What would the soldiers stationed at the missile silos do after they launched their missiles in a nuclear war?

by reiruoc

I was looking up the old Titan II and NIKE missiles and it got me thinking about what would happen to the soldiers that were stationed there. Do they go to a fallout shelter, stay in the base and wait for instructions?

Spark_77

Sort of related:

In New York, alongside USS Intrepid is the submarine USS Growler (SSG-577). Growler was one of the first nuclear armed submarines. The launch procedure was to surface, open a hatch on deck and wheel out a missile, which would then be launched. She only carried two.

I remarked that had they fired a missile the crew would surely know they would be very unlikely to actually get home as they'd probably be located and attacked. A guide was stood nearby and replied "Sir, if this shop had fired a missile there was most likely no home to return to".

Utterly chilling, but he is right. I can quite imagine that any site that held nuclear weapons would be high on the list of targets for the enemy. Even if troops did survive an attack there really wouldn't be much outside of the shelter.