InStyle:

“I never thought in a million years that I would be controlling nuclear weapons,” says 26-year-old 1st Lieutenant Janet Neufeld, a combat crew commander at F.E. Warren U.S. Air Force Base (AFB) in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Lt Neufeld admits that at the beginning of her own training, she was one of the many people who don’t realize the Air Force even deals with nuclear weapons.

In fact, this branch of the military is responsible for two-thirds of the country’s nuclear capabilities. In addition to Wyoming, there are two other Air Force bases, one in Montana and another in North Dakota, that house B-52 bomber aircrafts and 400 to 450 nuclear capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Each day, 90 people across all three bases are grouped in pairs and lowered about 60 feet underground into a missile command area called the capsule. They stay in the capsule for at least a full 24-hour shift manning a console that controls up to 15 ICBMs at a time. In short, there are 90 “missileers” constantly ready to jump into action if the President were to call for a missile launch. And on International Women’s Day, all 90 of those missileers are women.

This is an awesome and terrifying responsibility. Granted, it’s a puff piece but there are interesting tibits in it.