“Nuclear tourism is something that has an increasing interest in the public, and it’s extremely important that we preserve that history, especially since the Peacekeeper was one of the factors that helped end the Cold War.”Īlthough the Peacekeeper can’t take sole credit for the end of the Cold War-other factors were at play, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Bloc-it was used at the bargaining table between countries. history, especially for the Baby Boomer generation who lived through it,” Milward Simpson, director of Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources, tells. Though tour planning is still in process, visitors should be able to make underground visits to Quebec-01 on tours led by former missilers serving as docents. If all goes according to plan, the Air Force will transfer the site to the Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources agency in 2017 to ready it for public use, with an anticipated opening date of 2019. Now, it’s working to rehabilitate and recreate the experience of what it was like to visit Quebec-01, from the 100-foot elevator ride underground to the massive four-foot-wide blast doors designed to protect personnel if ever there was a detonation.Ĭurrently, workers are restoring and reinstalling all of the equipment once housed inside Quebec-01 to make it look like it did when it was fully operational (sans missiles, of course). In the decade since, the Air Force has carted away any remaining warheads and missile components from the site, filled the remaining missile silos with cement and disabled the underground alert facilities. The Peacekeeper was eventually decommissioned as part of the bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( START II Treaty). To help mitigate these risks, the military equipped each bunker with an escape tunnel-and told missilers that, in the worst-case scenario, they could dig themselves out with shovels.ĭuring the Cold War, the base served as ground zero for the Air Force's nuclear arsenal, housing the nation's most powerful and sophisticated missiles from 1986 to 2005. Although the underground facility was protected by massive steel doors and concrete, there was always the chance that something could go wrong during a detonation. Watching over a missile might sound like a simple job, but it came with plenty of risks. With a reach of approximately 6,000 miles, the missiles served as a towering reminder to the Soviet Union that the United States was prepared for all-out nuclear war at any time. Equipped with up to ten warheads each, the Peacekeepers stood 71 feet high and weighed 195,000 pounds. “The sounds and smells you never forget.”Īguirre and a team of crewmembers of the 400th Missile Squadron babysat the Peacekeepers, once the Air Force’s most powerful weapons, and were responsible for detonating the missiles should the time ever come (fortunately, it never did). “It’s difficult to explain the sense you have down there, but it’s a lot like being in a submarine,” Aguirre tells. Air Force and the State of Wyoming are working to capture every detail of the sole remaining Peacekeeper missile alert facility, Quebec-01-a Cold War stronghold with a chilling past. Aguirre’s workday started with a journey 100 feet below ground-a trip that visitors will soon be able to experience for themselves. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Peter Aguirre can still recall the musty smell of military-grade paint and stagnant air that defined his long stays inside one of the missile alert facilities built beneath the F. military decommissioned the last Peacekeeper missile.
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