![]() Oscar-Zero was deactivated on July 17, 1997. The Pentagon shut down 50 percent of the missile wings in the Great Plains, leaving 150 nuclear missiles in the ground in North Dakota. The destruction of the nuclear weapon facility is in accordance with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The last Minuteman II missile silo is imploded at a site near Dederick, Mo., on Dec. “The silos were imploded, and those missiles were removed,” says Hinman. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the START treaty in July 1991. Hinman says the dismantling of these underground facilities began shortly after Presidents George H. You had to have your fellow officer, your fellow Missileer with you at all times.” What that means is that you are not allowed in this capsule by yourself at any given time. ![]() “So if someone was to get past all the topside security personnel, somehow get down here, they’re still not going to be able to get into the capsule unless someone lets them in,” says Hinman. Above the seven-ton blast door in the Launch Control Center is a stenciled reminder that all Missileers were required never to be alone inside. The tour includes taking a freight elevator down below where it connects the Launch Control Equipment Building that houses the infrastructure the Missileers needed to stay alive and the entrance to the Launch Control Center - which you enter through a 7-ton blast door that during the Cold War could only be opened from the inside. “During construction they excavated an area the size of a football field, 60 feet deep, to build the underground portion of the facility.” Before construction of Oscar-Zero was complete, an elevator shaft was added, then two structures were built at ground level to conceal the concrete-hardened bunkers. “They were purposefully kept in the dark so that they wouldn’t hesitate.” “What I always like to stress to people down here is that these Missileers (as they called themselves) didn’t know how many missiles they were launching, where they were going, or why they were launching them,” says Hinman. Inside a Cold War-era nuclear missile bunker 26 photos Air Force officers were given the tremendous responsibility of working 24-hour shifts in this concrete-hardened bunker with access to keys that could launch an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was known as Oscar-Zero when it was part of America’s Cold War nuclear defense shield. On a cold and gray winter day, Hinman gave CBS News a private tour of the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site – a place frozen in time. “It’s hard to talk to children and get them to understand the gravity of nuclear weapons.” ![]() “It’s a challenge to talk about nuclear weapons in a fun, family-centered format,” says Hinman. She manages many of the historical sites in North Dakota. Guinn Hinman, 31, hails from North Carolina. None present the kind of challenges she encounters when giving tours of an abandoned nuclear missile bunker several stories below a grass field just outside Cooperstown, about 90 miles northwest of Fargo, N.D. Among them are a frontier-era courthouse, museums, and archaeological sites. ![]() Guinn Hinman makes her living by managing about half of the 52 state historic sites around North Dakota. Inside Oscar-Zero, a nuclear bunker frozen in time 03:01ĬOOPERSTOWN, N.D. ![]()
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