# moonshot925 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 15, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747 "2012-09-15T00:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/121 "2012-09-25T06:02:01Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > The key-operated switches were 12 feet apart, so it was impossible for one person to turn both. > > The commander and deputy both had turn keys within two seconds of each other or the launch sequence would not happen. > > And additionally, the final command to launch also required another outside “vote” (two missileers performing the same procedure at another Launch Control Center). > > If everything was done correctly, explosive gas generators would push open the 110-ton blast doors covering the silos and the Minuteman missiles would streak toward the sky. Then the “MISSILE AWAY” lights would illuminate on the commander’s console. Yeah, those details are widely known, and easily googlable. You haven’t established your _bona fides_ by telling us something many of us already knew, and anyone at all could have easily found. Keep trying… ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/122 "2012-09-25T06:06:15Z")
> [@42fish](#): > > Well, he did have assistance from his wife… Morgan Fairchild. Morgan Freeman. Get it right. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/123 "2012-09-25T06:52:02Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > The key-operated switches were 12 feet apart, so it was impossible for one person to turn both. > > The commander and deputy both had turn keys within two seconds of each other or the launch sequence would not happen. > > And additionally, the final command to launch also required another outside “vote” (two missileers performing the same procedure at another Launch Control Center). > > If everything was done correctly, explosive gas generators would push open the 110-ton blast doors covering the silos and the Minuteman missiles would streak toward the sky. Then the “MISSILE AWAY” lights would illuminate on the commander’s console. Before you drone on about something else you learned in watching the first five minutes of Wargames back in the 1980s, isn’t discussing operational procedure something that say, an actual Air Force officer in a Strategic Missile Wing in the 1980s would be very wary of shooting his mouth off about? Publicly known information or not, he’d take his security clearance and it’s ramifications very seriously, no? I look forward to hearing of your escapades when you won that CMoH in your SEAL team days. Or perhaps when you undertook that secret mission to rescue American MIAs from a Vietnamese POW camp in the mid ‘80s and blew up that snotty Asian officer guy with your explosive tipped arrow. [You not expendable Rambo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAOOHVFqKkw). ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/124 "2012-09-25T08:04:50Z")
The movie Wargames was liberal fantasy. It was really bad and the representation of the crew dogs at the beginning, talking about dope and such, a Hollywood slam on all the good missilers defending our country. We carried Smith & Wesson Model 15 revolvers to protect classified material, not to shoot our crew partners. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/125 "2012-09-25T08:06:40Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > Before you drone on about something else you learned in watching the first five minutes of Wargames back in the 1980s, isn’t discussing operational procedure something that say, an actual Air Force officer in a Strategic Missile Wing in the 1980s would be very wary of shooting his mouth off about? Publicly known information or not, he’d take his security clearance and it’s ramifications very seriously, no? None of this is classified. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/126 "2012-09-25T09:26:55Z")
_Wargames_? With Matthew Broderick and Whats-her-face, (the _chiquita_ that made me feel like a dirty old man thirty fucking years ago? _Mondo Pervo_). I don’t recall anybody in that movie saying anything about dope. Whatever planet that movie took place on, dope didn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/127 "2012-09-25T09:27:26Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > We carried Smith & Wesson Model 15 revolvers to protect classified material, not to shoot our crew partners. You’ve slipped up. They were issued specifically for firing wildly in the air in celebration, after vaporising godless commies. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/128 "2012-09-25T09:57:54Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why does Hannibal Lecter pronounce it “chi-ANNN-ti,” when the real pronunciation is “chi-AHHN-ti?” Other than that, it’s my understanding that he attempts to project an air of cultured erudition. It’s a rather grating British pronunciation, I’m afraid. They do seem to love mispronouncing foreign words. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Engage the [Dunning-Kruger Overdrive!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=658400) I’m so proud. Not sure what I can say about **moonshot** that hasn’t already been said, except that it doesn’t really matter to me whether his military record is real or imagined. What matters is that he’s demonstrated so much ignorance of basic history and politics in his brief tenure here that I can safely assume that any future posts will likewise be worth ignoring. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/129 "2012-09-25T11:28:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I don’t recall anybody in that movie saying anything about dope. Whatever planet that movie took place on, dope didn’t exist. Watch it again. At 1:56 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ReJ3RltihME/hqdefault.jpg "Michael Madsen in Wargames") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReJ3RltihME) DMCCC: **So, that was like sinsemilia, right?** MCCC: **Sinsemilla. This grass made Thai stick taste like oregano. Lay you out flat, man.** We went through rigorous psychological testing and training to make sure we were mentally capable of 1) staying underground for 24hrs at a time and 2) turning the keys if ever necessary. Pot heads never became missilers. Also, those are Titan II missiles in their silos, not Minutemen. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/130 "2012-09-25T11:41:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > _Wargames_? With Matthew Broderick and Whats-her-face, (the _chiquita_ that made me feel like a dirty old man thirty fucking years ago? _Mondo Pervo_). Ally Sheedy, who I thought was awfully hot at the time too. But I was entitled to, you degenerate! ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/131 "2012-09-25T12:53:30Z")
I have absolutely no idea what airmen who worked in a missile silo did or did not do, nor what they carried or did not carry. What I do know is that I had an intelligence job in the USAF, worked in a SCIF, had Top Secret codeword clearance, and yet NO ONE, except the security police not allowed inside the facility in non-emergency situations, carried a firearm. And we had nothing but classified material in there. Again, I know nothing about missile bases and their procedures, and maybe some general in that chain of command had a hard-on for arming his people, but in my experience the only airmen and airwomen regularly armed were police. My experience is, for the most part, limited to a little podunk RAF Intel base and a nearby larger fighter base which was usually visited because they had much better and a greater range of services. ---
**Author:** ![vd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b19c9b/32.png) [@vd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/132 "2012-09-25T13:33:06Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > > [@moonshot925](#): > > > > … > > If everything was done correctly, explosive gas generators would push open the 110-ton blast doors covering the silos and the Minuteman missiles would streak toward the sky. Then the “MISSILE AWAY” lights would illuminate on the commander’s console. > > Yeah, those details are widely known, and easily googlable. You haven’t established your _bona fides_ by telling us something many of us already knew, and anyone at all could have easily found. Keep trying… But googling it wouldn’t capture the… romance(!?) described here. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/133 "2012-09-25T13:53:31Z")
“Greetings, Airman Man Shit! Shall we play a game?” “No! And I’ve told you over and over, it’s _Moonshot_!” “Oh… affirmative! So sorry! Error in… memory banks!” _\_ ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/134 "2012-09-25T14:03:31Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > The key-operated switches were 12 feet apart, so it was impossible for one person to turn both. > > The commander and deputy both had turn keys within two seconds of each other or the launch sequence would not happen. > > And additionally, the final command to launch also required another outside “vote” (two missileers performing the same procedure at another Launch Control Center). > > If everything was done correctly, explosive gas generators would push open the 110-ton blast doors covering the silos and the Minuteman missiles would streak toward the sky. Then the “MISSILE AWAY” lights would illuminate on the commander’s console. **Moonshot925** , are you the author of [this book?](http://books.google.com/books?id=fIfxAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=Then+the+%22MISSILE+AWAY%22+lights+would+illuminate+on+the+commander's+console.&source=bl&ots=49dZPynhPY&sig=0CD10TMbf4-FIw-VCjR8OqAxgSE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sbdhUKKwGIb89QSBmICgAQ&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Then%20the%20%22MISSILE%20AWAY%22%20lights%20would%20illuminate%20on%20the%20commander's%20console.&f=false) 'Cause that text looks awfully familiar. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/135 "2012-09-25T14:17:08Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > **Moonshot925** , are you the author of [this book?](http://books.google.com/books?id=fIfxAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=Then+the+%22MISSILE+AWAY%22+lights+would+illuminate+on+the+commander's+console.&source=bl&ots=49dZPynhPY&sig=0CD10TMbf4-FIw-VCjR8OqAxgSE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sbdhUKKwGIb89QSBmICgAQ&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Then%20the%20%22MISSILE%20AWAY%22%20lights%20would%20illuminate%20on%20the%20commander's%20console.&f=false) 'Cause that text looks awfully familiar. Most of that is accurate, but the blast doors covering the silos were 110 tons, not 80 tons. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/136 "2012-09-25T14:36:49Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Most of that is accurate, but the blast doors covering the silos were 110 tons, not 80 tons. It was published by the National Park Service; you’d think they’d get their facts straight. But more to the point: are you saying that’s the first time you’ve ever seen that text? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/137 "2012-09-25T14:44:10Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > Most of that is accurate, but the blast doors covering the silos were 110 tons, not 80 tons. If it’s wrong, why are you plagiarizing it? ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/138 "2012-09-25T14:47:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > If it’s wrong, why are you plagiarizing it? I didn’t plagiarize anything. This is common knowledge to missilers. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/139 "2012-09-25T15:02:55Z")
I’m sure it is. I’m less sure that by sheer coincidence your post includes a dozen virtually identical phrasings to the book. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/140 "2012-09-25T15:07:45Z")
If you shoot a calf on the moon, would you be guilty of both mopery and dopery? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747.md?page=8)