Guarding America's Missile Fields

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A Missile Alert Facility or MAF, where ICBMs are housed inside underground silos, is of the most guarded real estates on the planet, but how it is protected, and what happens is you get too close to it for a selfie, is #NotWhatYouThink #NWYT #longs

Music:
Stellar Minds - DEX 1200
No Stone Unturned - Brendon Moeller
Bruiser - Bonkers Beat Club
Stellar Finale - FormantX
We Are Giants - Silver Maple
Secret Light - Max Anson
Solve It - Max Anson
Leaps - Jay Varton
Ghosting - Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen

Footage:
Select images/videos from Getty Images
Videoblocks
Ivan Stepanov
NASA
National Archives
US Department of Defense

Note: "The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

[NotWhatYouThink]

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[JakeBroe]

I am a former USAF Missileer who served at Minot AFB and this was incredibly accurate. Bravo!

[rancidcrabtree.]

Your credibility as a content creator just went up with me.

I was a Missile Facilities Maintainer (aka "X3" or "Buttcrack") in the '90s and I would say you managed to very accurately describe the LGM-30 Minuteman system.

Previous content I've seen about the Minuteman and it's operations were full of inaccuracies and speculation.

Well done!

[SquatchyLS]

Did minuteman 3 maintenance in the usaf for 5 years. It was quite repetitive but at the end of the day, it was a very fulfilling job knowing what we were doing in the bigger picture. Miss the job every now and again but don't miss the military. Very good video friend. Seems like you did good research

[jeffpkamp]

I lived in a tiny town in Wyoming with missile silos less than 2 mi on either side. I have friends who can testify to how quickly they respond if you get up close to the fences.

[Ghettofinger]

It's also a strategic way of having other countries deplete their nuclear warhead stocks by targeting missile silos away from economic centers and leaving them with less capability of doing damage to large cities like New York or LA. Even if the enemy destroys all of the land-leg missiles of the nuclear triad, 70% of the nuclear stockpile is of the Nuclear submarine "Trident" variety.

[threestrikesmarxman]

One of my Air Force ROTC instructors was a missile officer before he taught aerospace studies. He summarized his job as “kickstarting the world’s greatest and last fireworks show.”

[Hoppy]

Great video, lots of memories. I was an EMT (electronic maintenance technician) at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, 1969-1973. My daughter was born at Ellsworth base hospital.

[haunter_]

My uncle was a missileer for around 20 years. When you take a test as missileer, you can't get one thing wrong. It's a high standard.

[jimsvideos]

9:04 The first-generation ICBMs used liquid oxygen and kerosene which are not hypergolic. The later ones that use hydrazine and nitric acid were storeable as those compounds _are_ hypergolic, but they are also wickedly toxic and difficult to handle.

[smokeymcpot]

Lived in Cheyenne, Wy just outside of Warren AFB for two decades.
When the air force is moving nuclear warheads through the middle of town, you notice.
Had a buddy who's parents owned a ranch just outside of town, & they had one of these sites out there on the property.
Even went out shooting at one of the now-decommissioned, partially destroyed & abandoned Atlas missile sites nearby as well. It had derelict cranes for moving the missiles left behind, giant flooded underground bunkers/silos, algae covered cooling pools & early-era server buildings littered with broken circuit boards.
Crazy to see an entire nuclear missile facility from the 50s completely trashed & forgotten

[billkrause]

I worked at those 150 Launch Facilities and 15 Launch Control Facilities in both Dakotas (Ellsworth and Minot AFBs) from 1967 to 1975, they were the best years of my life servicing in the United States Air Force. I been there and done that, and proud to have served. Go Air Force!

[nicholaswessels]

I worked guarding and transporting these weapons for six years I have stayed countless nights on the MAF you showed in the beginning and I have had thousands of guard mounts in the room where you showed security forces doing an about face, nearly everything shown I’ve done or witnessed. I can even verify that the people who live on the MAF’s are very spoiled and the only people in the missile field who has a bathroom or warm food. The rest of us.. go where we go and eat what we bring to duty. At the time I was bitter for doing this job, but now days I love that I did this job. I was the 1% of the 1% who got to watch the sun set and rise from a silo plus I got to sleep countless nights atop one. You clearly did your homework and got a lot of facts right! You scratched the surface of the job and everything that happens out there and for our own national security its good that only a portion is available to the public. Good memories in the missile field.

[Solstice_AC]

Did he just say... "Exactly what you think" ?
The universe is officially collapsing.

[Tana]

The hardest part of the job as a security forces member in the missile field was driving to the sites at night in the winter.. If it was snowing it was a terrible experience.. I was stationed in Minot, and if there was snow, there was wind. So there you were, driving in a snowstorm, knowing that no matter what, you had to get to the site.. I’m from Minnesota and was accustomed to winter driving, but the weather in North Dakota in the winter could be so brutal.. The summers were beautiful though…

[elliottmoore]

That 30 min or less Dominos reference is hilarious. Lol

[andrewable]

I was a Security Policeman stationed at Whiteman 89-90. I was assigned to Mohawk and Seminole Flight at 352MSS. I worked Topside and Campers. I did a lot of TDAs to ARTS/SRTS and convoys. We called MAFs LCFs. The food on the LCFs was great. The duty wasn't bad but the winters were a bit rough. We had a US Marshal that was the lead on convoys. I was on a camper one night when the wind chill was -40+. Couldn't plug into commercial power and my lp tanks froze. Ended up sleeping in the back of a six pack. Was out there for 3 days. All in all, I enjoyed my time there. Then went to RAF Lakenheath UK.

[CCHopeless]

Good job on this one, brought me back to life the missile fields at Minot as a Security Forces officer. Just a few notes:

1. While we still have Security Police on our badges and sometimes use the title, the title Security Forces is the title we most use and exclusively use in the missile field.
2. The tactical response teams are called Tactical Response Force (TRF), or at least they were when I was in.
3. Security Forces at the MAFs are the primary responders for recapture/recovery operations, TRF is used as rapid response backup and for assault into an occupied silo. TRF also provides aerial overwatch for nuclear convoys.
4. I cannot confirm it what special operations team it was, but I can confirm that a special forces team gained control during an exercise. Security measures were updated afterwards and it hasn't happened again.
5. It is the most stressful boring job ever, as even the smallest mistakes can be punished. Plus, these mistakes often get reported to the White House. Fall asleep on post? That'll trigger a Dull Sword call that the President will see, and entire chains of command have been fired over things like that.
6. It's not just mental tests that qualify people to work around nukes, but the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP). PRP is not just about mental status, but also any drug dependencies, including prescription drugs, that can alter judgement, financial status, whether or not you support the existence of nukes, any foreign contacts, level of security clearance, and many more.

Still, an overall great video. Just the way you pronounced MAF showed me you did a good amount of research, as that's how we said it.

[theoriginalop]

This is a fantastic video. My little brother was a cook at a site in Wyoming. The security clearance for that role is pretty high being as you are providing food to the missile operators with direct access to the secure area. I can't wait to show him this!

[blurglide]

Atlas had a MUCH longer range than 500 miles. It was intercontinental, after all. Thor and Jupiter were medium range ballistic missiles, not ICBMs