The Times They are a Changing

A number of years ago when our kids were still in Grade School and the "Cold War" was still on we went on a family vacation to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. As part of the trip we went on a tour of Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City. At that time it was the home base for the B-1 bomber. While on the tour the guide told us if we went east out on I-90 toward Wall Drug we would see from the freeway some of the Minute Men intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos doors on top of the ground with the missiles inside armed with their nuclear war heads. So we headed out I -90 toward Wall Drug and saw a freeway exit to "no where" and we took it and saw the silo doors surrounded by a chain link fence and barb wire on top. We shopped for just a few minutes looking at it and stayed inside the car on a county road. We then headed back to the freeway and were stopped by a jeep full of military guys with machine guns . We told them we were from Oregon and had just taken the tour at Ellsworth and just wanted to check out the silos. They said "no problem" and we were on our way. In any case it scared the sh*t out of all of us in that Ford station wagon and my family has never let me "live it down". Now those missile silos are a tourist attraction and a National Historic Site and you can even take a tour. As their web site say: "Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is one of the nation's newest national park areas. It was created to illustrate the history and significance of the Cold War, the arms race, and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) development." The place is even marked on my new road atlas (see post below). To go to the National Historic Site website click on the title above for a link. The times they are a changing.