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All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.

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This is Veterans Radio.

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Welcome to Veterans Radio.

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I am Jim Fossone.

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I'm the officer of the deck today.

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We've got some great programs for you.

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We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook

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You can find a lot of our podcasts there as well.

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We post new ones every Tuesday so you can get a new story, a new interview, something

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you didn't know before by going to veteransradio.org.

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And before we get started we want to thank our sponsors.

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Next up we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org.

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You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org.

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We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans.

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Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation.

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You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at legalhelpforveterans.com.

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And finally, PuroClean.

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PuroClean is the paramedics of property damage.

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It provides water damage remediation, flood water removal, fire and smoke damage remediation,

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mold removal, biohazard cleanup.

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It also has a focus on veteran franchisees.

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You can learn more about them by going to puroclean.com.

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We want to welcome to Veterans Radio Jim Warner.

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He is a retired Air Force Colonel.

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We're going to talk to him about his activities with the Air Force Missileers Association.

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Jim, welcome to Veterans Radio.

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Thanks for having me.

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Well you had a long and distinguished career starting out in the Air Force and ROTC at

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Holy Cross College.

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Little did you know it would be a civilian career after that, all focused on missiles.

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What did you think you were getting into when you joined the Air Force ROTC at Holy Cross

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College?

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Interesting question.

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I joined, so we're talking the early 1970s in the middle of the Vietnam War, college

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campuses were closing down due to protests.

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It was a crazy time.

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I met a guy in one of my classes and he basically dared me to join ROTC.

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He said, you don't have the, you know, what's to walk around in a uniform on this campus.

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And I said, oh really?

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So I went down and talked to the ROTC guys and the next week I was walking around in

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a uniform.

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It was just once a day, once a week, a couple hours a day, but enough in the middle of the

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protests that you got a little bit of attention.

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I found that the people there were good, solid Americans and I liked being around them.

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So I tried it out for the first couple of years and then at your junior year you have

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to commit to going in and so all of a sudden I've committed.

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My dad and his brother's own construction company always said if you want to come work

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for us you've got to go work someplace else first.

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So I said, hey, you know, four years in the Air Force it's not a bad place to get some

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experience and then go back into family business.

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Little I know that I never go back.

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Now you ended up initially on a Mintman 2 missile combat crew in Ellsworth Air Force

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base in beautiful South Dakota, but really went all over the world I think over the

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next couple of decades of your career.

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Along the way you would have had opportunities to go back to the family business, but this

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obviously captivated you.

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Yeah, I was at the end of my four years, I was sitting at South Dakota and my boss called

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me into his office and said, hey, you've been requested by name to go to California and be

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part of the schoolhouse where they teach missile ears.

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And I called my dad up and I said, you know, because I was probably four months away from

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separating at the time and I called my dad up and told him what's going on.

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He said, hey, the job will always be here, pursue your dreams, see what happens.

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And that second assignment was just the, you know, the ceiling of the faith so to speak

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and I just really enjoyed teaching and I really enjoyed, you know, dealing with the future

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missile ears and I said, I'm not leaving as long as the Air Force will have me.

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And like you said, that ended up being 27 years before I finally said that was enough.

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Most of our assignments were in the U.S., South Dakota, Wyoming, California, Colorado,

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the Pentagon.

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We had one assignment in Belgium in the ground launch cruise missile and that was a funny

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year in Belgium, but all the rest were stateside.

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Well, let's start with, before we turn to the Association of Air Force Missileers, explain

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to people, because I think this is the first time on Veterans Radio in 20 years we've had

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somebody on who can talk about what is a missile ear?

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That's a good question.

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So a missile ear, so let's start with the basics.

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Today we have 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles stationed underground in the central

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part, upper part of the central part of the United States, meaning Montana, North Dakota,

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Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado.

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400 Minuteman missiles, Minuteman three missiles.

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We started with Minuteman one during the Cuban Missile Crisis and have upgraded the system

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to they are today.

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They're in silos, hardened silos underground and they're solid fuel missiles that are designed

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to go over the polar ice cap and hit targets on the other side of the world.

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From those, for each 10 missiles there's one launch control center, which is about 60 feet

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below ground and every day, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, there are two crew members,

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missile ears that are sitting in that capsule, awaiting direction from the President of

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the United States to launch those missiles.

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This is all defensive hope we never have to use them kind of thing, right?

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Yeah, the whole purpose is deterrence.

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The Russians were the first ones to launch in space, the first ones to put up a satellite

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and then of course we got into the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and that was the

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real, the late 1950s was the beginning of Atlas and Titan missiles, which were liquid

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missiles and didn't have as much range, but then Minuteman came in during the Cuban Missile

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Crisis and we've had ICBMs on the alert ever since.

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They're not, I mean, they're offensive weapons in the fact that it is a weapon.

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It's not defenses and it can't stop something coming in.

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But its purpose is to convince the enemy not to launch a nuclear weapon at us because if

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you launch at us, we have the capability to destroy you.

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And what we want is the Russian President or the Chinese Premier to wake up every morning

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and go, I can't afford to launch a weapon at the United States because the impact on

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us would be horrific.

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So that's the whole purpose.

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Yeah, we'll do this in a bit of a reverse order because this is so interesting.

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I would say we'd wait till the end.

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But I mean, part of this is the world crazies have expanded beyond China and Russia.

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We've got Korea, we've got Iran.

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I mean, as you look at the present time and look into the future, are our missileers going

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to continue to be part of the US military arsenal?

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Oh, yeah.

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The Air Force is developing a replacement system for Minuteman, which will probably serve 70

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plus years from its inception in 1961 before it's replaced.

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The Navy has the Ohio class submarines, which are also ballistic in nature.

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Ballistic means the flight path, how it gets from one point to another.

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A cruise missile, a gun, all that is a direct shot.

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But a ground launch missile has got to go over in an apogee over the earth and back

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down to its target.

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So we still have the Navy submarines and the Air Force ICBMs on alert every day, and they're

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going to be around for a long time to come.

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As long as our enemies have that capability to strike us, then I believe we need that capability

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to diss them not to strike.

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Yeah, as you might imagine, I think our audience listening in goes, I don't have a lot of

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exposure to this other than what I see at a Hollywood or read in a novel, and those

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things don't necessarily match up with truth, do they?

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Well, and it's true.

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I mean, we're really the silent sentinels in that many people, unless you live in North

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Dakota and you see the fenced in silos or the guys driving out to alert every day, I'd

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say 90% of our country has no concept of what these guys do every day.

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And when I talk missile ears, it's not just the operators that sit in the capsule, but

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it's the maintenance guys that keep it all running, the security defenders that protect

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the sites, the communicators that keep our lines of communication open to the president,

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all the contractors that support it.

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They're all missile ears.

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They also support the ICBM mission.

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Well, let's turn to that.

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Let's turn to the Association of Air Force Missileers.

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Talk to us about what the association purpose is and kind of what it does today.

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Well, we have a couple main missions.

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The first is to do exactly what we're doing today and that is to inform the public on

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the role of ICBMs because people just don't know what they do.

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The second is to retain the heritage of the system.

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There aren't that many.

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I mean, over the last 60 plus years, there's probably less than 70,000 people who have

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served as a missile ear and maybe 10% of those aren't around anymore.

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And so we retain the heritage of and share the heritage of what these guys have done.

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To that end, for example, this year, we're kicking off our first Air Force Missileers

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Hall of Fame where we've identified 21 missile ears who contributed to the early fielding

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of our missile systems in the 50s and 60s that led to what we have today.

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And we'll recognize them at our national meeting in Bulton, California, outside of

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Vandenberg Space Force Base on the 26th of October.

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Well, I think these Hall of Fames are so important to recognize the men and women, particularly

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of a silent service that doesn't get a lot of recognition.

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But I've seen the list of the inaugural class in front of me.

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It ranges from generals to sergeants and master sergeants, chief master sergeants.

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We really got a good swath of missile ears here, and I suspect that was part of the goal.

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Oh, definitely.

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We want to recognize not just the senior guys who led us there, but the people who were

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at boots on the ground that made the difference and made it all happen.

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We're very fortunate in the Museum of the Air Force and Dayton is going to add to their

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missile display with a presentation of our Hall of Fame.

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That'll be our digital version.

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We won't have a separate facility.

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We're not big enough to be the baseball Hall of Fame, but we will have recognition at the

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Air Force Museum.

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One of the things I wanted to talk about, because it's not just sort of looking back

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in reunions and the good old days, AAFM is doing work on health issues that I thought

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was pretty interesting.

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Can you talk about that a little bit?

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Yeah, it's very interesting that within the last year, we've had some of our missile ears

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identify a serious problem with cancer that has come up with those who have served in

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the underground systems.

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It has led to the Air Force actually conducting the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine

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out of Dayton is actually conducting a formal study into the causes for these cancers and

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working to identify the causes, clean up anything that can, and make sure that those who are

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serving today are safe to serve in the future.

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And then to work with the VA and the Air Force to ensure that we get medical care for all

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these people.

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Colonel Danny Siebeck, who was a missile error at Malstrum and has since moved over to the

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Space Force, was putting together a presentation for his leadership when it actually got leaked

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to the press early and it caused a lot of attention.

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But as sad as it was, in fact, it got leaked, it turned out to be everybody's benefit because

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it got a lot of interest and the Air Force is really behind ensuring that we make sure

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that we take care of our missile ears.

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And this recognized some statistical disparity or disproportionateness in non-Hodgkin Lafoma

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as well as maybe some other diseases.

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And I think it's really important, anybody who's been in the service, all veterans, we've

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all been exposed to more toxic stuff than we ever knew because it was just part of what

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you did, cleaning parts, cleaning guns, cleaning tanks, working on missile systems, adding

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fuel, blowing fuel off, whatever it might be.

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There's just a lot of toxic stuff there.

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So this is not really that surprising to me, but it's surprising that maybe it's taken

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this long to folks say, hey, we ought to look at this subgroup and see if something's going

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on.

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Yeah, I think that's the important thing is we knew there were people that were having

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health issues, but we never could pinpoint it.

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And because it was isolated here and there, and it tended to show up after someone retired

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from the Air Force or left the service when they did a shorter term.

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And so it didn't show up within the Air Force system because of the period of time.

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But when Kerl Sivak started getting a group together, and he has a site called the Torchlight

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Initiative, which we're supporting, the number that have come in to self-identify, including

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the medical records, was sufficient enough to get the Air Force's attention.

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You're talking about, it's one thing, and I agree with what you're saying about working

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with chemicals in an open air environment, refueling aircraft and all that type of stuff.

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The operators and maintainers are working in underground, sealed environments where

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air is recirculated and purified, but it's still, it's like going down in your basement

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and closing all the windows and doors and putting limited fresh air in there to keep

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the air circulating with cool equipment.

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We're talking 1960s electronics in many cases and the potential hazards that those electronics

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put off.

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And then the electric panels were just full of PCBs.

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So you put all that into an environment, you close the door and you seal the guys inside,

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and it turns out it was a pretty dangerous work environment.

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I'm surprised we didn't have a lot more people with non-hocs to this little pulmonary and

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other cancers.

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The numbers are starting to grow and we're trying to get the word out.

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Yeah, and I want to put a little spotlight on that, which is torchlightinitiative.org.

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There's a registry there, you can get a lot of information.

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If you're in this class of veterans, you ought to check that out.

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Again, this is one of the reasons being a member of the Air Force, Association of the

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Air Force Missileers is important because you're going to get this kind of information.

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As I say, it's not just reunions, it's not just interesting getting together with guys

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and telling stories.

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These health issues are really important, as are the histories that go along with the

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Missileers and one of the things I think you've just done as the executive director of the

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Association has put out a book on the history of Missileers.

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You want to talk about that a little bit?

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Yeah, thanks.

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We have a new book coming out the end of this month.

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It's a coffee table book, 324 pages of color pictures and stories.

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It starts by telling the history of Mintman and how it got developed.

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There's a whole chapter on what it's like to be an operator, a maintainer, a security

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defender with these systems.

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Then there's a chapter for each of the Mintman bases, the bases that have Mintman missiles,

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some that have been retired and some that are still active.

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A lot of the, imagine yourself 60 feet below ground, a lot of blank concrete walls.

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In the late 80s, there was an effort to paint the walls with history.

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Our bombers in World War II were known for their nose art.

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We actually had blast art, but most of it is hidden below ground where the average

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citizen can't see it.

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Exactly.

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He knows about nose art or painting of the leather jackets.

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We've done programs on flight jackets.

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I never knew about blast door art until I got into reading some of your newsletters.

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Tell us about what would we see in blast door art?

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I'll tell you that one of the best ones, and you can see it in person if you go to the

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Mintman missile national historic site in South Dakota, right outside the Badlands.

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It's a national park, and you can actually go below ground and tour the capsule, its

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destination is Delta 01.

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On the blast door is a Domino's Pizza box.

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On the top and the bottom of the box, it says, delivering 30 minutes or the next one is free.

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Many of us remember the old Domino's commercial that was their tagline.

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The funny thing was that the artist, Tony Gatlin, when he was on alert, he started to

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his crew commander.

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He called upstairs to the facility manager and said, hey, do you have any red, white,

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and blue paint?

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He said, sure.

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He said, send it down.

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They put it on the elevator and sent it down to him.

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They thought they were going to paint the American flag on the outside of the blast door.

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When they got the colors, they opened it, and the blue just wasn't right.

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His crew commander joked to him, it's more like Domino's than the American flag.

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Tony said, I've got it.

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Inspiration.

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Inspiration happened, and he painted the Domino's.

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You can see that, and there's another good artwork just outside on the wall, near it,

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at that site in Delta 01.

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All the others, there's one that's an igloo with penguins coming out of the igloo.

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There's one that's Hotel 01.

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I think it's in my not North Dakota.

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You hear me using the phonetic alphabet.

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Each of our sites are lettered A through O, alpha through Oscar.

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I say, alpha 01 or Oscar 01.

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That's the launch control center, and then there's 10 missiles assigned to it.

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There's one in North Dakota where they actually painted a Star Wars battle scene inside the

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elevator shaft.

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As you ride down the elevator, you can see the battleships and the Jedi fighters going

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against the other fighters.

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There's a whole battle scene, 60 feet long, about 12 feet wide, top to bottom.

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Some of the guys there painted that entire scene.

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We've got another one that says, no vacancy, if you remember back in the old days, 3 HBO,

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some of the motels that used to stop in.

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A lot of that type of humor is what you would see.

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All of it's captured in the book.

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The book is titled The Silent Centenials, Minutemen Artwork Revealed.

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Sentinels.

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Sentinels, yeah.

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Sentinels, yeah.

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Sentinels, yeah.

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Where can one get that book if they're interested?

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If you go to anthmissalleers.org, there's a link on our front page, and you can get

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it there.

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Well, we really do appreciate the time you've given us today, Jim Warner.

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You've had a long career in this space.

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Obviously, as the executive director of the association, you know from what you're talking.

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I think all of us have to remember a little bit that, yeah, there's a past here, but

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there's a future also.

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If people are interested in joining the organization, because they didn't know it was there, and

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they qualify, how do they do that?

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Same thing, anthmissalleers.org.

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There's a button that says, join here.

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Well, we certainly appreciate the time that you've given us today, Colonel, and thanks

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for all the work that you're doing.

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Yeah, I just want to say thanks to all the guys that are out here, and the men and women

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that are pulling an alert today, protecting our nation 24-7.

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They're the quiet ones, the silent ones that don't get recognized.

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We see our fighter pilots and our soldiers and all that every day, but these guys are

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protecting us, and they deserve some recognition.

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So I appreciate you putting the spotlight on them and this association.

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You've got it.

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Amen.

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Thanks, Jim.

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All right, take care.

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And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.

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I am Jim Fawcone.

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It's been a pleasure to be your host.

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I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans, and you can reach us at

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800-6934800, or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.

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You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio

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shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.

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That's veteransradio.org.

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And until next time, you are dismissed.

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If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for

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00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:05,640
Veterans at 1-800-6934800.

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00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:09,640
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

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Their number again, 1-800-6934800.

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the American Legion Press Corn Post 46 also in Ann Arbor.

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You can go to veteransradio.net, click on the sponsor level, and continue to support

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And until next time, you are dismissed.