A lot of careful screening goes into selecting Missile people, primarily in the security department, though. Education requirements are varied, for despite what some might think, a degree in Rocket Science is not required. They teach you that, and any other technical skills, only if your job requires it. For instance, a large number of Missile Launch crew members have Business Degrees, because the job they perform is not "technical" but "administrative". But all personnel receive a very careful screening of their background by the National Security Agency, and are under very stringent demands to keep everything from their personal appearance, to their families' behavior, to grass in their yard, in inspection order. This causes no little stress, especially if part of your life suddenly gets out of hand. A perfect security prospect can always turn into a bad one after the screening.
This was the case for the Missile Crew Commander for one Launch Control Facility in North Dakota. He had invested heavily in an arcade business in Grand Forks, which then promptly went into the red. Faced with almost certain reprimand or dismissal by his superiors for "financial insecurity" (even though his business had nothing to do with the Air Force), he desperately sought other sources of income to keep his bills up. During his travels into the Missile Field he had noticed the plethora of isolated, small, farm towns with no Law Enforcement personnel; ultra-low crime rates in North Dakota don't justify a huge police force. Or as they say, "40 below keeps the riff-raff out". At any rate, he began using his dispatches for duty in the field to scope out prospective jobs. Shortly afterward, the Capsule Crew Bandito began robbing small community banks in the Grand Forks Missile Field to finance his strapped pocketbook. All small takes from each bank, he got perhaps a total of $40,000.
He was also getting away with it splendidly, until he pulled the boner that should have landed him on America's Dumbest Criminals. While robbing a bank in the small town of Aneta, he discovered, to his dismay, that the bank vault was virtually empty. He had the bad timing to rob the place just before the payroll came in. His dumb mistake was in remarking to a teller that he'd "be back"!! And so he was, after noting which day the payroll was delivered. The town, which had only the County Sheriff Office for protection had appointed 2 people to watch the bank during operating hours. When the robber exited, they gave chase, eventually losing him, but not before getting a good description of the thief, his car, and ...his license plate. He was arrested a short time later in a Grand Forks hotel parking lot.
During his trial, he attempted to use a "temporary insanity" plea -- almost reasonable, given the pressures and penalties he faced for "financial insecurity" violations. While an extreme case, it is a good illustration of the little published fact that Missile Folk are carefully selected people - who are human, too. The stresses on the job are tremendous, many times caused of the mountain of regulations they live under, or the work conditions themselves. Long hours or days in the field mean a lot of lonely spouses. The problem is often so prevalent that commonly known terms and signals have grown out of it. For instance, the term "missile widow" refers to a missile spouse looking for more reliable company. Many such "widows" have used interesting ways to let boyfriends know the husband was away on duty; at one missile base a popular signal was a broom on the front porch - even when the porch & walk were covered with snow. Some of the unadvertised facts about a career in missiles is that it has some of the highest divorce and alcoholism rates in the military.
Because of this, and the strict reliability requirements of the job, the Air Force has a program in place, called the Personnel Reliability Program, or PRP. It requires anyone having any problem or situation which affects his physical, emotional, or mental state to remove himself from Missile duty. It also requires anyone else having similar knowledge to do the same. The doctor prescribes sinus medicine that makes you drowsy - he pulls your PRP status. A commander gets word that your father died -- he pulls your PRP. Or your team member knows you had an argument with the wife - he pulls your PRP. If you are just plain pissed off over the same fight, you pull your own PRP. It keeps most people in bad circumstances from being around trouble; the lack of incidents with missile sites is tribute to how well it works. But as the story above shows, some do slip through the cracks.