European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Minuteman missiles Are pulled from silos for test firing at Vandenberg Range in California. And. The missile., Una Varc of time or place or season is alive quietly Ansi Cring the continuous electronic queries to Shiv it is ready to serve. Ready for the touch 0f a Spur the command fire 99 by Edward a. Herron Nana staff writer Don t laugh but a minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile Isa living pulsating thing. Standing erect. Poised with Blind eyes pointed upward toward the 80-ton Concrete Cap sealing it into a deep underground silo it is ready to go to War in an  readiness gives it the status of deterrent the Factor any tyrant mus always consider anywhere in the world were he planning to strike the United  that 80-ton Cap a blizzard could be swirling across the Plains of Moi Tana there could be the soft Rustle of Spring in North Dakota wheat Fields Orthe Brittle tapping of a Summers rain in Missouri. But the missile unaware of time or place or season is alive quietly an swering continuous electronic queries to show it is ready to serve. Pulses nudge its guidance and control systems snuggled comfortably just beneath its nuclear warhead gyroscopes spin up end Lessly and almost silently to prove it computer brains Are ready for the touch of a Spur the command fire that will Send it on its Way to a pinpoint so delicate they can detect the presence of a Man 10 feet away report on temperatures of bearings War head guidance systems every 30 min utes aiming gear is slowed around an permitted to return to it. Assigned head ing just to prove it is on the of. Kac missile is assigned permanently just one target. L his Check and recheck never ceases for the unit has Power on Dayan night. It has to be so if the system is to respond with an accuracy measure Din Yards one third of the Way around the world. It must be so too if the missiles to be in go status within 60 seconds of its firing , just to be certain that machines and computers themselves Aren t lying about this instant readiness the strategic air come Boss at Offut Tair Force base Headquarters of the missile come at Omaha neb., draws number from a hat. The missile to which it corresponds is then pulled from its silo the fire into a Remote target area in the  to this demonstrable readiness of 1,000 minutemen stationed strategically throughout Continental . Is a tiny nerve Center the guidance and control system nestled next to the warhead. Weighing Only 38 pounds and smaller than a cubic foot it must know the exact position of the missile every Sec Ond of us 15,000 Mph flight. Developed and later Micro miniature sized by the aut Onetis division of North american Rockwell it turned out to be15 per cent lighter than contracted maximum weight 60 per cent More re liable than specifications commitment ail 300 per cent More accurate than spelled out by government engineers. Without these specifics three staged lumbering Minton would be just another piece of hard � poaching Holt s in the sky and land to somewhere. With it All three class of the missile minuteman i and ii ail shortly Iii can and will smear Yards the most Remote target with nuclear 1 million ton plus int explosive equivalent. Comparable precision in her Homo would permit a housewife to thread a Needle the first try-acroj85-foot living room. It would have to be the first try for missiles get no Sei Chance. Keeping them at this pitch Daday out and some have been Stream since december 1%2-is work of scores of highly trained maid tenancy teams dotted strategic throughout the country to work d with other teams continually so functional problems in their   the combined talents of Sac Force logistics come and the Coni tors for minuteman have developed maintenance approach that is aim breathtaking in its simplicity. Key i Tor in this system is to limit on repairs to component replacement every possible Bug that might Zelop or has been proved to exist catalogued and charted so that withe repair team is racing to a i1" silo men at the Central station combat Crew keeps electronic fingers on minuteman pulse at All times. We than Likely fingered the outage narrowed its possibility to fewer than x probable  thing too. For aside from the desirability of working on a missile s inwards in anything less than a sterile phere much As in human sur by and for the same reason therance of contamination major repairs ice started can become  such instances the entire missile i generally pulled from its silo the warhead going to Kelly fab tex., for routine checks guidance and control Sterns to Newark air Force station i Miles East of Columbus Ohio Andie propulsion stages to Ogden Utah Materiel area logistics come the items command for the minuteman. Sac lists three reasons for missile Oval test firing on Vandenberg to verify control equipment tons age none have yet fallen j this category and malfunction of propulsion system. Forty Days is he ilium allowable time for a missile to be  some have been turned around in As Little As four. Placing them Back in their silos i roughly a 24-hour Job nine hours of which is spent calibrating that 38-Poundguidance package to the specific stars in the solar system that will guide i unerringly to a particular target. For once launched the missile is Blind an deaf to outside command. Its guidance system and computer brain know Butone target and once launched will Streak to it in something less than 34 minutes anywhere in the world. Each missile spanking new or re turning to service is painted a warm glowing Green a thick Glossy  that resists the Rigours of end less Days and nights deep in the dark Ness of its Concrete launch pad. In time the paint dulls becomes life less. But not the missile. Erect alive and ready it is answering electronic questions night and Day. So that men on whom your life could depend know that they can depend that All systems Are  careful Check is kept on missile s guidance system which is homed on stars. Home on the Range forming of site somewhere in the Western Flatland. Mammoth transporters haul missiles out of silos for constant maintenance tests. Nana up Vinu tenon 1968 the stars and stripes Pago 13 Pago 12 the stars and stripes