Who is 1 Peterson for?

My friend, that is a very good question.

Building 1 on Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, CO, is the headquarters of US Air Force Space Command, the military unit responsible for tracking air- and space-borne threats like Santa. It is next to Building 2 which houses US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Headquarters. Building 3, of course, holds the headquarters for the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

Why are all these amazingly sensitive headquarters in office buildings, you ask. I'll tell you why. NORAD headquarters (and Santa Tracker) as well as bits and pieces of US Strategic Command, Air Force Space Command, and NORTHCOM, used to be in Cheyenne Mountain. And by "in" Cheyenne Mountain, I mean 2000 feet underground in a cave accessed by a tunnel and some stairs (no giant spiders, though). It's really cool. The door is just like in War Games, but the control room isn't as fancy because, as the guy said, "the movie had a bigger budget than we do." It's got two buildings on giant springs, a cavern filled with power plants the size of train engines, and a couple of different ponds—one with a rowboat and a duck decoy.

Said mountain is on the southwest corner of Colorado Springs and is covered by TV and radio towers. To get there, you have to drive up a steep hill and hope there are spaces left on the upper parking lot because if not, you have to park on the lower lot and hoof it. Then you hope you didn't miss the bus, because if you did you're walking a mile down the tunnel. Which is why all those Capital Letter Organizations are now on Peterson AFB on the east side of town—the generals didn't like to drive all the way up there just to not have windows in their offices.

Okay, there's also the fact that although the mountain was a good defense for the bombs that existed when it was built, it's not going to stop the bigger modern stuff.

But that's not why I called you here today.

If Google Maps is to be believed, Building 1 is also currently the home of the fledgling US Space Force. Word was that "they" were going to build Space Force a complex east of town at Schriever AFB where all the heavy-duty security measures are like the robot that removes your eye, scans it, and puts it back in.

But now, it's just been announced Space Force is going to Alabama! Stinkin', Huntsville. Yeah, Huntsville has a long spacey history, thanks to the German defectors, but it's in Alabama. Seriously? A new military branch, manned mostly by Air Force, using the rank of the Navy, is going to be housed in an Army Arsenal?

It's bad enough they're not going to put it in Cheyenne Mountain (which I can see from my office window), but to take it out of Colorado Springs altogether? It could fit in Building 1 on Peterson! So unfair.

It's okay, though. I'm chill. I mean, it's not like I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. Or that my husband got my dream job tracking satellites in the Mountain. No worries. I'm just going to make a Tang, get some freeze-dried ice cream, and read what 1 Peter has to say to the persecuted church.

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