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Article: Inside Cheyenne Mountain.
- Article from:
- Soldiers Magazine
- Article date:
- November 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Soldiers Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE 25-ton steel blast doors of the world's largest command-and-control center--Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center--closed after the warning siren sounded. This time the doors closed as part of a monthly drill. On Sept. 11, 2001, those same doors closed indefinitely as a result of threats against the United States.
What began in 1956 as an idea for a "hardened" command and control center to defend against Soviet bombers became a reality in 1961 as construction began on a center capable of sustaining a thermonuclear blast.
From its original mission to protect the United States from Soviet manned bombers in the 1950s to playing a critical role in ...