Notes from the No Lone Zone - A computer scientist looks at ICBM security.

Cool place. I visited it around 2000.

The actual silo is sealed in with glass because it's contaminated with rocket fuel. You can look into the silo from various levels but you can't enter. Apparently one drop of the fuel they used will penetrate your flesh and start destroying bone. They have photos of the Air Force guys in their "Rocket Fuel Handler's Outfit".

Normally I'm a big fan of Matt Blaze. But it kind of pisses me off that he implies that the museum needs to be justified on some liberal-arts, big picture basis:

    It's worth asking whether displaying this terrible artifact of our 40 years
     on the edge of oblivion for all to see really makes good sense.

I hate this crap. First of all, we are still just as much "on the edge of oblivion". Russia and now China have plenty of nukes pointed at us. We just don't talk about it as much.

Second, I don't consider it a "terrible artifact". It's an awesome engineering project. And it helped preserve the freedoms we have today.

Third, and most importantly, I don't give a fuck if there's some point or purpose to the place, or if it makes anyone contemplate anything. I'm an engineer and a hacker; as a teenager I dreamed of getting into one of these silos; I appreciate the effort that went into building this amazing thing, and I'm very grateful to the people who have preserved it.

To me, each airman who served here, and each volunteer who helps with the museum is worth 1000 of Barbara Kingsolver and her kind.

At the risk of being shouted at for recommending my own book, The Geek Atlas. This location is in there, as are two nuclear bunkers (one in the US where Congress would have hidden, and one in the UK where the Prime Minister would have gone). And there are other significant nuclear sites for people who are interested such as the spot where the Trinity Test was performed: http://geekatlas.com/.

It is crazy to think how advanced these bases were by 1960s' standards and even crazier to think we didn't blow each other up! It's also kinda sad that so many of the silos fell into disrepair or were actively deconstructed. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit one before they are all gone, if only to relive a small part of GoldenEye.

My earliest introduction to the "two man policy" was the haunting opening scene of 'WarGames'. "Turn your key, sir."