(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – A village in central Illinois has agreed to refurbish a retired ballistic missile that has long sat at a local airfield.
Rantoul leaders this week agreed to hire an auto-body shop to beautify a rusting Minute Man Missile that originally was installed at Chanute Air Force Base in 1966. The base closed in the early-1990s.
The defanged missile remained, but its surface had become distressed in recent years. Still, the Cold War artifact is a point of local pride to some, given the history of the former military base.
The cost to renovate the missile is $47,000. The other option was to give up the relic and allow it to go to a museum.
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