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Larry Allen Pederson

Winona State University

51st Munitions Maintenance Squadron Vandenberg AFB CA

18 year old Nuclear Weapons Technician May 1962

Narrative

I was an eighteen year old nuclear weapons technician, stationed at Vandenberg AFB IN June 1962. I was assigned to a 4-man team working on the reentry vehicle on the Atlas D. The Cuban Missile Crisis hit in October of 1962. Our team worked 24 hours straight to assemble three reentry vehicles with real nuclear weapons and loaded them on three Atlas D missiles. They remained on alert for 30 days and everyone was not allowed off base during this time.