J-10
10-08-2005, 07:38 AM
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Col. Michael Carey, commander of the 90th Space Wing, speaks at Hill Air Force Base on Thursday. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Lethal Cold War symbol retired
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2005 02:47:27 AM
The Peacekeeper's use as deterrent eulogized at HAFB ceremony
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
HILL AIR FORCE BASE - The Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile is no more.
The last piece of the 50 missiles that had been stored in silos in three Western states arrived at northern Utah's Hill Air Force Base on Tuesday, and its deactivation was celebrated Thursday by 200 Air Force and civilian workers who had a role in maintaining the missiles.
"I don't come to bury Peacekeeper, but to praise it," said Col. Robert Shofner, borrowing loosely from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."
Shofner - who commands the 526th ICBM systems wing at the Ogden Air Logistics Center - and other speakers at a ceremony marking the missile's deactivation hailed the Peacekeeper as not only a powerful nuclear weapon but also one that successfully deterred other nations from picking a fight with the United States.
The Peacekeeper's departure, which began three years ago, was a result of the agreement between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to reduce their countries' missiles.
John Clay, of general contractor Northrop Grumman, said the missile, which went into the silos in 1988 after 12 years of development, helped end the Cold War.
"It was never fired yet did its mission and won a war," said Col. Michael Carey, commander of the 90th Space Wing at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo.
That wing oversees the missiles in the silos, while Utah's Hill repairs and maintains the missiles.
Carey thanked the base's employees. "You sustained it for years, and it's coming home."
The 526th Wing provides management oversight for all ICBMs, including engineering, testing and safety analysis.
The 50 missiles - sans warheads, which the Department of Energy removed - were hauled to Utah by truck and train.
Each missile has three solid booster rocket motors.
Some of those will be used to build up the national defense system, and some may end up launching satellites, said Col. Michael Altom, commander of the 309th Missile Maintenance Group at Hill.
Utah will keep 63 of the rocket motors at Hill and also at the Utah Test and Training Range, he said.
Those - and the 500 Minuteman III missiles still in silos in North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana - will continue to be maintained by the ICBM Program office at Hill.
No layoffs are anticipated because of the Peacekeeper deactivation, although the work force has been reduced slightly through attrition, Altom said.
Brenda Chatlin, chief of missile-maintenance support for the 309th Maintenance Wing, said Hill employees traveled more than 90,000 miles carrying the rocket motors to Utah. That didn't count the bottom rocket motor on each missile, which at 118,000 pounds, had to be carried by rail.
Chatlin, who also was in charge of picking up the ICBMs from the manufacturer at the beginning of the Peacekeeper program, said Hill is the only military installation equipped to store the missile sections, or stages.
The base built three storage buildings for deactivated rocket motors in 2002.http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3094838
Col. Michael Carey, commander of the 90th Space Wing, speaks at Hill Air Force Base on Thursday. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Lethal Cold War symbol retired
Article Last Updated: 10/07/2005 02:47:27 AM
The Peacekeeper's use as deterrent eulogized at HAFB ceremony
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
HILL AIR FORCE BASE - The Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile is no more.
The last piece of the 50 missiles that had been stored in silos in three Western states arrived at northern Utah's Hill Air Force Base on Tuesday, and its deactivation was celebrated Thursday by 200 Air Force and civilian workers who had a role in maintaining the missiles.
"I don't come to bury Peacekeeper, but to praise it," said Col. Robert Shofner, borrowing loosely from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."
Shofner - who commands the 526th ICBM systems wing at the Ogden Air Logistics Center - and other speakers at a ceremony marking the missile's deactivation hailed the Peacekeeper as not only a powerful nuclear weapon but also one that successfully deterred other nations from picking a fight with the United States.
The Peacekeeper's departure, which began three years ago, was a result of the agreement between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to reduce their countries' missiles.
John Clay, of general contractor Northrop Grumman, said the missile, which went into the silos in 1988 after 12 years of development, helped end the Cold War.
"It was never fired yet did its mission and won a war," said Col. Michael Carey, commander of the 90th Space Wing at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo.
That wing oversees the missiles in the silos, while Utah's Hill repairs and maintains the missiles.
Carey thanked the base's employees. "You sustained it for years, and it's coming home."
The 526th Wing provides management oversight for all ICBMs, including engineering, testing and safety analysis.
The 50 missiles - sans warheads, which the Department of Energy removed - were hauled to Utah by truck and train.
Each missile has three solid booster rocket motors.
Some of those will be used to build up the national defense system, and some may end up launching satellites, said Col. Michael Altom, commander of the 309th Missile Maintenance Group at Hill.
Utah will keep 63 of the rocket motors at Hill and also at the Utah Test and Training Range, he said.
Those - and the 500 Minuteman III missiles still in silos in North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana - will continue to be maintained by the ICBM Program office at Hill.
No layoffs are anticipated because of the Peacekeeper deactivation, although the work force has been reduced slightly through attrition, Altom said.
Brenda Chatlin, chief of missile-maintenance support for the 309th Maintenance Wing, said Hill employees traveled more than 90,000 miles carrying the rocket motors to Utah. That didn't count the bottom rocket motor on each missile, which at 118,000 pounds, had to be carried by rail.
Chatlin, who also was in charge of picking up the ICBMs from the manufacturer at the beginning of the Peacekeeper program, said Hill is the only military installation equipped to store the missile sections, or stages.
The base built three storage buildings for deactivated rocket motors in 2002.http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3094838