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CONTACT: Mark Herberger, Minuteman Missile NHS, 605-433-5552

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 9, 2007

MINUTEMAN MISSILE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE Welcomes Russian Volunteer

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site has welcomed Egor Prokofiev to
the park's interpretive staff. Egor has come to Minuteman Missile via
the Rotary sponsored International VIP program. Egor is from Saratov,
Russia where he is studying journalism at the local university. He will
be working at the park for eight weeks. During this time, Egor will help
the park by developing Cold War interpretive exhibits from the Russian
perspective. These fresh ideas will give the park an unprecedented
window into the Russian mindset concerning this key world historical
event.

Chief Ranger Pam Griswold, stated that "we are so happy to have Egor
working with us this summer, it is an unbelievable opportunity to learn
about the Cold War from an entirely unique point of view. The exchange
of ideas will help us diversify our site interpretation." Thus far, Egor
has been able to assist the park by giving interpretive talks,
performing translation of interpretive brochures and researching Russian
sources for information concerning ICBMs.

Egor's visit and volunteer duty with the park was made possible by the
generosity of Rotary District #5440, specifically member George
McIlvaine. George personally invited and sponsored Egor to come both the
Rotary District #5440 Annual Conference and the Rotary International
Conference. This was part of a project for Egor to experience Rotary
first-hand and then do an NPS International Volunteer in the Parks
Internship at Minuteman Missile NHS. This project fits well within the
scope of what Rotary tries to do in the world and closely follows the
Rotary motto of "service before self." Since Egor was one of the first
graduates of the first-ever Russian Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp
(RYLA) program he was a good ambassador of what Rotary is doing Russia.
Egor is the sixth Rotary sponsored vocational intern from Saratov to
come and serve in a US National Park Service unit under Rotary district
#5440 and individual Rotary Club sponsorships.

Egor commented on his experience by stating "that it is a very
significant experience for me personally and for my work as a journalist
in Russia. This is a unique chance to understand, to see the Cold War
from the 'opposite bank of the river,' to see how it influenced the
United States and its citizens. The Cold War was a period of history for
both Russia and America that had a great affect on people's minds and
actually on the whole world situation nowadays. The Soviet Union does
not exist any more but all the Russian citizens who are older than
eighteen years old were born in the Soviet Union. And Russian people who
are older than 30 experienced all the deprivations of this economical
and ideological war. Now when the political situation in the world is
more or less stable, it's a good time to dig into our countries' past,
see what mistakes were made and try to avoid them in the future. And the
exchange of ideas is the best way to figure those mistakes out."

Egor will be at Minuteman Missile until late August, when he will then
return to his native Russia, with a wealth of experiences and
information to share with his countryman for years to come.

Minuteman Missile NHS was established by Congress in 1999 to tell the
story of the Minuteman ICBM system, including the development of the
system, the personnel who served at the 1,000 sites throughout the upper
Great Plains, and the impact of the system on the communities nearby.
Following the transfer of the property from the United States Air Force
in September 2002, the National Park Service began preparing the site
for public tours.

More information about the site can be found on the internet at
[www.nps.gov/mimi](http://www.nps.gov/mimi)