Nukes, .50 cal., Hueys, and Dakota

Just returned from a Bottineau-Belcourt-Garrison countryside work run. The last leg of it, northwest of Garrison, the field crew came across a military sniper team, .50 cal and all, set up with spotter and scope. As we whipped north on the gravel road, I said, "Hey, that's a sniper team," and pointed to the ditch. Our car sailed right in front of the business end of that huge .50 cal. Since they were on the right side of the road, and since I was riding passenger ("shot gun"), I got a close look at the sniper and spotter. We figured out fairly quickly that they were airforce, and the said airforce was working on one of the nuclear missile silos. It seems they train a .50 cal sniper team on the silo, just in case. And a Huey chopper buzzed me about 6 times as well — just in case. And a slow moving brand new huge suburban (sans front license plate) cruised me at least 5 times — just in case.

At first it was a bit irritating, but then I said a couple things to the co-worker: "Well, it is a nuke afterall. And this is how the rest of the world feels..." She responded with, "Um, like, I don't want to get shot!" I told her she wouldn't, and even if so, one wouldn't feel a thing.