Minuteman is the United States' strategic land based offensive ICBM. The Mickelsen Safeguard complex was built
primarily to protect the Minuteman launch facilties based at Grand Forks Air Force Base, although it also
provided some limited protection of civilian population centers and other offensive ICBM fields. After more than
thirty years on alert in North Dakota, during the summer of 1998 the last Minuteman III was removed from its
silo, and the 321st Missile Group at Grand Forks AFB was deactivated.
For more information, see
321st Missile Wing at Grand Forks: Cold War Legacy (PDF).
