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A former Minuteman missile site in South Dakota is preserved and open to tourists for a fascinating look at the Cold War. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which US President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed in Moscow on July 31, 1991 reduced the number of ICBMs worldwide, the Air Force began deactivating the Nation's entire Minuteman II force. Among the Minuteman sites to be deactivated were the 150 missile silos and 15 launch control facilities of the 44th Missile Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB) in South Dakota. Soon after the deactivation began, the National Park Service and the Air Force recognized that Ellsworth AFB's Minuteman facilities might be excellent candidates for long-term preservation. The Ellsworth AFB sites are among the Nation's oldest Minuteman missile bases. They are also the least altered from the original Minuteman configuration, much of their technology dating to the era of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thus, the end of the Cold War created a unique "window of opportunity" to preserve a historic Minuteman missile complex. Through an interagency agreement, the National Park Service and the Air Force agreed to temporarily preserve two representative Minuteman sites at Ellsworth AFB — the Delta One Launch Control Facility and the Delta Nine Launch Facility — until their long-term preservation could be evaluated. In December 1993, the National Park Service began a special resource study of Delta One and Delta Nine. The Minuteman Special Resource Study Team — which included representatives from the National Park Service, the US Air Force, the US Air Force Museum, the South Dakota Historical Society, and the Ellsworth Heritage Foundation — spent much of 1994 evaluating the possible preservation of Delta One and Delta Nine and making them available to the public as historic sites. Their Special Resource Study was completed in 1995. National Historic Site Established South Dakota Senators Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson introduced a bill to establish Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in 1998 and Congress began hearing testimony on the bill that same year. The bill failed in 1998 and was reintroduced the following year to the 106th Congress. Representatives from the NPS and the Air Force testified in favor of establishing the site. In 1999, both the House and Senate passed legislation which resulted in the establishment of Minuteman Missile National Historic Site on November 29, 1999. The law describes the purpose of Minuteman Missile National Historic Site as: To preserve, protect, and interpret for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations the structures associated with the Minuteman II missile defense system; to interpret the historical role of the Minuteman II missile defense system— a. as a key component of America's strategic commitment to preserve world peace; and b. in the broader context of the Cold War; and to complement the interpretive programs relating to the Minuteman II missile defense system offered by the South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

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Credits:	Voice of America
URL:	http://www.earbot.com
Tags:	cold icbm minuteman missile park russia soviet space war

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