Saturday 2 May 2015

The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex

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At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet nuclear attack was a genuine threat and the United States decided that a defense program was needed that could protect the country's own intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities.

The first, and the only such site deployed, was the Stanley R. Mickelson Safeguard Complex that went up in Nekoma, North Dakota. The Safeguard complex became operational on October 1, 1975. Twenty-four hours later, Congress decided to shut the program down, deeming it militarily ineffective. Today, a couple of buildings and a giant, hulking pyramid is all that remains.

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