Free Republic

Washington -- Nine military officers who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died. All of the officers, known as missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a January briefing by U.S. Space...

A couple turned their unusual vision into a reality by converting a Cold War era nuclear missile silo into a vast 18,000-square-foot castle. Their extraordinary creation 25 miles west of Topeka in Kansas is now on the market for $3.2 million (£2.5 million). Underground missile silos are used for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The structures typically store the weapons some metres below ground, for safety reasons. This property housed an Atlas E intercontinental ballistic missile with a 4 megaton warhead in its protective underground cavern.

The Obama administration has drafted a plan to shutter an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) squadron three years after it assured hesitant lawmakers that the New START U.S.-Russia arms reduction treaty would not lead to deep cuts in the ICBM force.A new timeline prepared by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon maps out a strategy to eliminate an ICBM squadron—and destroy its missile silos—by Dec. 5, 2017. An environmental assessment would begin next month.The document says the reductions are necessary to “meet the New START Treaty compliance date by closing an ICBM...

SNIPPET: "North Korea appears to have been digging two new tunnels at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province since May, sparking fears that it is preparing for another nuclear test." SNIPPET: "Specialist website 38 North, which is run by Johns Hopkins University, said it discovered two new tunnel entrances and a mound of earth while analyzing satellite pictures of the test site taken on Wednesday."

STERLING, Mich. — Tommy Osier, 18, a popular but indifferent student, was still a year from graduating from high school, and that was no sure thing. Farm work paid him $7.40 an hour, taught him discipline and gave him new skills. He had begun talking about making a life in farming...

^^ Video is at the link

The U.S. Air Force test program for its Minuteman III ICBMs has been interrupted by a "mechanical problem" that will delay the next test seven months. The missile, selected at random from those stored in Midwest silos, was brought to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, placed in a silo there, and readied for firing into the Pacific. But during the installation of the missile in the silo, a problem was encountered. The air force won't say what exactly the problems is, or if it is something common to other Minuteman missiles. This kind of testing is not as realistic...

Experts are trying to identify a huge metal container that has been washed up on a beach in the Western Isles. The tank, which is 27m high, has no markings and is thought to have fallen from a ship before being washed up on the west of Benbecula. It was discovered by a dog walker on Poll Na Crann beach - known locally as Stinky Bay - near Griminish. Stornoway Coastguard is using two numbers on the container to try to find out where the item has come from. Alasdair MacEachen, assistant director of environmental services at Comhairle nan Eilean...

Timothy Bendel often stamps "RKBA" on his work. It's an acronym for the Second Amendment "Right to Keep and Bear Arms." ............. At 37, Bendel is through with his job at Lockheed Martin near Denver. For the past 18 months, he and his partners have been building and testing their own rocket engines and guidance systems. They are pioneers in the new space race - a race run by wealthy entrepreneurs and maverick engineers instead of the government. They call their company Frontier Astronautics.

(LEAD) N. Korea building new missile bases, silos along east coast: Report SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has been constructing new underground missile bases and silos along its east coast in recent years to deploy intermediate-range rockets targeting Japan and U.S. military facilities on the archipelago, a report said Thursday. "The new bases clustered along the east coastal line, in particular, are short- and medium-range missile bases aiming at Japan and U.S. military installations in Japan," said a report written by Yun Deok-min, a security expert at the state-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security. About 200...

Three nuclear protesters arrested Tuesday at a Minuteman III missile launch facility west of Garrison when they unlawfully entered the area, remain in the McLean County Jail in Washburn Wednesday. The three, Greg Boertje-Obed, 51, and Michael Walli, 57, both military veterans from Duluth, Minn., and Carl Kabat, 72, a retired priest from St. Louis, made their initial appearance in Washburn Wednesday afternoon before South Central District Judge Bruce Romanick. McLean County Sheriff Don Charging said the three are being charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief, both Class A misdemeanors, and bond was set at $500 each. He said...

DANBURY, Conn. - A pacifist nun convicted of defacing a Colorado missile silo in 2002 was released Thursday from federal prison. Ardeth Platte, 69, was not due to be released until May 31, but a judge gave her credit for time already served, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Platte, along with sisters Jackie Hudson and Carol Gilbert, were arrested in October 2002 after they allegedly cut a chain link fence surrounding a Minuteman III missile silo in northern Colorado. The nuns then used baby bottles to dispense their own blood in the shape of a cross on the...

BROWNSVILLE — A 29-year-old man has died after he was buried by more than 20 feet of grain in a silo at the Port of Brownsville. The accident happened as workers worked atop a large pile of grain, loading it onto a conveyor belt that leads to the top of a silo. Two other men were injured in the incident. "He sank into it like quicksand," Port of Brownsville Police Chief George Gavito said of the dead man, whom he would not identify pending notification of relatives. "The other man fell in, but did not go as deep." It took...

Silo Explosion at Western Ohio Lumber Company Kills Two Firefighters, Injures Others NEW KNOXVILLE, Ohio Oct. 1 — An explosion inside a silo at a lumber company in western Ohio killed two firefighters and injured at least five others Wednesday, authorities said. An unknown number of employees also were injured. The explosion happened about two hours after firefighters were called about a fire in the concrete silo at Hoge Lumber Co. New Bremen firefighter Kenneth Jutte was killed, said Auglaize County Coroner Dr. Thomas Freytag. Jutte was one of two firefighters atop the 70-foot tall silo, Freytag said. A firefighter...