Not so sure redirecting the missiles would've done much good at that point.

[Boone frowns and squints to himself as he tries to imagine what Kay is describing. ...He's not doing a very good job of it.]

I dunno, he could be. Never asked. There are people who became ghouls after the war, too. Know a guy back home called Raul though, he was around before the bombs fell. Something about turning into a ghoul seems to make you live a whole lot longer.

[And given how fed up Charon seems to be, he gets the impression that he's been around a long time. Boone thinks he'd be fed up, too.]