Training for a job you hope never to perform

Understanding others is one of the key goals of journalism.

So when the Monitor’s Sarah Matusek and Alfredo Sosa set out on a reporting trip to a nuclear missile training facility for this week’s cover story, they brought a litany of questions for the U.S. missileers who oversee these weapons.

What’s it like to live below ground, detached from friends and family? Do you think about the consequences of a potential missile launch? Would missileers even know what target a missile is aimed at if given the order?

As answers unfurled, Sarah and Alfredo realized they suddenly had fresh questions, not for the missileers, but for themselves.

“Could I do the job that these young men and women, some of them younger than me, might be asked to do?” Sarah wonders aloud during a joint interview with Alfredo.

He, too, was surprised by how much he ended up envisioning himself in the missileers’ seat. “When I do a story on farming, I don’t question, ‘Would I drive this tractor?’” Alfredo says, chuckling.

As you read Sarah’s account and peruse Alfredo’s photos, try to imagine yourself in an underground bunker that could launch nuclear missiles. How would you handle that kind of responsibility?

“I’m not sure that the missileer is even thinking about the possibility to launch each day because their 24 hours underground is filled with a bunch of other tasks to support the broader mission,” Sarah says.

Indeed, the ultimate goal is to never actually launch. The missileer’s role is one of deterrence. That means being ready for a moment that we all hope never comes.

“It’s the only job I can think of where nobody has actually performed it,” Alfredo says. “So they’re trained to do something that nobody has ever done. And hopefully nobody will.”

After reporting this story, both Sarah and Alfredo say they have newfound respect for these missileers and the quiet work that they do, hidden from public view.

“This unifying shield of deterrence across the entire country happens in such isolated and lonely conditions,” Sarah says.

“Forty or 50 years ago, these same people were the national heroes,” Alfredo adds, referring to the attention paid to the nuclear arsenal during the height of the Cold War. “Now, they’re like a forgotten breed.”

This column first appeared in the Feb. 17 issue of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly. Subscribe today to receive future issues of the Monitor Weekly magazine delivered to your home.