Robert Michael O'Connor Interview, 23 February 2005
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MO: | No, we go right to the missile site. There was a lot of times that we didn't— | |
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TT: | So you open the front gate and go inside, the perimeter alarm goes off? | |
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MO: | Right, and then you had so many seconds to check in. | |
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TT: | You unlock the door to the support building and call them and then you just identify your code? | |
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MO: | Right. They had an itinerary that was set; they knew when we were coming. | |
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TT: | OK. So this morning you were heading south on, I can't remember what road name but just walk us through it. I'd be interested in knowing how much you can recall. | |
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MO: | Well, I know we went down the main road; November wasn't that far from the base, probably the closest one of the sections to the base. | |
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TT: | Yeah, did you guys have to out to like Mike which was 40 miles— | |
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MO: | —how about 75 miles from one side to the other [gestures]. They used to send me out there and they'd get me and they'd say "OK, go to this missile site next" and then they'd go way over here [gestures] and then I'd come all the way over here [gestures] and then maybe I'd go all the way back over here [gestures] whatever they had for me to do...then that's what I would do and, of course, we carried some spare parts. | |
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TT: | Walk us through this morning. | |
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MO: | Well we left the base, we started heading north, I guess, yeah it was north, had to be north on I think that route number was 51, I don't remember all the route numbers. | |
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TT: | All the dirt roads? | |
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MO: | Well, the dirt roads weren't—you just had a map and you follow the map. That's how you got to the missile site. Anyway, then of course, you might pass a couple of them on the way but these things are miles apart, so we started down that road and we had passed, I guess, Oscar-7 and then made a left turn and then went down the road toward the other one, I guess November-7? So yeah, we were going down the ol' dirt road and then I kinda glanced out [turns head to his left] the truck window and I noticed that some farmer had left his yard light on, I thought. | |
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TT: | There were farms along there? | |
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MO: | I don't know 'cause at nighttime it's so hard to see. You can't tell if there is a building. It was dark; it gets dark out there when it's cloudy. We started down that road and I noticed that farmer's yard light and then, I don't know what made me glance over at it again, then I saw it raise up and [gestures] started paralleling our truck going down the road. | |
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TT: | Did you see farmer lights too? | |
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MO: | No. It turned— | |
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TT: | You assumed it was— | |
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MO: | I assumed it was a yard light. | |
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TT: | Because it was what down near, right at the horizon? |
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