MISSILE (TV)
Summary
This cinema-vérité documentary by filmmaker Frederick Wiseman concerns the training of nuclear missile launch control officers. Presented without narration, the film focuses on the intensive 14-week training session of the 4315th combat crew training squadron of the Strategic Air Command course at Vandenberg Air Force Base. In this training session, soldiers learn how to use the Minuteman missile launch control systems, and the U.S. military determines who has the ability to actually insert their launch keys if the president orders to launch land-based nuclear ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and embark upon a nuclear war. As the program begins, Col. Jim Ryan holds seminars that stress the difficulty of the program and that introduce the preparation and training on one side of the U.S. strategic triad, including land-based ICBMs, sub-launched missiles, and bombers. The following day, Ryan leads a professional responsibilities seminar, using the My Lai massacre of the Vietnam War, the Holocaust of World War II, and the Nuremberg trials to launch questions about moral responsibility and military orders; issues discussed include how to decide when an order is legal or illegal, whether killing someone is always illegal, and when an individual must override an order.
Topics covered in training courses include: hand-held weapons techniques; the control panel and the essential codes of the Minuteman system; the importance of teamwork without relying too much on one another; the Weapons System Safety Rules and Standards that were set up by the Dept. of Defense; the PRP (personnel reliability program); PES (positive enable system) seals to detect equipment tampering; the ILC (inhibit launch command) and the codes that inhibit unauthorized launches; and the way that weather conditions affect the trajectories and re-entry vehicles. Training segments are interspersed with such scenes as trainees at a barbecue; students in a study group preparing for tests; softball games; instructors being reprimanded for eating and smoking around equipment; and a soldier showing off photos of himself posing by soldiers' graves in Europe. Highlights outside of missile training include trainees being cautioned about fraternization; instructors discussing trainee progress and problem trainees; and a trainee meeting with a counselor to discuss changes he requires in his test-taking techniques. The program includes the following launch simulations: a woman takes a call from a "freedom fighter" who has placed a bomb on the missile site; a two-person crew takes their final exam -- the simulated launching of nuclear weapons, which includes code verification, the insertion of launch keys, and preparations for the launch; and finally, a crew listens to its evaluation after their final exam.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WNET New York, NY
- DATE: August 31, 1988 Wednesday 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:54:27
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:27975
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: United States Air Force - Weapons systems; Military departments and divisions - United States; Military life; Minuteman (Missile); Intercontinental ballistic missiles; Nuclear weapons; Nuclear warfare; War - Moral and ethical aspects; Defense department
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV, 1988
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Frederick Wiseman … Producer, Director
- Jim Ryan