Here's what it looks like when the US fires a nuclear weapon

A better title would be "Hey, Fat Boy Leader, this is what a REAL ICBM looks like!"

LTC (Join to see) Must be Cool to live near Vandenberg AFB to watch these Launches.

I was stationed at Vandenberg for 8 years (74-82). I worked on over 140 Minuteman FOT&E (Follow On Test and Evaluation) and contractor RSLP launches. I was the Launch Support Team (LST) team chief on a number of those launches. The fallback area prior to launch was roughly 2,500 ft from many of the launch facilities (LF). It's REALLY impressive when one of those things light and you're only about half a mile away. I took both photos. The launch photo was in the fog at around 0530 at VAFB LF02. The second picture is of an active LF in North Dakota. We were about 90' below grade documenting some intrasite cabling.