U.S. Department of the Interior

MEDIA ADVISORY

Air Force to Transfer Minuteman Missile Site
to National Park System at Sept. 27 Ceremony in South Dakota

(WASHINGTON) - Eleven years to the day after then-President George Herbert Walker Bush took the nation's Minuteman ICBM sites off alert, the U.S. Air Force will formally transfer one of the sites, Delta 9, to the Interior Department to become the first unit of the National Park System dedicated to the Cold War.

Assistant Interior Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson served at the launch control facility for Delta 9 in the late 1970s as an Air Force officer. Manson now oversees the National Park Service and will dedicate the site along with Ronald L. Orr, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force, and Lt. Gen. Robert Hinson, vice commander of the Air Force Space Command.

"Having served as a launch control officer at Delta 9, the transfer to the National Park Service is an emotional event for me as well as the many other Air Force officers who will attend the service," Manson said. "In many respects, the transfer underscores that we accomplished our mission in the Cold War, protecting America from the threat of nuclear war. This event will mark the transition of the Cold War from an everyday part of our lives to a chapter in our country's history."

Media will have an opportunity to tour both the launch control facility and the missile site.

Who: Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the Interior for fish and wildlife and parks, and
                                        former launch control officer for Delta 9
            Ronald L. Orr, principal deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Air Force
            Lt. Gen. Robert Hinson, vice commander, Air Force Space Command

What: Transfer of Minuteman Missile site (with missile), Delta 9, S.D., to the National Park      
             Service as a National Historic Site. Transfer ceremony based on military                   
             change-of-command with B-1 flyover.

When: 10 a.m., MDT, Sept. 27, 2002

Where: Delta 9 missile silo, 6 miles east of Wall, S.D. (near Rapid City); Exit 116 from I-90,     
               go  3/4 mile south.  Distinguished guests and media will then be taken to the launch  
               control capsule for a tour, filming and media interviews, followed by a reception in
               Wall,  S.D.(both optional).

-DOI-

U.S. Department of the Interior