Oscar 1 Underground

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. – The Oscar-1 Launch Control Facility facilitated the monitoring, controlling and launching of 10 Minuteman II missiles. As an alternate command post, missileers could launch all 50 Minuteman II missiles in the 510th Strategic Missile Squadron. To construct the 15 command centers, engineers dug down to the bedrock, built the foundation and then constructed the site before refilling the holes, which ranged from 60 to 90 feet deep. Nearly 25,000 tons of steel was used to construct the command sites and their 150 missile launch facilities. Launch control facility sites like Oscar-01 were designed to function even after the initial exchanges of a nuclear war. Self-contained, the underground portion housed batteries, a power generator, telephone switches for the underground cable system, and air regeneration equipment. Redundancies in the system meant that even a damaged LCF would likely have the minimal capability to perform its mission. Oscar-01 was manned by 10 people. Two individuals worked downstairs while the remaining eight worked upstairs. These included the facility manager who was usually the ranking enlisted person on site. The next ranking individual was the flight security controller who insured the security of the site and acted as a liaison with the crews downstairs. The Inter Continental Ballistic Missile Minuteman II missiles were located in 150 individual sites (15 command centers and 150 launch facilities) scattered throughout Missouri. If a command facility was destroyed, one of the remaining command facilities in the squadron would take control of that flight's remaining missiles. In theory, one crew could take over and monitor or launch all 50 missiles in their squadron. Custody of Oscar-01 passed to the 509th Bomb Wing in July 1995. The Oscar-01 museum is maintained as a tribute to the thousands of men and women who sustained the ICBM force during the Cold War. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Samuel A. Park)