Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex

The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex (SRMSC) was a cluster of military facilities near Langdon, North Dakota, that supported the United States Army's Safeguard anti-ballistic missile program.

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Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex : brutalism

Insane boondoggle of a backstory. Basically a colossal waste of $6B taxpayer money ($34B in 2024 dollars) because it only operated for 6 months before being decommissioned as ineffective by Congress. Present activity is blockchain mining.

  • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
    ·
    9 months ago

    This looks like some shit out of a bad 80's SciFi matte painting.

    So cool as fuck!

    I sometimes wonder what it was like being a Cold War Era STEM guy who got a job in defense contracting just so he could make some cabbage so they could buy a house, waifu and 2.5 kids somewhere warm, but then your first internship lands you in some depressing as fuck concrete cube in Buttfuck North Dakota. Yeah sure you're making the equivalent of 250k in 60s bucks but, like, Jesus that has to be a depressing existence.

      • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
        ·
        9 months ago

        Thought he was just some real estate guy with a gambling addiction and a drinking problem?

        • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          I'm pretty sure his career was working for a DoD contractor before retiring and settling into a lifestyle of the things you mentioned.

          • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
            ·
            9 months ago

            Looking it up, yeah he did some auditing for them but I don't think he was ever living in a missile silo in northern Nevada or anything