Son of a gun! I was just watching this a couple of hours ago, thinking of you. Happy birthday, and I really was!
Yeah, that brings back old and not so fond memories, jlprk. That’s a Titan system and I was a Minuteman III launch officer so there are significant differences, but the general feel is the same. The MM3 is a solid state missile carrying three warheads. No need to do much more than turn keys and they take off. Also, unlike the Titans, there aren’t any missiles at the launch control center. Each LCC has direct responsibility for 10 missiles and they’re sprinkled around the plains miles from the LCC. There are 5 LCCs in a squadron and all 50 missiles are interconnected. It takes launch votes from at least two LCCs to set things off, so no one crew can go off the rails and start a nuclear war. No female launch officers back in my day, but that same yucky green paint still seems to be the standard in LCC decor. Yeah, nothing like being buried 80 feet underground inside a steel cocoon behind a blast door, the whole thing hanging from shock isolators, to make things real.