Revealing the story of the female soldier who can press the button to destroy the world

This female soldier in the US army only needs to press a button to trigger a nuclear war, turning many cities into ashes.

In the state of Wyoming (USA), a few feet underground (1 foot is equivalent to 0.305m) there is a bunker. Inside that bunker, there are always two air force experts on duty, and the fate of the world lies in the hands of these two people.

“When I’m on combat duty, I’m responsible for 10 to 15 intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Captain Victoria Fort, a female soldier at the US Air Force base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, told Scout Warrior in an interview. These nuclear warheads can turn entire cities into ashes.

Nuclear test on Bikini Atoll. Photo: US Department of Energy.

Push the launch button - the female soldier's mission

If the President of the United States orders a nuclear strike, and Captain Victoria Fort is in the bunker, the female soldier must press the button to launch the missile. Because this is her mission. “We conduct relevant exercises every month. Every time we conduct a simulated attack, we must complete a launch. If we do not launch at the right time, it means we have not completed the mission. If the choice is between letting the enemy attack and ordering a missile launch, I will do everything I can to protect my country,” said Captain Victoria Fort.

This bunker, called “the fortress” by Victoria Fort, is the center of the military strategy known as nuclear deterrence. Recently at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter mentioned the meaning and necessity of this strategy. He pledged to spend $ 108 billion on nuclear deterrence over the next 5 years. “The US nuclear deterrence strategy is the foundation of our security and the top mission of the Department of Defense,” he said.

24 hours without sleep

Carter’s comments come after a recent Wall Street Journal article that President Barack Obama is considering a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons, a policy that could call into question the Defense Secretary’s statements and could also have a profound geopolitical impact.

According to the New York Times, senior Pentagon officials recommended that the US President abandon these potentially destabilizing steps. They asserted that the nuclear arsenal is necessary to restrain enemy forces from using nuclear weapons against the United States.

Since the Cold War, the US Strategic Forces have been known as the “nuclear triad”, which includes intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range strategic bombers. The above-mentioned air force specialists control the ground-based strategic forces from the Launch Control Station. From this ground position, they control the LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (currently the only ground-based strategic force used in the US military).

The task of controlling 450 Minuteman strategic ground vehicles is divided between three different air bases, including the base in Cheyenne, Minot and Montana. Each base has 15 launch pads. Each launch control station has a combat section with two air force specialists whose job is to monitor the secret nuclear warehouses assigned to them. Of course, the batteries rotate shifts, and there is always someone on duty inside the bunker. Each shift lasts 24 hours. “During combat duty, I am absolutely not allowed to sleep,” - said Captain Victoria Fort.

The secret chamber

On her shift days, the 26-year-old soldier arrives at the base at 7:30 a.m. in her personal Ford Explorer, as instructed. From there, she and her shift colleagues are taken to a secret location on the 9,000-square-foot base. Once they arrive, they descend underground, open a blast door, step over a platform, and enter the launch control chamber. Victoria Fort said the chamber can accommodate “a normal-sized truck.”

The cabin consists of a bunk bed (or “sleeping compartment”), a toilet (without a shower) and a television. “Everything is bolted down, except for the two chairs in front of the control desk,” Fort said. They move in different directions, but can also be fixed in place. “We can put people in the chairs in case of an attack. If there is an attack, the shock absorbers in the bunker will absorb the blast wave and protect Fort and her colleagues from injury,” she added.

Although the bunker is no match for Captain Fort’s home in Cheyenne, the servicewoman enjoys her job as a missileer, a shift commander. “It’s a strange time, because you can’t see day or night,” she said.

Medal "For the cause of nuclear restraint"

Fort spent 10 years in the Air Force before being promoted to senior officer in the 90th Missile Wing (20th Air Defense Wing, Air Force Global Strike Command). While in high school, she attended non-military training for the Air Force Reserve and considered joining the military, but her teacher advised her to become an officer. So she attended Florida State University, where she went through reserve officer training, was commissioned as an officer, and joined the military in 2012.

After serving a short time at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, Victoria Fort learned the basics of her job three and a half years later at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Her accomplishments impressed her superiors, and in 2014, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James awarded her the Nuclear Deterrence Medal.

Fort’s accomplishments continued even after she transferred to Frances Warren Air Force Base in April. Every year, the Air Force holds a competition to determine the best battery crew. This year, Fort and another of her colleagues won the competition and were named the Air Force’s best battery crew.

High pressure task

In fact, the Florida native wasn’t always confident in herself. She was initially tasked with controlling 150 nuclear missiles, which led to her depression. “I was extremely stressed,” she recalls. “When I was on duty, I could say the job was all about weapons, and it was hard to overcome all that.”

But Fort said she didn’t get upset. That’s important, because it’s up to experts like Fort to make the system work and the mission happen quickly. “While the principles of nuclear deterrence may not be complicated, or even simple, deterrence relies on complex, high-tech systems,” the defense secretary said.

To solve this complex problem, Frances Warren Air Force Base carries out a simple mission - to operate on time, often and at any time. This principle is followed by all specialists when undertaking tasks here. And Victoria Fort is no exception. “We are the big baton standing up to protect the country, as President Roosevelt once said. Right now we are not a frontline force, other countries do not interact with us, because we are controlling these weapons... In other words, it is restraint. We are restraining them”, - this female soldier said./.

According to VOV