![]() ![]() It was 38 years – to the day – after Kennedy called on families to build bomb shelters. 6th, 1999, where more than 100 spectators watched a piece of military history reduced to a pile of rubble. The first missile site to be destroyed was near Langdon, on Oct. The new missile enhances capability, increases flexibility, and marks yet another system upgrade. In accordance with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the 150 missiles assigned to Grand Forks were to be destroyed and the silos imploded, but the 150 missile sites assigned to Minot were to remain in service. The 12th Missile Squadron led the way in removing Minuteman II missiles and replacing them with LGM-30G Minuteman III silos from the inactivating 321st Missile Wing at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota in 1996 Minuteman IIs being retired. With the Cold War at ending in the mid-1990s, the Minuteman missiles were taken off alert. During the following year, 1,000 Minutemans were placed across the central and northern Great Plains. The Minuteman III tripled the Air Force’s striking power and was more convincing as a war deterrent. The first Minuteman came online in Montana at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis on October 26, 1962. The Air Force then selected Minot’s 91st Strategic Missile Wing to become the first to convert to the Minuteman III in the early 1970s. Several years later, the 321st Missile Wing at the Grand Forks Air Force Base was the very first to deploy the more powerful Minuteman II missiles. ![]() Interestingly, if the state had decided to split away from the rest of the country, North Dakota would have been the 3rd most powerful nation in the world. Soon, the North Dakota prairie was spattered with hundreds of missile sites boasting America’s latest technology.ĭuring this time, Russian visitors weren’t allowed to visit the state, but the missile sites were far from secret in fact, school kids went on field trips to tour their nearest missile silos.īy the next year, 300 Minutemen missiles were fully armed. ![]() At Minot Air Force Base, Strategic Air Command (SAC) activated the 455th Strategic Missile Wing in November, and in less than a year, the first Minuteman arrived from Hill Air Force Base in Utah. That made North Dakota an appropriate place for the country to locate nuclear missiles.įield construction began in January of 1962 to house the Minuteman I Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) complex. citizens, “We will bury you!” One year later, on October 6th, 1961, President Kennedy urged Americans to build bomb shelters to protect them from atomic fallout.Ī nuclear conflict with Russia would likely mean an missiles and planes crossing the arctic. In 1962, the Air Force announced that the Grand Forks AFB would be first to deploy the new LGM-30F Minuteman II missile (The previous deployments were all Minuteman I). On this date in 1960, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his desk and declared to U.S. Overview The 321st Strategic Missile Wing was the sixth, and last United States Air Force LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM wing. ![]()
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