SDPB Film Maker To Present on Deadly ICBMs on May 13 at EAFB
When nationally known warplane artist John Mollison of Sioux Falls turned his hand to creating historical military documentaries for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, he made studies of men like US Navy and Sioux aviator Lt. Commander John Waldron, who died in his Douglas TPB Devastator (torpedo bomber) at the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, along with 30 others in the squadron he commanded on that fateful day.
What Mollison didn’t realize was that his research would lead him to mankind’s all-time most dangerous weapon, the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, and the “missileer” combatants who made this catastrophic warfare possible.
“It’s the unexpected ‘Feel Good Story’ of the Century (at least we hope so),” Mollison says. “Two powers squared off to destroy all of civilization. They could. They would have. But if they did, you wouldn’t be reading this…No group of American military veterans played a greater role in the Cold War than those who had their hands on the nuclear trigger.”
Mollison will speak on Saturday, August 13, at Ellsworth Air Force Base’s South Dakota Air and Space Museum, starting at 9 am, a free event sponsored by the Black Hills Veterans Writing Group. The museum already has giant ICBMs on display outdoors and a multi-room, life-sized Minuteman II underground command bunker inside.
See other Mollison websites at
