Once again, you are on the road, this time headed for base... though by a different route. Job Control has "diverted" you to another site far to the southwest, to deliver some of the test equipment you have to another team.

You follow the main highways west, then southward; after an hour-plus drive, on the horizon, looms what seems to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian pyramid. While not nearly so antique, it is a piece of Ancient Missile History. As you near the tiny town of Nekoma, you see what remains of the Stanley R. Mickelson Safeguard complex.

This interesting facility occupied the position of a key piece in the constant chess game of nuclear brinkmanship. During early years of nuclear escalation, both sides were not only busy trying to build bigger and better missiles; they were also trying to defend against them. The former Soviet Union designed and installed several anti-ICBM missile installations around Moscow; not to be outdone, we designed and built the Safeguard Complex - the first of many planned US anti-ICBM systems. The complex was a complete base: housing, offices, fire station, barracks, recreation and food facilites, etc, in addition to the missile facility.

The complex was equipped with hardened launchers for nuclear-tipped Spartan and Sprint Missiles. To track it's targets, it has a massive missile tracking radar array, built into a hardened concrete structure. This is the huge pyramid that marks the base location for miles. The base housing has since been picked on trucks and moved, and some other parts of the base have been dismantled as well. But the huge pyramid still remains active. It is tied into the Defense Early Warning system, and controlled remotely by a similar site to the northeast called "Concrete"; which is housed in a huge square concrete block several stories high, and uses a Phased Aperture Radar System (PARS). In the original system, Concrete provided long-range tracking, and the installation at Nekoma was for local tracking. Both the Nekoma and Concrete radars are tied into NORAD headquarters at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, and operated by US Air Force Space Command. Here the antenna pyramid can be seen with ventilator towers for the command bunkers in the foreground.

The Safeguard Complex had reinforced underground launchers for thirty Spartan and sixteen Sprint missiles, and an additional fifty or so Sprint missiles were deployed at four remote launch sites spread along the Canadian border. The idea was for the longer range Spartan missile (armed with a 5 megaton warhead) to intercept the majority of incoming missiles with a high altitude nuclear airburst. Using a low-kiloton yield warhead, the Sprint was to then intercept the remaining incoming Soviet warheads inside the atmosphere as a last-ditch defense. The Spartan Missile was 55 feet (16.8 meters), weighed 28,700 pounds (13,045 kilograms), and had a range of approximately 465 miles (748 kilometers). The Sprint was 27 feet (8.2 meters) long, weighed 7,500 pounds (3,409 kilograms), and had a range of 25 miles (40 kilometers). Both missiles utilized solid propellants. In this aerial photo, the base is viewed from the north. To the right of the pyramid are the installation buildings, with the housing being off camera, farther right. In the foreground are the missile launch bunkers, and at the far upper right lies the tiny town of Nekoma, population 63.

The reason for the base to be built was not completely for it's protective qualities, which were unproven and probably moot. The base was also built for political leverage. Safeguard was activated while talks were going on with the Soviets to limit nuclear weapons and associated systems; it was operational until the Soviets signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (SALT) in 1976, and then shut down....just 3 1/2 months after being activated! Since then, the base has been unused, with only a small security patrol to cruise its' empty streets. There are occasional rumors about the site being re-activated, but none are true, or even remotely considered. The basic flaw in the system was the design, which used a nuclear airburst to disable incoming missiles and warheads. Not only does this degrade or limit our own launches with the sunsequent EMP burst and blast effects in airspace we might be launching through; it has even deeper ramifications. Even if we were willing to accept the fallout from our own missiles or debris from destroyed enemy missiles, it is hardly likely that the Canadians (over whose territory the airbursts would take place) would go for the idea. Sometimes fighting fire with fire can mean you will burn your own house down. This project was able to reach conception only because of the lack of oversight and deeper secrecy levels prevalent in the 60's. Such a program would die on the drawingboard today. Currently, much safer, cleaner alternatives, such as the National Missile Defense, using non-nuclear defenses, are being explored as a replacement for this system.

There is another remnant of military history in the North Dakota countryside; a "ghost base" to the south, Finley Air Force Station, near Finley, ND. Many years ago, Finley AFS sported a huge, steerable radar dish atop one of the installation buildings, which could be seen for many miles across the flat terrain. After the defense tracking station was deactivated, the dish was dismantled and sold for scrap. Today, some abandoned buildings and run-down homes that have been turned over for civilian use are all that remains of Finley AFS.

Finally, after a field rendezvous to transfer equipment, we arrive back at base, nearly at the end of our timeline. The MHT team has successfully removed the missile and returned to base with it, and you can see them already engaged in loading it aboard an aircraft on the base flightline. From here, it may be flown to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for flight testing, or slated for other laboratory tests instead. Or it may go into storage, waiting for the day it is installed in another silo at one of the still-operational bases.

At this point, nearly 16 hours after we started our day, we drive back to the 321SMW building, release our Security Escort Team (SET) guards, drop off our classified materials at the vault area, debrief, do a mound of paperwork to close out our work orders, document discrepancies we found, order new parts, and so on. During this process you find out that not everyone made it back; part of the MMT team was stuck waiting for a "camper" with guards to take over site security, and had to RON at an LCF in the field. With our debriefing completed, we drive back to the highbay area, unload our equipment from the truck, wait while it is thoroughly checked for broken or missing items, and try to get equipment personnel to accept the hand receipts you got from the team in the field, to cover the equipment you dropped off to them. Finally, as you complete your paperwork and debriefing (again) at the workcenter, your Team Member washes, fuels, and cleans your truck, then turns it in, also with an inspection involved. The both of you head home for a well-deserved rest... so you can be back in 12 hours to do it again.

But this is not quite the end of the story; click the "continue" button to see the end of the tour.