Visit to rapid city, we take you to the south dakota air and space museum and hear about the role of Ellsworth Air force base during the cold war. Welcome to the south dakota air and space museum. People think of south dakota, they dont always think about a great aviation state but we have a huge Aviation Heritage in the state. Over the years, we have played a huge part in our national defense. Ellsworth air force base began in world war ii. Its purpose in world war ii was to train bomber crews specifically b17 crew. If you think about it, if you are going to learn to navigate a world war ii bomber over long distances and expenses of isritory, south dakota really a great place to put the base. That was the beginning of Ellsworth Air force base. The connection from world war ii to the cold war is really represented in our museum. The 44th bomb group was trained here at Ellsworth Air force base. When the cold war came around, the bomb group became the 44th missile wing which was commanded out of Ellsworth Air force base and the missile wing was part of the cold war narrative. When you think about cold war, you think about the b52s that were based here. You think about the ready workforce of a Strategic Air command but you also think about the men and women who were in these missile capsules underneath the ground waiting for the unthinkable. To turn keysommand and launch a nuclear war. Our museum is an important part of telling that story. Currently the president of the south dakota air and space foundation. We are the nonprofit that supports the south dakota air and space museum here outside of Ellsworth Air force base. I spent 20 years in the air force and retired as a captain. I entered in 1971 and was initially trained as a gunner on a b52. After serving 10 years as a gunner, was able to complete the requirements for a commission in the air force then became an officer. My next 10 years in the air force as a Launch Control officer on the titan two and retired as eight missile maintenance officer from ellsworth. Gunner ellsworth as a and they came back to ellsworth is a Missile Launch officer and when i was here as a gunner, i became involved in the museum and have remained connected to the south dakota air and space fall 35 years of its operation. One of the reasons i am so now,cted to it is that many of the things that are on display here are items that i once used in my career. What i would like to show you at trainer that the is on display here at the south dakota air and space museum. Used tothe mockup we train the missile crew members to do their jobs out in the missile field. If you come in, the missile was locatedrainer on Ellsworth Air force base. There were 15 much control throughoutated western south dakota. Missile field covered approximately 14,000 square miles. It was large and spread out. Thebest way to train missile crew members was to have. Simulator on base it is also a lot safer since this is a simulator not the actual Launch Control center. We were able to train and evaluate people in their ability to do the job of a Launch Control officer. The station here is a deputy crew commander station. The panels to his right our communication systems. The panels are critical because the crews were in no way authorized or able to take any action that would release any so they had to get the proper messages and instructions from the president of the United States ultimately. That would direct you what to do with the Launch Control center. Equipment thatf was for communicating with the missiles. Each Launch Control center 10 minutemonitored man two missiles. Missiles were assigned to one of much control center. Each Launch Control center at the commanders console had the ability to switch the missiles that they were viewing so they could monitor 50 missiles in the squadron. Missilesuadron of consisted of five Launch Control man twoand 50 minute missiles. The commanders console here was where the commander kept track of the general status of all of the missiles at all time. Each one of these vertical a shows a variety of different states of the missiles. The situation that is depicted on this Launch Control center, the top row of lights are all green. That means that all of the missiles are in full operational and readiness status. They areall secure, all communicating back to be Launch Control center. Any indication other than the green lights across the top would indicate there is some sort of system problem for the possibility that someone was trying to get into one of the remote launch facilities. Was in a all to caps that was in an isolated area and it was not command. There were never any people on that site unless the missile needed some sort of missile attention. There were tremendous redundant security measures that would make sure nobody could get unauthorized access. If someone should try, there would be an indication here long before they could have any vessel getting to the and that was a big part of what the missile crew did on a daily basis was to make sure the missiles were also secure. Ultimate responsibility of wasLaunch Control through if the National Command, the president of the United States, if the National Command system made a determination that the United States was actively under nuclear attack, then the United States would launch a retaliatory attack. The concept was referred to at the time as mutually assured destruction. Primarily, it was the soviet union at the time. The chinese had a little bit of influence in that as well but it was the usa against the communist primarily. Also had some play in that but what happened, the idea was that anyone who would choose to attack the United States with a Nuclear Weapon would have to live with an almost certainty that the United States would be able to retaliate with Nuclear Weapons thus creating a situation where nobody wins. The theory was mutual assured destruction. It would create a situation where nobody would do that awful thing of start world war iii. This point, it looks like it might have worked but the interesting point about the acronym for mutual assured destruction is it is mad. In that situation where an enemy may decide that they were mad, and they were going to attack us, the crew would have received the instructions with a very strict regimen but very carefully followed and able to be authenticated in a timely fashion. The crew would have received this instructions and at the the crew would then release some or all of their weapons on this particular enemy. There would be a lot of processes they would go through efficiently and quickly and they would arrange their weapons so that they would launch. When that secondhand hit zero at the appointed time, the group would then set their lunch command to the missiles for them to go. The commander would watch the , stand and look in the mirror so they could have eye contact with the deputy crew commander, and they would do a count down. His ormander would have her hand on this key. Wouldputy crew commander on this or her hand key. As the commander counted down, 3,would say on my command, 2, one, turn keys now. The deputy and the commander would turn their keys simultaneously. If they did not turn them simultaneously, there would not be a lunch command. In addition to that, one other Launch Control center would have to do the same thing before the missiles were launched. The nuclear avide surety that we needed. As you can see, the way the keys are positioned, it takes two people. One person cannot turn that key and run back and turn this key or vice versa. There were tremendous amount of builtin security measures that make sure that our nuclear launched by never some crazy persons action or anything on that order. Narrative is really part of south dakota. It is part of the dakota ethos. If you want to study aviation history or even world history, back toup drawing lines Ellsworth Air force base. Back to the prairies of south dakota, north dakota. It is important for us to tell the story to the world. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to rapid city, south dakota. To watch more video from rapid city, visit cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. Tv,oday on American History winston lord author of kissinger talks about the nixon administrations foreignpolicy and the president s relationship with his secretary of state. Here is a preview. Hit with a said yes anyway because he would have been serving the national interest. As someone who analyzed foreignpolicy and history while he lookednd i am sure at the chance to do something about it in terms of policy. He had been advisor to jfk. And consulted with johnson and other president s. Motives ande main thats what really brought them together. Approach to foreignpolicy which we have just seen examples of mainly a conceptual approach that looks that ongterm trend and is not just react a kneejerk reaction to discrete events but does them together in a mosaic. s was clear that they each shared a strategic worldview which i think was probably a major reason why nixon chose him and clearly why kissinger was happy to join him. They brought different strengths. As a congressman then more importantly as Vice President then as private citizen had a traveled the world extensively and new marinade many world leaders. Strength was a historical, philosophical, construct conceptual strategic. Buthave the same strategy it was a wonderful mix. Learn more about president s foreignpolicy and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger today at 2 30 p. M. Eastern. Explore our nations past here on American History tv. Each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and learning about American History. Karen sherry focuses on sharing stories that individuals that led to slave revolts. Educated fellow free people and participated in abolitionist john browns raid on herbert fairey. Wco