Every movie or book about nuclear war or strategic command list includes Kansas City. I know Cheyene Mountain ColoradoOmaha NebraskaI know KC isnt far from the nuclear missile silos that line there and the Dakotas.Is there or was there a major command in or around KC?
It is because of Whiteman Air Force Base out near Sedalia. There used to be a couple hundred Minuteman II missile silos running up and down the State of Missouri between KC and Sedalia , North to South. They are all gone now and the silos have been sold to farmers etc for storage or imploded. Now Whiteman AFB is a Bomber base. Back in the 80's when these were still there, you had movies like The Day After in which KC and surroundings get Nuked.
Aside from what the other poster said, The Kansas City Plant dedicated by Harry Truman and currently operated by Honeywell produces and assembles 85 percent of the non-nuclear components of the United States nuclear bomb arsena. Missouri is also home to Fort Leonard Wood, which is about 3 hours from Kansas City and is where both the Army and the Marines undergo their CBRN/chemical corps training. If you've ever seen the movie The Day After they actually used shots of the area around FLW.
The reason Every movie or book about nuclear war or strategic command list includes Kansas City is perhaps because Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base, a former United States Air Force base was located partly within the city limits of Kansas City, Missouri and crossing into northwestern Cass County, just outside Belton, Missouri, 16 miles (26 km) south of downtown Kansas City. Opened for military use in March 1944, the facility was returned to civilian use in 1994. The runways have since been decommissioned and are no longer in use. It was the home of the US Air Force Air Defense Command, the command responsible for the defense of the US against air attacks which might include nuclear. The first major use for the base was Air Defense Command, which used the base as a command and control headquarters. HQ, Central Air Defense Force was established on 24 February 1954, along with HQ 20th Air Division (Defense) on 8 October 1955. The first flying unit was the 328th Fighter Group, with its 326th Fighter Squadron being equipped with F-86 Sabres. In 1957, the 4620th Air Defense Group was activated at Richards-Gebauer. The 4620th was a SAGE unit, which operated the Semi Automatic Ground Environment RADAR system for ADC. SAGE was an automated control system used by ADC and later NORAD for collecting, tracking and intercepting enemy bomber aircraft. It could also automatically direct aircraft to an interception by sending commands directly to the aircraft's autopilot. As the threat of Soviet air attack diminished during the 1960s, the Air Defense presence at Richards-Gebauer was reduced. The F-106-equipped 71st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron departed in 1968, ending the ADC interceptor presence on the base.
