Code Safe

Donated by Major General Bob Parker, Twentieth Air Force Commander

The command and control operations of 1,000 Minuteman Missiles took place 24 hours a day, 365 days a year during the Cold War at Minuteman Launch Control Centers. Safe boxes like this one held several sealed authenticators and launch keys. The safe boxes were secured by two separate combination locks. Each of the Launch Control Officers -known as missileers- would have their own separate lock. To launch a missile, an Emergency Action Message (EAM) would have come over the radio with a message the crew had to authenticate. After they agreed that the message was authentic, both crew members would open the safe box.

The missileers would select a specific authenticator and check its encoded message to see whether it matched the Emergency Action Message. Once the crew members agreed that the command was authentic they would insert the keys. The missileers would then strap themselves into their console chairs and begin the final countdown. As the commanding officer called out the alphanumeric codes, the deputy commander would verify and repeat the message: "Bravo" . . . "Bravo" . . . "Alpha" . . . "Alpha" . . . "Lima' . . . "Lima" . . . At the end of the countdown sequence, the officers would turn their launch keys. This would have meant the launching of up to ten Minuteman Missiles, a nuclear war and the end of civilization as we know it. Today there are still 45 safe boxes in Minuteman Launch Control Centers that contain the codes to launch 450 Minuteman Missiles.

The safe box is a physical representation of the past, present and future history of America's national security.