Cool, an OT shot. They don’t do these as often as they did before the early 90s but they are still a scheduled operational requirement.
I witnessed one in 77 from the top of the hills overlooking the launch facility. Impressive, especially at dusk when you watch the missile start up out of the hole with flames licking the body of the missile and then the flash when it clears the hole and accelerates out to Kwajalein atoll.
Gave a good sense of what would have happened if we ever had to turn the keys and it sends a message to the hostile nations as well.
Around 2001 I was standing in front of my girlfriend’s home in San Jose. I read on FR that there was going to be a Minuteman missile test out of Vandenberg, so I looked south, on a lark.
Certainly something that far away would not be visible, I thought. I was very wrong.
The enormous contrail was not only visible, but as it ascended and went through the different levels of the atmosphere it reflected different colors, so it looked like a giant rainbow.
A giant rainbow of freedom and awesomeness, that is.
I got a sense of pride at that moment that no lefty hipster will ever feel.