Three Minuteman ICBM bases and their corresponding Missile Fields were near the U.S. - Canadian border: Malmstrom and Minot, which are still active, and the now deactivated Grand Forks AFB. In fact, Grand Forks had several silos within a stone's throw of the border. And considering the featureless terrain, poor visibility weather, and dirt farm roads that all look alike, it is not surprising that the story arose that someone transported a warhead across the border, and became the most widely told story around.
Occasionally maintenance trucks in the northern missile flight areas have wandered over into Canada; many sections of the border are unmarked and often the difference is just one farm field and its' neighbor. In fact, some teams deliberately wander across, just to say they've "been there"; common practice is to drive into Canada until you find a Canadian road sign, snap a picture or two, and then scoot back to US soil. But a Payloader Transport Truck carrying a warhead is a far different matter.
While in the realm of the possible that this occurred, you'd have to stretch the possibilities immensely. The story goes essentially like this, in one form or another:
- A young Lieutenant had just transferred in to the local Security Police Group, and was tasked with escorting a warhead to a site in Alpha flight, approximately 7 miles from the Canadian Border. Unfamiliar with the area, and caught in bad weather that reduced visibility, his group wandered farm roads in the area hunting the small 3" x 8" marker signs that point to the site access road. Eventually, they wound up a short distance into Canadian Territory. Here the story splits into versions:
- A) the group gets their bearings and finds the way to the site without incident other than the young officer having a story of "what if" to tell. ...Or.....
- B) the transport group runs into citizens and or mounties who attempt to detain the vehicle. The Lieutenant refuses to go down in history as the first officer to place a US nuke in foreign hands, and orders his group to head back to US soil, with weapons drawn to hold Canadians at bay ("Damn the torpedos..full speed ahead!!").
A fun little story, but not very credible. First of all, is the weather side of things. Prior to any weapon movement in the Missile Field, a classified briefing is held to determine key personnel involved, road routes (complete with detailed maps), any possible obstacles, and an in-depth weather forecast. If weather looks iffy, especially visibility, warhead transports are almost always postponed. The next item that makes all this unlikely is the sheer number of people involved. The story infers that the escorting officer was leading the group - this would not normally be so, and he would not be the only one who would have to get lost, in any case. Any weapon transport is made up of not only the tractor-trailer carrying the warhead and the escorting officer's vehicle, but fire/tiger teams in armored "Peacekeeper" vehicles, the MMT team's maintenance truck, a helicopter flying overhead, and the whole pack is lead by a U.S. Federal Marshal! So not only would the officer have to get lost, so would several experienced security and maintenance people along for the ride. And the pilot of the chopper with all of his navigation gear. And of course, the federal marshal would have to forget the way, as well. While any one of these could happen, it's very unlikely all of them would take place and allow such a trip across the border.
Three Minuteman ICBM bases and their corresponding Missile Fields were near the U.S. - Canadian border: Malmstrom and Minot, which are still active, and the now deactivated Grand Forks AFB. In fact, Grand Forks had several silos within a stone's throw of the border. And considering the featureless terrain, poor visibility weather, and dirt farm roads that all look alike, it is not surprising that the story arose that someone transported a warhead across the border, and became the most widely told story around.