Believe In America.com

butterbean · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2271

CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN AIR FORCE STATION, Colo. — Dr. Strangelove would have a heart attack: America's vaunted underground war room deep inside this granite mountain is being retired. Not only that, but Russian military men have been inside the place.

During the long nuclear standoff with Moscow, the nation's super-secret nerve center was a symbol of both Cold War might and apocalyptic dread, depicted in such movies as "WarGames" in 1983. But with the end of the Cold War, the war room is being put on "warm standby" to save money.

A staff will keep it ready to resume operations at a moment's notice if a blast-hardened command center becomes necessary, but the critical work is being shifted to Peterson Air Force Base, about 10 miles away.

"In today's Netted, distributed world we can do very good work on a broad range of media right here," Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said from his Peterson headquarters. "Right there at that desk, including one push-button to the president."

Moreover, the U.S. military says the countries that have succeeded the Soviet Union as the main threat to this country — hostile states such as North Korea and Iran — do not have the weapons to take out a command center in Colorado.

The United States and Canada spent hundreds of millions on early warning systems to detect a Soviet attack in the 1950s. All the information was funneled into a two-story blockhouse at Colorado Springs' Ent Air Force Base that could be taken out by a bazooka, NORAD historian Thomas Fuller said.

So crews began digging in 1961 on the edge of Colorado Springs on what used to be a ranch, eventually removing 700,000 tons of granite. Two 25-ton blast doors were constructed to protect the 15 tunnel-like buildings 2,400 feet underground. Each is suspended on thousand-pound springs or, as the joke goes, "the real Colorado springs."

The mini-city included a barbershop, medical clinic, convenience store, even a fire and police force.

For 40 years, staff in the mountain kept an eye on the Soviets from a command center in a small room.

continued:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Closing_the_War_Room.html