When an earthquake rattled the nation’s air and space warning center at Peterson Air Force Base, commanders ran for the hills.

Into Cheyenne Mountain.

During an exercise last month, the North American Aerospace Defense Command for the first time tested its plan to relocate from its headquarters in Building 2 to its former site inside the mountain.

The simulation called for an earthquake to prompt evacuation so the building could be inspected for structural damage.

The exercise forced commanders of NORAD, a joint command with Canada, to retreat to the granite bunker at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, which NORAD vacated in May 2008.

Air Force Maj. Gen. John Bordelon, chief of staff of NORAD and its sister command, Northern Command, declared the drill a success.

“We emptied the building,” he said of the 1,800 people who work at Building 2. “We have an orderly plan.”

The exercise and its outcome are important, because NORAD and NorthCom are the nation’s eyes and ears against domestic attack, providing air, space, maritime, land and cyber warning and monitoring and defense support to civil authorities.

NORAD’s controversial move from Cheyenne Mountain to Peterson last year drew criticism from Congress and the Government Accountability Office.

A former NORAD commander ordered the move after exercises in 2005 revealed unity of command problems with Peterson-based NorthCom and mountain-based NORAD.

The commander promised millions in savings, but the GAO wasn’t able to confirm that and questioned whether Peterson could attain the top protection level afforded by the mountain.

The bunker command center now is used for training and as a fallback facility.

Bordelon said during the hour-long move during the June exercise, 50 command personnel drove across town while other staff handed off functions to partners, such as U.S. Strategic Command. About 170 operational staff also went to the mountain. Meantime, administrative staffers were relocated to other Peterson offices.

“Everything here is all set up,” Bordelon said during an interview at the mountain command center. “During that hour, we didn’t lose anything.”

He said the move didn’t interrupt NORAD’s and NorthCom’s simulated responses to flooding in the Midwest, an anthrax bioterrorism attack, a multinational summit in California, a nuclear incident in Wyoming and other events.

The only miscues came when phasing in some functions as commanders resumed the reins, he said, but he didn’t elaborate.

The mountain stay in June lasted 48 hours. A relocation exceeding 30 days would require reconstructing command functions elsewhere and heavy reliance on other agencies, Bordelon said.

And what if above-ground Building 2 were destroyed and the staff annihilated?

“Someone else will answer the call,” Bordelon said. “That mission would move on its own” to another agency, such as Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

Bordelon said the commands are still working to upgrade security at Peterson and are “going forward with construction” of electromagnetic pulse protection. Such pulses, caused by nuclear weapon detonation and some generators, can wipe out computer systems.

Cheyenne Mountain’s pulse protection was tested recently and found impermeable, an official assigned to the mountain said.

WHAT’s insideOperations occupying Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station:• 721st Mission Support Group• NORAD and Northern Command (training contingent; fallback command center)• Cheyenne Mountain Directorate• Joint Force Component Command—Space (U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command)• Detachment 2, 17th Test Squadron (Air Force Space Command)• Air Force Technical Applications Center• Defense Intelligence Agency• Missile Defense Agency• National Security Agency• Total employment: 600 to 700WHAT’S NOT INSIDE• NORAD headquarters• Northern Command• 1st Space Control Squadron and Space VaultTotal employment lost: 400 to 410

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A1C Steve Tately and his dog Trampe patrol the entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex for NORAD in 1986. Photo by Dave Turner, The Gazette File

KEVIN KRECK