Benchmarks near missile silos

[Bill93]

There have been discussions before about strange concrete pedestals near missile silos, here and here.

 

Last week I recovered OT0131 (wister6813 beat me to it for NGS logging, of course) in South Dakota near the Delta 9 silo of the now dismantled Minuteman II group.

 

It appears that these pedestals were to mount instruments on for alignment while the missile was loaded into the silo. However, on the tour of the training silo (leaving from the museum at Ellsworth Air Base, near Rapid City), we were told the final alignment of the gyro platform was done with optical sights through a portal to the surface (about 30 feet) to Polaris, and through an optical window in the side of the payload.

 

 

 

 

 

See a bunch more pictures at the log.

Edited August 30, 2009 by Bill93