Abandoned Cold War History

[aflineman]

<broken link removed>

An Epic Journey through Vandenberg ICBM Sites - Bearings





Most of the stuff at Vandenberg, I have been to at one time or another.

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[clearconscience]

I love stuff like this. I wish we had more abandoned sites to explore.
We don't have a whole lot place like this around the vancouver area.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

My old Kaserne is now a cold war relic too! Notice the Elvis P. mess hall at 4:14. There used to be a huge portrait of him in uniform hanging over the salad bar.

 

[captqc]

Did you know that at one time they were going to launch military shuttles from Vanderberg? Somewhere around the house I have a patch and if I can find it I'll post a picture of it. Gary

 

[Simonpie]

In Seattle at 67th and Phinney, just up from Greenlake, is a siren that was used to warn of the red menace approaching. There were a few others around town as well. It sit in pretty much untouched rusty glory.

 

[Spitpatch]

Well, boyz, y'all have a resource: I can line ya out on anything ya wanna know about the Minuteman, and quite a fair piece on the Titan sites I saw.

A lot of it you may not want to know: it'll pop some big-*** bubbles, if'n ya thought the whole deal was perfectly handled in the upmost professional fashion, dontcha know.

 

[Swedish K]

LOL - a friend sat on top of silos guarding them back in the 80s. those top secret sites could be found easily by following the domino's pizza delivery guy or the video rental delivery guy. Of course this was back before the net and youtube...

 

[aflineman]

Did you know that at one time they were going to launch military shuttles from Vanderberg? Somewhere around the house I have a patch and if I can find it I'll post a picture of it. Gary

Yup. I first transfered in as a part of the STS program. Got canx before my PCS, so I went to another squadron.

 

[RVTECH]

I was stationed at a GLCM base in Europe in the late 80's. A total farce - there were no missiles there.

 

[Spitpatch]

LOL - a friend sat on top of silos guarding them back in the 80s. those top secret sites could be found easily by following the domino's pizza delivery guy or the video rental delivery guy. Of course this was back before the net and youtube...

Location of the Minuteman silos (and Launch Control Facilities, "LCF") was never "top secret", or any secret at all. It couldn't be. There was no level of confidentiality assigned to missile complex maps, other than being a military document. Detailed road maps, along with silo names ("Lima Seven", etc.) enjoyed no protection above that of a requisition for toilet paper. There would be no point in such confidentiality: the USSR and PRC knew precisely where each and every LF (Launch Facility or silo), and every LCF (Launch Control Facility: each in control of ten missiles) was. Even a novice "saboteur" could invest a few weeks in driving the back roads of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota or Wyoming, and quite rapidly establish locations.

An analogy that might help would be for instance, if you knew your neighbor was out to destroy your carefully displayed Christmas decorations, it wouldn't make much sense to store a secret map of your outdoor arrangement in your safe.