November-33 was one of 150 Launch Facilities of the 321st Strategic Missile Wing of Grand Forks Air Force Base. In this underground silo, from 1966 to 1997, a nuclear-tipped Minuteman missile stood ready for launch. About 15 miles away, a Launch Control Center controlled this facility, where two Air Force missileers could respond to a presidential order to launch the missile. That order never came, but if it had, they could have sent the Minuteman from the silo toward its target at 15,000 miles per hour over a distance of 6,000 miles, where it could unleash a nuclear explosion of more than 300 kilotons. Despite this destructive power, the Minuteman's primary mission was deterrence, to be used only if the U.S. came under nuclear attack, a role that earned it the nickname America's "Ace in the Hole." In 1991, the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and agreed to eliminate some nuclear weapons. To meet treaty requirements, the U.S. deactivated the 321st Strategic Missile Wing, and the 150 Launch Facilities and 14 of the 15 Launch Control Centers were emptied and imploded. The topside of this Launch Facility and the Oscar-Zero Missile Alert Facility, with its underground Launch Control Center, were preserved for historical interpretation by the State Historical Society of North Dakota.