Minuteman Missile Historic Site in South Dakota Road Trip Day 4 Episode 7

[robertpaulsen]

It might be easy to think of the Cold War as something in the past. With that thought, it might be easy to think we’re no longer in danger of nuclear war. But when we visited the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota, it not only brought the past vividly to life, it also served as a sober reminder of how the threat of nuclear annihilation never really went away. (P.S. We shot and edited this before Trump went on his "fire and fury" trip!)

[hunter]

1. Love the old school mechanical teletype...

... no transistors to burn out in the EMP of a nuclear strike.

A long time ago, on usenet maybe, I remember people mocking the vacuum tubes of a Soviet fighter that had been delivered to the West by a defecting pilot.

Turns out, nope, it wasn't a sign of technological backwardness, it's that vacuum tubes don't fail like transistors do when nuclear bombs are going off all around.

That teletype was connected to a communications system that would survive nuclear blasts.

[robertpaulsen]

2. Everything there was carefully preserved.

So yes, that teletype is authentic Cold War tech. Once we got into the underground part of the facility, it really felt like that opening scene from Wargames where Michael Madsen is pointing his gun at the other soldier for refusing to follow protocol. I didn't feel claustrophobia, but I definitely could sense how tension could thrive in that environment.

[hunter]

3. I used to work in a newsroom with an AP teletype.

Major breaking news (Ronald Reagan getting shot, for example...) was announced by the teletype's bell.

ding, ding, ding...

That would get the adrenaline flowing.

I can't imagine how much worse that bell would be sitting in an underground bunker next to a giant missile.

[robertpaulsen]

5. Our tour guide Steve did a great job conveying that day-to-day intensity.

He served there from 1974 to 1976. That sound of the teletype's bell with each drill always brought forth the thought, "What if this time it's not a drill?" Definitely not a long term position to hold!

[Brother Buzz]

4. My astronomy professor was a ground observer in the USSR during the Apollo-Soyuz mission....

and observed the same thing; vacuum tubes everywhere and not one transistor in sight. It was explained to him why they used them.

Note: The vacuum tube isn't 100% resistant to a strong EMP burst, but it is a whole lot more survivable than the 100% failure rate transistor.

50% of everything, or 100% of nothing

[robertpaulsen]

6. That's smart thinking.

I'm wondering if the USA has adjusted their thinking on those type of contingencies.

[Brother Buzz]

7. I suspect Russia was forced to adopt the US's thinking....

Harden the electronic device.

Think about it, there is NO WAY you can build today's microprocessors using vacuum tubes today and expect to fit it into an airplane. The first vacuum tube computer, ENIAC (WWll), used 17,000 tubes, weighed 30 tons, and consumed 140 kilowatts of electricity. And it was horribly slow, that is, until a tube burned out.....

[robertpaulsen]

8. Yeah, you're probably right.

Such is the state of modern technology.