Minuteman Missile NHS/Ellsworth AFB

On Saturday we drove north from Custer into Rapid City, SD where we could see the prairie as we descended the hill into the city. Our mission was to visit Ellsworth Air Force Base on behalf of George’s lifelong friend, Cliff Bagwell who was stationed there as a Minuteman nuclear ICBM missile launch control officer in an underground launch control center. Cliff and June were newly weds when Cliff began his career in the USAF at Ellsworth in 1969. We visited where they had lived in Rapid City before moving to the base two years later. We visited the Air Museum at Ellsworth which included a tour of the base as well as a missile silo training center. On July 24th we had a reservation to visit the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site where we were able to go down into one of the decommissioned missile control centers. This center, Delta – 1, was one that Cliff had served in as a member of the 66th Squadron of the 44th Missile Wing based at Ellsworth. We took many, many pictures to help Cliff and June relive their twenties in Rapid City, SD where their son David was born. George never imagined he would be able to go into the top secret missile control center, so he was very pleased to be able to see firsthand the facility he had head Cliff talk about his entire adult life.

Click HERE to see pictures of Ellsworth and the missile silo.

Click HERE to see pictures of the missile control capsule.