Preserved Minuteman II ICBM Launch Control Facility (D-1)

 military, Minuteman, intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

www.nps.gov/mimi/historyculture/launch-control-facility...

The former LCF for Delta Flight, comprised of 10 LGM-30F Minuteman II Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Nicknamed "Mike and Beth's" by its crews, D-1 was manned by elements of the 66th Strategic Missile Squadron, 44th Missile Wing, formerly based at Ellsworth AFB outside Rapid City, South Dakota. Though it oversaw a flight of LGM-30A Minuteman I ICBMs in 1963, these were replaced with the Minuteman II between 1971 and 1973. It stood at the ready supporting the flight until the Air Force began retiring the LGM-30F from service starting in December of 1991 and wrapping up in April of 1994, in line with international arms-reduction treaties.

This Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch control center is among the best preserved examples of United States military nuclear weapons technology developed and deployed during the Cold War era. Minuteman was both the first solid-fueled and the first remote launch ICBM. The fact it could be launched by simply turning two keys simultaneously in a control facility many miles removed from the actual missile represented a dramatic advance in missile design. Launch Control Center Delta-01 remained on continuous alert for almost 30 years, from 1963 until 1991. If orders had been received to launch a nuclear weapon during the Cold War, that launch would have been controlled from within a launch control facility such as Delta 01. As deactivation of Minuteman II sites in South Dakota proceeded, the U.S. Air Force and the National Park Service selected Delta 01 for preservation as one of the few remaining launch control facilities that had not been significantly altered since its original construction. It is now part of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.
More Info-www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/mimi/hrsab.pdf