There used to be a sugar-beet plant outside Goodland, KS. My FIL worked there some in the 80s when he got too bored in retirement--

Was that a way to get back with old work buddies? It wouldn't otherwise seem like particularly therapeutic :)

Heh. Not hardly--it was pretty remote from his former day job! He started with the DOE back when it was the AEC, and was heavily involved with the nuclear weapons testing at the Test Site. He just wanted to do something--and there were only certain jobs at the plant that he found interesting. IIRC he ended up being responsible for keeping the beet-cutting knives sharp. You get to pick'n'choose when you really don't need the money ;)

Also, much less head-twisting than being part of potential nuclear war :)

At one point he was one of the guys who'd've signed over the "devices" to SAC, if the order had come down from the President. We're all thankful it never came to that!

I'm sure that the presence of that tension had some effect on your family life...One of my brothers worked underground on nuclear missile sites during the height of the Cold War. He never talked about that, and he never seemed to be quite 'right' after the military (he petered out in middle age and died young). Looking back now, it would be easy to reread much of his adult reflections and much of the problems in his life as being related to being in that launch-ready position, but there were other things in his life-path that would raise causal questions.

When I was in the military during the Vietnam era, as I matured I began to question how much I should, even in my own non-combat position, share responsibility for tacitly supporting the systems for deaths in Vietnam. I seriously considered applying for CO status, but was already at a point in my service time that getting CO status would have kept me in longer than if I just held my tongue. One of the lessons of life...