A Photo Tour of Nuclear Limbo
​Image: Snyder/USAF

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

A Photo Tour of Nuclear Limbo

What a strange life this must be.

​I was born in 1980 and nuclear war was a presence in the world—like the vacant ghost of someone not yet dead, just waiting and passing the time for the inevitable.

It's not that I have some profound memory of the waning Cold War years, mostly just of signs for fallout shelters in stairwells and basements. We had a lot of tornado drills in my elementary school where we'd all march down those stairwells into those basements and most of us probably developed some reasonable intuitions about fallout and danger.

Advertisement

Then it was over, or overish. Russia was Russia, which was weird, as was the idea of a military coup, and wasn't Gorbachev our friend now? The world was supposed to be chill, but no one really acted like it in private. Even more countries got nukes and despite some degree of disarmament, there are still 16,000 active warheads spread across Earth. The United States alone ​owned 5,113 warhead​s as of 2012.

The Air Force happens to maintain ​a lively Flickr presence for its nuke facilities in Wyoming. Given that the most likely scenario for a nuclear apocalypse is an accident, these top serious soldiers and technicians are kind of a relief, but at the same time they're also human as hell. What a strange life this must be.

I've included the Air Force's captions because sometimes they're pretty interesting. I also attempted to leave out some of the more propaganda-oriented images, like of officers posing with model ICBMs, because that's not really the point.

Image: Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder/USAF

Missile maintainers from the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron transport a new reentry system to be installed at a Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launch facility while a UH-1N Huey from the 40th Helicopter Squadron provides security surveillance for the convoy near Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., Feb. 7, 2014. The 341st MMS maintains the immediate launch readiness of 150 Minuteman III ICBMs and 15 missile alert facilities spread over a 13,800 square-mile complex.

Advertisement

Image: Snyder/USAF

Assaulters of the 90th Security Forces Group Tactical Response Force, conduct a launch facility re-capture exercise at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., Feb. 18, 2014.

Image: Snyder/USAF

Staff Sgt. David Lewis, 509th Maintenance Squadron B-2 weapons load crew team chief, load a Guided Bomb Unit 31 and Mark 84 munition on a B-2 Spirit trainer during a monthly proficiency requirement load at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb. 21, 2014.

Image: Snyder/USAF

Tech. Sgt. Martin Howard, 620th Ground Support Training Squadron noncommissioned officer in charge of operations, fires a M107 semi-automatic sniper rifle at Camp Guernsey, Wyo., Feb. 16, 2014.

Image: Snyder/USAF

Staff Sgt. Scott Shirley, Senior Airman James Marcum and Airman 1st Class Justin Frawley, 90th Security Forces Group Tactical Response Force assaulters, detonate a flash bang down a breached personnel access hatch while preparing to rappel during a launch facility re-capture exercise at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., Feb. 18, 2014.

Image: Snyder/USAF

A T-38 Talon fly's in formation with B-2 Spirit of South Carolina during a training mission over Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb. 20, 2014. The B-2 Spirit is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions.

Image: Snyder/USAF

U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 576th Flight Test Squadron Missile Handling Team install a cable raceway on an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Feb. 3, 2014. The missile handling team transports and handles ICBMs and performs operational check-out actions of the flight destruct ordnance package on the Minuteman III boosters.

​As I noted ​yesterday, the odds of full-on nuclear war are much, much higher than should ever be acceptable. For the average newborn, figure the chances are about equal of dying of cancer and dying of incineration.