Ice is fairly common in Wyoming. But ICE, that’s something new for Warren.
Opened recently, a renovated building on the base is now the home of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Center of Excellence, or ICE.
The purpose is to create a more focused training and evaluation process for missile operators, maintainers and security forces members responsible for ICBMs. The $1.6-million project adds “bricks and mortar to ideas and concepts” long needed in the ICBM community, said retired Maj. Gen. Thomas Neary, former 20th Air Force commander, who formally opened the building.
Before the center was established, Warren, Malmstrom AFB, Mont., and Minot AFB, N.D., all had developed their own training and evaluation methods.
“When we send trainers and evaluators to the Air Education and Training Center for the Academic Instructor Course they get an Air Force-wide view in two weeks. But the training they get at the ICE is specific to the ICBM. Now we’re taking the best approaches from all three wings and making us a standardized, consistent performing force,” said Col. Bruce Suddeth, 91st Space Wing Operations Group commander at Minot.
Capt. Glenn Harris, chief of training for 20 AF, said a total of 546 students will pass through the ICE every year — 210 security forces members, 176 maintainers and 160 missile operators.
“By maintaining a 100-percent flow of the newly assigned trainers and evaluators through the ICE pipeline, ICBM fundamentals will be taught, and the end result will strengthen nuclear surety and our operational readiness,” Harris said.
Maj. Gen. Timothy McMahon, 20 AF commander, hopes all members of the ICBM team will take away something from the ICE.
“It’s up to us whether the ICE has its intended effect,” he said. “We’ve got to invest in our people and provide them the training and resources they need to do the dangerous jobs our country expects of us. The real end-state comes down to nuclear surety — that’s really what it’ all about.”
