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          These are the steel doors to a weapons storage igloo. Once closed, the doors were raised slightly using a 10-ton hydraulic jack. The side hinge supports were then removed and the doors lowered several inches into recessed troughs in the concrete pad beneath the doors, thus preventing them from being easily opened. Once this was accomplished, the structure was secured with two high security locks, of which no one individual ever had access to both sets of keys ("Two-man Policy").

          The white tin triangle above the doors was then placarded with an "Explosive A" sign ("mass detonating high explosive"), then the structures ADT active alarm system was enabled. All the time these steps were being followed, weapons were at hand, their sole purpose being to prevent any unauthorized access or procedural violation involving "special weapons."

- An "Igloo" -

               This is the inside of a storage igloo.   If my memory is correct what appears to be a B28 in the background and a W28 in the right foreground are actually our “Inert” training units.  I can’t remember what was delivered in the wooden crates, but I’d make a bet that after sufficient time had passed they ended up being disassembled and used as material for someone’s slack time or after-normal-duty-hours “home project!”

          Even when our calibrated lab thermometers registered outdoors still-air temperatures of minus-thirty or lower, if an igloo remained unopened for some time the inside temperature rarely dropped below zero in the winter.  During the summer, on the rare especially hot days, certain tasks could sometimes take much longer than scheduled when the cool inside of the igloo provided a welcome respite from the heat, all the more appreciated because black flies do not like the cold!

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