The whole point of this ride was to visit the nuclear missile launch facility in Cooperstown, N.D. The site, Oscar Zero, has long since been abandoned by the USAF as part of the START treaty signed by the US and Soviet Union. The state of North Dakota recognized the historical significance the nuclear missile sites played in the Cold War and turned Oscar Zero into a museum. Worth the trip. Here it is, in pictures, of course.
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Type in the secret code, insert the house key and give these knobies a twist
and it would have been Ka-Boom City on the other side of the globe. |
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| Johnny, is it suddenly warm? |
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| The chair of Armageddon; comforting to know, right? |
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Missile crews worked 24 hour shifts and were locked into the launch capsules
buried 50 feet below the surface. Coffee powered these guys through long shifts. |
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| If the elevator did not work, you'd get hauled up from the launch capsule via a dumbwaiter. |
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| Lock box that stored launch codes. |
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| Would you trust these guys to run the show? |
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| First Ducati ever parked upon a missile silo. |
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| Blast door of epic proportions, yo. |
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| Entering the launch capsule. |
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| Them is big locking pins, right there. |
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| Atop missile silo. |
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| Outside Oscar Zero launch control facility. |
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| At the missile site south of Cooperstown. |
