-turn it and they have to wait for one other capsule to key-turn and at that point the missile is going to… go bye-bye."
[Col. Kwallek] "You have many more nations and groups that might acquire, whether it be a nuclear weapon or a chemical or biological weapon, that potential is there. And the world situation today is probably in some ways less predictable day to day than it was during the period of the Cold War."
The missiles buried in Nebraska's Panhandle may be needed but the commander in chief may need a lot fewer of them in the coming years.
[Security Officer] "At this time, Sir, we are in force protection normal, exercise for force protection Bravo. That's due to Global Guardian Exercise going on. We have six security forces members on site at this time."
The Minuteman Three weapons in Nebraska and Colorado are under the command of Lt. Col. Mike Vaughn and the 319th Squadron.
[Lt. Col. Vaughn] "We're going to be going down about 60 feet."
Commanders still need airmen who will follow orders, turn the key, and unleash the most powerful weapon on earth.
[Capt. Greenwood] "Sir, Romeo 17 welcomes you to Charlie Zero One."
[Lt. Col. Vaughn] "We discuss it quite often in forums mentoring sessions. Mentoring forums with the crewmembers so that they understand that for the deterrent factor to work, they have to be ready a hundred percent of the time to be able to execute their mission. And when you put it in the light of that, they understand the importance and they understand they need to be prepared both physically and mentally."
The missile is the same, and it can still be targeted wherever it's needed. But this summer every single Minuteman in Nebraska went through a historic change. For many years these have been topped with three separate nuclear warheads that could be targeted separately. Multiple re-entry vehicles. MRVs in Air Force speak. Crews from Warren spent the summer making sure each missile could only care one warhead. This was part of the Strategic Nuclear Weapons Treaty with Russia. They are cutting back on their nukes at the same time.
[Lt. Col. Vaughn] "I think what it says is that we're looking to have a more stable environment out there. And by reducing the number of warheads you produce a more stable environment."
It does not seem to make much difference in how the missile crews view their responsibility.
[Lt. Col. Vaughn] "Actually if you talk to them I think you'll find that it makes their job more important. And the reason it makes it more important is we have less weapons; each one of the weapons we have out there becomes more valuable. More valuable as a deterrent force."
[Capt. Greenwood] "I think a lot of people kind of have the sense that they'll really never turn keys. That what they do doesn't mean anything to them. I mean, it's just… it's a job that they have to do. They have to sit in this hole but they'll never have to turn keys. But it's when you think hard about the job and really realize what you may have to be called on to do someday, that's where you start to question what it is you'll really do."
The Minuteman Three are the oldest weapons in America's nuclear arsenal. They may have less firepower, but they are staying. The more modern Peacekeeper are likely to go away completely. These giant rockets could deliver ten separate nuclear weapons. Not only did they make the Russians nervous, but American strategists figured they made a more attractive target to enemies. The last nuclear treaties will take these weapons completely out of service.
[Lt. Col. Vaughn] "When you have a MRV'd weapon it has a tendency of being used to take out three targets and so you might think you have an advantage. And if you've got an advantage you might want to strike first. In the case of when you have a single vehicle, it's a one for one so it becomes more of a stabilizing influence and just in our estimation makes the world a better place."
In effect the Peacekeeper was the more dangerous weapon.
[Col. Kwallek] "Each individual Peacekeeper missile had much more destructive capability and war-fighting capability if you will in that it could strike many more targets from a single missile launch than the Minuteman system."
Part of Col. Kwallek's mission in the coming years will likely be to shut down the Peacekeeper program.
[Col. Kwallek] "The United States Air Force is ready to follow whatever direction we receive from our national leadership in terms of whether to deactivate the weapon system, partially or all of it, or to retain it."
That will dramatically change life at Warren Air Force Base. Over 550 men and women are directly associated with operating and maintaining the Peacekeepers. Hundreds of civilians have jobs tied to services on the base.
[Col. Kwallek] "A lot of those people already are specialized and trained in areas that we can use in other critically manned or undermanned areas here at Warren Air Force Base or could possibly move to other installations, other air force bases and perform similar or like duties."
The Air Force has blown up some of its own silos after other missiles have been taken out of service. There is no word whether the Wyoming facilities would be destroyed or mothballed in case they're needed for some other purpose. This will not be a quick change. It could take up to three or four years for the Peacekeeper to be retired. And even if there are fewer weapons being used to deter whoever might be threatened by the massive nuclear force, the United States still believes these are an essential element to the nation's defense.
[Capt. Greenwood] "We serve a vital role to this military and to this country; and until they can come up with a better means of deterrence against aggressor nations, this is the best thing we got to stop them. Obviously it's worked for forty-some years now."