Exploring Abandoned Nike Missile Bases
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Abandoned Cold War relics found right in our own suburban backyards. Missile bases with nuclear capabilites! weirdnj.com/ca...
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The base in the Watchung, NJ mountains was flooded underground and sealed long before being converted to a stable. In S.Plainfield (or is it Piscataway), where the Hadley Shopping Mall now stands was anothe Nike base. Explored the above grounds sections of it long before it was razed. You could just walk right in from a suburban road, the fence had long ago fallen down.
The control / radar site for the Watchung base was up near Governor Livingston High School. The Summit/Watchung site was known as NY-73. Very little remains of it. In Livingston NJ a couple of buildings and one of the Radar towers still exists (I think).
The subject was thoroughly researched and all facts represented in the video are accurate. There is of course much more to the story than can be discussed in a short video format. Those who are interested in learning more can read extensive articles on the subject, written by some of the foremost historians on the Nike Ajax/Hercules program, in a number of different issues of our magazine.
As a former Air Defense Artillery office who started my career on Nike Herks , this video gets my seal of approval.
The only inaccuracy was the warhead yield. A moot point.
If it flys, it dies.
Interesting. I work at an endangered plant nursery in the mountains here in Hawaii. The facility was once a Nike control station. We refer to the nursery as the Nike site. Though I have no idea of where the missiles were actually stored.
This is great! There was a Nike base behind my uncle's place in Livingston, NJ. It was far from secret--everyone knew about it, as was so for all the Nike bases. When the base closed, I took a sign off the fence. It sits in my foyer now. It says, "U.S. ARMY RESTRICTED AREA Persuant [sic] to Section 21 Internal Security Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 797)."
By the way, some of the missiles shown in the video are Ajax, not Hercules.
That base in Sandy Hook should be better preserved as a museum.
All of Sandy Hook should be taken better care of. Officers Row were designed by Stanford White.
In the town I grew up in there was a Nike base. Occasionally we'd see them practice raising the missiles.
Same but ours were all deactivated as far as I knew
My Dad worked on the Nike missiles from 1959-62, he said they where obsolete by the time they where put into service. One of the bases he worked at is 5 minutes away from me in Lumberton NJ
I’m so sad they tore them down one day if time travel is. Possible I will go back and fix them up might fuck up history but I don’t care I was to young before they were tore down so I was never able to explore them
@@1993MAZDAMIATA, they just tore down the last of the Nike site in here Lumberton and built a small subdivision.
@@Jmmoffa but it’s all pretty much gone what do you mean I live in the neighborhood next to it
nice video, i grew up with one just 4 miles down the road from my home in wisconsin.
now some guy owns it and uses it to store and repair vehicles underground.
i think his elevator setup was different though. i believe its one big round cement circle that goes up and down.
Cool video! I have a Nike Base within a mile of where I live!
Me and my 2 brothers used to see these missiles raise up out of the ground while we were riding the school bus. The female driver used to pull in the outer entrance to give us a better look. Air raid sirens were wailing at the same time. Duck And Cover!
Yes, "duck and cover" under your school desk works well in a nuclear war.
You'd be surprised how well even small obstacles can impede nuclear radiation. There's a story of a woman in Japan who escaped with minor injuries because she was behind a bank teller's desk when the bomb dropped, but there was the charred outline of a man on the wall near the other side of the desk.
a stroll down the nuclear zone lane. i used to be a collector of Weird NJ magazines. my friend brian worked in Tapeville across the street from the Nanuet Mall. He introduced me to Weird NJ. He's toured the abandoned tunnels of the Nike missile base on the Clausland Mountains. He tells me the tunnels are safe even at night. Hell no i say!
I'm not a daredevil. He is though and he chases tornadoes in the Mid West. Thanks for all your Weirdness, stay cool now. 👻.
Ah yes, the Clausland Mountain Tunnels were a very popular destination for our braver readers in the early days of Weird NJ. This is the first time someone has mentioned them in many years though. We might have to revisit and see how much they've changed.
@wysoft Before i die I want to see NY-56 again and SF-88 because it seems to be the most restored of all the sites. I'll bring tissues.
Living in Oakland, I've walked the woods in Mahwah and nosed around the old housing for personel that operated the radar station located where the Bergen Co. Riding Area is now. The homes are gone now. I've also visited the launch area off Rt.23N. in Wayne when there were still indications of the base there. I even had a toy Nike missle & launcher as a kid & by the way, not all Nike missles were nuked. Nike-Ajax wasn't & the Hercs came near the end of the program. WeirdNJ RULES!
It's always interesting to read the posts by those who have no idea of what was going on during that period of time. Easy to mock the subject. Time forward 50 years. Events of today will most likely be viewed in the same manner and made fun of. Too bad these naysayers did not live to experience the "cold war". The Nike program was part of and extensive effort to counter soviet threats.
I might add that the Nike Hercules missile did not "hit" it's target but was detonated, as determined, by its ground based computer. If an "aircraft formation mission" was selected by the battery commander, the missile would be detonated above and ahead of the main formation of aircraft. If there was only one target, the missile would be detonated at a point in space to cause the target to be consumed by extreme nuclear heat and thus destroy the nuclear bomb on board the enemy bomber.
I was trained as a crewman, and later as an air defense officer, for the Hercules system - including its simulator, the AN/MPQ-T1 - and the Hercules short-lived successor, the Spartan missile. I have studied the military manuals at the air defense school should be the basis to your: "..extensive articles on the subject..". You do tend toward sensationalist reporting in this presentation and the term "weird" is used provocatively and not factually. Perhaps to sell magazines? God Bless the USA!
Most of the missiles in a Nike Hercules magazine, underground, had nuclear warheads except for one or two depending on the defense area and the number of sites. Los Angeles Defense had about 325 missiles and only about 15 missiles were NOT nuclear. "Nukes" were used for 2 reasons. When exploded ABOVE an enemy aircraft formation, a nuke explosion could destroy formations of aircraft. Detonated NEAR enemy aircraft, the extreme heat of a nuke would destroy the nuke bomb on board the enemy plane.
Thanks for posting this very cool video. As a child growing-up in the 60's, the numerous military bases in and around our towns were just an accepted part of life. Looking back, it's awe inspiring to see just how expansive the anti-nuke shield was and the level of readiness needed. I hope that some of these bases are preserved as a testament of the cold war era.
There's only one that's been fully preserved, restored, and has an operating Nike missile elevator. It's designated SF-88 and it's in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco.
I went to one of these launch sites in my neighborhood, got a $300 trespassing ticket....
Hey, I know of another old military base off Rt 70 in I think it's considered whiting, NJ but its a no trespassing zone. Its not being used anymore.
I grew up near the Summit NJ Nike base back in the mid-60's. Me and my friends spent a lot of time exploring the abandoned silo's and this video brings back the memories vividly. Opening the doors, going down the steps into the concrete caverns, I remember the toxic smells, and the mysterious red liquid that we walked around in. Its a wonder we all don't have cancer.
Thanks for sharing your video, a real treat down memory lane.
Nike sites did not have silos, they were magazines.
It’s interesting so many of the bases were in upscale towns. Summit, Franklin Lakes & Holmdel
There's one close to my house. I've gone and taken a look, it's pretty cool. I didn't go that deep, me and my friends didn't think to bring a flashlight, and technically I shouldn't be back there (there's a hole in the fence). It's been a while since I was last there, but I think a lot of people played paintball in there (lots of tanks for the guns) and I'm pretty sure a hobo or something lived back there, but that was really just a rumor.
@Buckoux "The future of air defense is in submarines"? On what do you base this theory?
Interesting. I was stationed at the Swedesboro, NJ Nike site in the early 60s and was there during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yes interesting times! I was an IFC radar operator and FUIF maintenance tech.
Whoa dude. You must be a skeleton at this point.
@@GODCONVOYPRIME Still have skin wrapped around my bones!
"Duck and Cover" brings back memories. LOL
Most of the dead school kids in Japan were crushed under their desks.
They use to train on commercial airlines... at least once some of the staff did not understand the game of going to withing seconds of firing.
In the mid 60's my father was a radar mechanic at Holmdel, it was off of Telegraph hill road. We lived in the house directly across from the main gate. I remember as an 8 year old the mess hall workers giving me and my sister ice cream through the chain link fence. The K-9 's on patrol. Playing shuffleboard at the NCO club. I visited there 2 years ago, it was the first time in 48 years, housing is all torn down, there is a park in its place, however they left the 2 large posts that the gates were mounted to intact.
You might know my mother as the military bought their land to build the missle base in Holmdel
When we moved to tHolmdel it was '70. A friend of mine lived in the Nike base housing. They had relocated from age
Sorry Germany. It’s Phillips Park now
@@hellonwheels379 What was your moms last name?
@@hellonwheels379So their property was off of Telegraph Hill Rd. Backed up on the Arts Center.
I haven't heard that, Tim, but it certainly is some prime real estate. I'm not sure that it can be sold to a private developer though, as most of the penninsula is a national park and parts of the old base are historic landmarks. Of course, being that it is owned by the US military, I suppose anything is possible if they find themselves really strapped for cash! -Mark M.
It's "nuclear". Not "nucular".
There was a Nike base in Franklin Lakes NJ. When t closed it became a base for C Company #/113th Mech Infantry, NJ Army National Guard. The buildings and launch area were still there including some base housing. I don't know what happened to it when the Guard left.
Small world. My roommate from school lived in Franklin Lakes & I lived in Holmdel
You are correct, that is East Hanover.
Thank goodness this Nike did not use "Just Do It" as a slogan.💥☠
The Mahwah Musuem Mahwah Nike Base exhibit opens 1 pm tomorrow. You can see the details on the Mahwah Museum website, just Google it.
I could remember if you went up on the scenic drive in the Atlantic Highlands you could see the Nike's near the water if they were out and up. I also had a base down the road from where i lived Old Bridge NJ some times listed as South Amboy, and a cousin stationed at the Holmdel NJ base also
When we moved to Holmdel in 70 there was a girl in my class who lived on the site. There were maybe 10-15 small ranches for officers to live in.
My Grandparents had to sell their land for the Holmdel Nike Missle base. I remember as a kid walking through the backyard to go see the decommissioned base. My mother is still alive and has many interesting stories. Oneof a helicopter crash in her sideyard that was picked up during the night and nothing was left...not a piece of metal. So many interesting stories.
I grew up in Holmdel in the '70's. Was your grandparents land adjacent to the park, up on Holmdel Rd.?
It's interesting that you, as a person who is obviously very knowledgeable about the Nike program, called the system "obsolete." I once conducted a lengthy interview with a former base commander and asked him if he thought the program was phased out due to it becoming obsolete. His reply was, "The missile was never obsolete. It is not obsolete today. It was a money thing. I better watch what I say. That's my opinion." I offer no opinion on this either, I'm just a reporter.
Hanover NJ ! Still called Nike Drive !
Learn how to correctly say the word "Nuclear". Otherwise, don't narrate videos.
I wince every time I hear it like that. It’s bad enough they say it wrong but don’t they ever hear how people with working brains say it and wonder, who’s right?
Wasn't there a possibility that the bombers that were shot down would fall on people's homes and businesses?
Yes, but the alternative was total destruction of cities and their populations.
There's one around the corner from my house. Sadly though it has been torn down.
From what I understand nearby bell labs did some work on the program.
We used to sneak into the NIKE base in NJ's Watchung Reservation and go down those stairs into the darkness. As if that wasn't scary enough, one time a scuba diver was coming up as we were going down. That scared us real good. Thanx for the vid!
@enigma800 By definition of their mission, the Nike Fire Control Area must have a commanding view of the distant horizon. In most cases, that meant prime elevated real estate. The Launcher Area could be in the lowlands as long as the Missile Tracking Radar had a good Line-of-Sight to it. BTW: the film had one glaring error - It completely biffed on the location of the Launcher Area relative to Fire Control. The two areas had to be 1000-6000 yards apart, not the miles they portrayed.
That is NOT the Nike base on Jake Brown Road that you see in this video. You obviously assumed it was, but you were mistaken.
don't forget bomarc
From 1960-66 I was stationed on Nike sites in NJ and NE. Fun reading posts many having erroneous comments but over all good.
Did you happen to be stationed there while Col. Joseph Evangelist was the Base Commander?
@@WeirdNJTV I don't know the name.
It's NuClear, not Nuculear.
I don't believe the video ever said that "every Nike Herc had a nuclear warhead attached." Did it?
i love new jersey
@slvgdvg The IFC and LCA areas were separated by 1000-6000 yards to allow the Missile Tracking Radar to mechanically track as it rises vertically. I've seen them fly. Even from a mile away it just sh*ts n gits straight up and you have to raise your eyes rapidly to follow it. I've heard that it passes Mach 1 shortly after clearing the launcher. It's nearly a mile up in 4 seconds at which time the booster drops off and the rocket motor burns for 30 more. It coasts hypersonic for ~3 minutes.
@Jerry74 We had Rules of Engagement and other strategies for minimizing Friendly damage. Airbursts are virtually fall-out free and our warheads weren't all that large as nukes go. If the NY-PHiladelphia defense did their jobs right we'd make big splashes over salt water.
In my time (70's) we had minimum HE and mostly nukes in CONUS; the opposite in Europe. Had we been there on 9/11 we would have had an HE or two to use. Nuclear Release would not have been authorized.
@dmc081 Yup, in '74 we closed the last 48 of 52 Nike Sites because someone in DC decided we would never have to deter or defeat an air-breathing threat. Nothing replaced us and nowwe're at the mercy of anyone who can evade the thinly scattered F-16's by will or just dumb luck like they did on 9/11. Hercules' standard was to be able to put fire on a target within 20 seconds of painting it with radar. Under 3 minutes later at Mach 3.5 - boom - confetti! We are undefended from air attack.
@Buckoux Part 2: Placing Air Defense around the defended area is the BEST way to assure protection. Your enemy must approach YOU. Those "Rings of Steel" overlapped and any target could be engaged by at least two sites, more as it got closer. The Air Force is woefully inequipped to deal with any credible airborne attack. They never even painted the 9/11 attackers with radar, much less identified or locked on them. We are totally defenseless. I always thought Patriot would replace us. Guess not.
@Buckoux I hear ya, Buck. Part 1: I was there to close down NY-56 on Sandy Hook in '74 (when they closed 48 of the last 52 CONUS sites) and we knew there would no longer be a shield against air-breathing aircraft, which someone decided would never happen. Fast-forward to 9/11. As I watched the second plane hit on liveTV my first thought was that Charlie Battery or one of its brethren could have easily prevented that second attack. Continued...
We agree. However, there is one thing that has always struck me as "weird" regarding the nuclear Nike-Hercules sites. These Nike sites were never the object of anti-war protests. I believe that the US Left was under orders from the Kremlin to leave the Nike sites alone. After all, the Nike site positions were well known and I'm sure that the Russians knew what kind of warheads were mounted. And, by the time of ICBM's in the mid 1960's, the Nike-Herc was obsolete and the Russians needn't care.
There is nothing "weird" about the Nike site placements. When the Ajax system was first installed, in the mid-1950's these areas were rural farmland, woodland or mountain. The more advanced Nike-Hercules missile phased out the obsolete Nike-Ajax missile by upgrading and using existing Ajax sites. The Nike missiles were not "put" in the suburbs by design. The suburbs grew OUT to encroach on the Nike sites over time. What is "weird" is that "WeirdNJTV" has failed to properly research his subject.
Marshall Island tests in the Pacific were carried out knowing which way the wind was blowing, which resulted in children playing in the fallout, as if it were snow. The islanders were used as test subjects, their health devastated. People living downwind of the Nevada Test Site in Utah have had terrible health problems. And fallout was blown across the country, which is why many people who were young then had Strontium-90 in their baby teeth. (Fallout on grass eaten by cows whose milk we drank)
I don't know what's so "weird" about a Nike site. I was on them in Europe, Korea, and the USA. And yes, the ones in US Army control had nuclear warheads! The reason for this was to consume the enemy's "atomic" bomb" in a nuclear holocaust of Nike's making at 30,00ft and 100mi. away to spare the bomb from falling on a city with the enemy aircraft. Around Los Angele and San Francisco there were missiles with about 325 nuclear warheads. Nothing ever went wrong, did it? There's a moral in all that.
The playground in the beginning about 1:45 in, is from the Nike base in East Hanover NJ right? The street in front of it is called Nike drive now. I went here a bunch of times when i was in high school. I remember the merry go round had that writing on it, "and we all fall down". it was kind of creepy, i still have a bunch of pics of that ghost town when the houses were still intact. Too bad they knocked down all the houses now.
I dont know where these guys are getting your info from but the abandond houses in Old Brigde,NJ on Jake Brown Rd at that old base haven't been empty that long. My aunt used to live in one of those houses when I was 10 or 11 and I'm 25 now. My cousins and I used go there every weekend. I even remember playing in the old playground as a kid. That place has only been empty about 13 years, man those guys will believe anything.
@Buckoux So was the defended area stationary. THAT is what made us so effective as a deterrent. You had to get through us first and we weren't exactly going to go down easy. Our targets came to US.
The future of Air Defense when they closed us down was a bunch of widespread zoomies doing tail chases if they could even get a bead on the bogey. We're screwed.
@Jsouthwell2006 Actually, you do. Though Canada adopted a no-nuclear weapon position, Canadian forces served and continue to serve as one-half of a most unusual and unprecedented bi-national military command, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). You also have the Canadian Mounties. Way cool.
Actuall I live in Connecticut I have checked out quite a few sites in CT. But usually the are now Army reserve base or the entranceses are filled with dirt and have yet to enter one but they radar sites are cool to check out. Most places have been knocked down but the one in Cromwell still has standing buildings
LOl i was in the army in norway in 86 and we had this sytem, it was designed in the 0s but modded several times upto the 90s in the end we had to scrap it due to lack of parts from ths us lo we only had tnt warheads in this types of missiles cause we dont allow nucks on norwegian soil hhahah but we had the system to launch it. cold war ass history.
The 1963 aerial recon image of my nearby Nike site shows regular power lines. Anyone know if the strategic defense of the continental USA was compromised whenever the thunderstorms knocked out rural power stations? Zero defense of the actual base. Guard house, chain-link, and then nukes.
yo thats my fuckin town! :D
i used to visit that base all the time i loved the abandoned houses
i was so sad one day when i went there with my friend to take pics and it was all fuckin condos
it made me so upset.
the abandoned playground is still there though
Jake Brown Rd in Old Bridge NJ had a site as well. The Board of Ed has taken over the land and they are now doing construction for apartments right on route 9 Southbound in the area.
WOW! Just stumbled across this old vid! I was stationed at two Nike bases, late 60's! Dallas/Worth, Texas and Cincinnati/Dayton Ohio! As they were being closed, literally right under me , I reenlisted for Computer training and was assigned to FT. Monmouth NJ. We lived on Sandy Hook and used the beaches on the Nike base! The locals called us "Nike Trash" but the VFW gave us free beer! LOL!
my teacher told us stories of when he was little he went inside of the misile silos and it was like people droped everything where they were and just left....everything was ther......it was like the power went out
we had this samsites in Norway upto 93, they told us they was for aircrash formations , a load of bullshit all the security around it. f boring also i was crew man 2. i had the f static box and 2 missiles to check.
I gotta say this- Hey Hun I going to play with Nuclear missles and then I going to Smut club imagine some 1950s housewife --all that primitve mentality then ...hearing some Airforce control man saying that?
I live in CT and all of the bases that I have been to are torn down except for the launch site in Glastonbury CT. The bunkers are still there but you can only look in. I wish more of thenm where kept up for history
There was one less than a mile from my childhood house in Camden County, and it was the local forbidden place kids liked to explore and tell crazy stories about cameras popping out of the ground and being chased by black trucks lol
My father also did his time in the underground Nike Sites. California and Nevada I Believe. Army Capt. Richard Williams, he passed away in 2015. Who knows if maybe the toxins/chemicals are related to all the illnesses he had. Died in his late 70's. Early death considering his father & fathers before him all lived to be in thier 100's and died from being old, unlike my father who had numerous neurological and heart related diagnoses prior to passing. If anyone else can relate, msg me. Would love to hear your story or relative's story.
Skull Found at Old Nike Base
Middlesex County authorities were investigating the discovery of bones at the former Nike missile outpost off Jake Brown Road on Thursday. Police confirmed the discovery of a human skull in the woods near Route 9. Over 100 soldiers and 16 Nike Hercules missiles were on alert during the base's Cold War heyday. The Army closed the base in the early 1970s. Several ranch houses, once used to house military officers but abandoned and boarded up, dot the 41-acre parcel.
theres a BOMARC MISSILE site on Route 539 in New Egypt just near Whiting, Nj. its all fenced off but you can see it from the road but to get really in you have to walk thru the woods
We pass thru there on the way to grannies house in Whiting. Always wondered what was back there
umm... I don't think it would really matter if one ducked and covered when one would be disintegrated by a nuclear blast...
We used to hang out and party at the one in Wayne. It was very cool. Does anyone know if it is still there?
@anhacus i am wondering what this desk is made of that is going to protect you from a nuclear blast.
Sensational? Yes. Provocative? Yes. Not factual? Well, weird is a subjective term and like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder.
Ah the memories, I recall the Livingston/Hanover location!
Ha, ha! "NUCULAR". Reminds of that Alaskan Governor.
I can’t understand how otherwise intelligent literate people can mangle that word so much.
I’ve spoken to some of them and they insist they never noticed the disconnect between their pronunciation and its spelling.
It’s puzzling to me why they never noticed how normal people say it.
Weren’t they concerned about the EMP associated with a high altitude nuke blast?
The Nike-Hercules Missile was an excellent "bird" but it was obsolete for its mission with the advent of missile firing submarines. First of all, the incoming enemy missile must be detected and tracked to feed its position into a computer to guide the defending missile to the enemy missile.The Nike system radar could not "see" far enough, or move fast enough, to detect and track an incoming ICBM. Period. The Nike System was designed and intended for aircraft and NOT ballistic missiles w/nukes.
You got it down Buck. Three radars, acquisition, missile tracking and target tracking.
No, the Nike-Hercules was truly obsolete by 1970 by sub launched ICBM's. I'm no cheerleader when it comes to the facts. I did meet a few officers in the "old" service, before the all-volunteer military, and they tended to be, "institutionalized". The Nike Herc was a truly remarkable performer and with modern electronics and another booster it would be very useful today, but for one fatal flaw. It's land based and therefore it is a stationary TARGET! The future of air defense is in submarines.
Huh? As far as I know, no nation has ever used submarines to attack airborne targets.
Fixed position or not, Hercules was formidable.
Is there an effective shoot and scoot HIGH ALTITUDE, LONG RANGE Air Defense system that I haven’t heard about?
Crazy thing is that they were armed with nuclear warheads. The point of doing that was so one missle could take out a number of incoming Bears or Bisons. The big drawback to it was that if they were ever fired on an incoming bomber group(or used on Sept 11 hypothetically), the resulting detonation of the missle would leave a large amount of radioactive fallout. Alot of which could be blown back toward NYC and other populated areas.
A 20 kiloton air burst that doesn’t contact the ground yields negligible fallout. Compare that to a megaton-range weapon detonated at the enemy’s chosen altitude.
There have been tests done with Army officers standing directly below a detonation.
ive seen one of the bases and peepz play airsoft on the old base to
There is a base by my house in coillers mills new jersey were tho booster of a nike missle blew up and exsposed the core iradiating the whole area
why doesn't the Park Service or a state park agency restore some of these sites and open them for tours?
I went on a guided tour of a base in MO in '65. the Army encouraged the public to tour the base at the time
Better yet, sell them off and put the money towards the national debt.
"Would you like to get fried with that??"
oh ok, seeing those magazines and reading comments made me rethink. i never went into the base, but it wasn't far from the road.
now i know
A) why there are two sections to the base, launch and monitor
B) that its magazines.
still not sure what kind of nike missiles they had thoiugh. i think it must have been the newer ones because local people said there was military activity up to the 80's so...
Also i met some guy who worked on this project as a scientist. interesting stuff
If you want to see some of these and live near one, do it soon. Several were near my house as little as ten years ago, but have been paved over and developed since. If you google "Eds Nike Page" you'll find a guy who's done a lot of Nike research, and among his site (it's a little cluttered) is a KMZ file you can load into Google Earth to show you all of the known former Nike locations - there's likely one nearby you wherever you are.
Hey thanks sloiselle1. Yes, we were wearing lav mics for the outdoor speaking parts.
@rocksmeller99 There are two that I know of open for tours - one in San Francisco and another in the Florida Everglades. I agree though. The history of these sites is very interesting, but at the time this wasn't considered, and our government seems to have a penchant for dismantling buildings and installations once its finished with them.
Want weird? Try diving the Texas Tower 180' deep on air.
The V2 rocket; captured rocket technology as transfered by the United States Army to the National Areonautics Space Administration. Later technology of Sputnik by the USSR and NASA when shared with issues of radio telemetry was the on-set of the peace process and begining of the internet with satellite relay. Thor-Delta rockets launched Relay 1 (Dec. 13, 1962) and Relay 2 (Jan. 21, 1964) into elliptical orbits...successfully retransmitted television, telephone and digital signals. Source NASA
@matt605 Commercial power was used for normal operations but we had our own generators and 3 self-contained methods of communicating between operational areas for tactical operations. In the Ice Storm of '73 we had no commercial power on the 'Hook for days. The site stayed up and maintained its readiness.
You, me, anyone alone and unauthorized, unaccompanied and unbadged would be German Shepard poop if we tried to penetrate the Exclusion Area.
@slvgdvg There were typcally 3 Launcher Section, each containing 4 launchers, one of which was on an elevator going into the underground Magazine. Down there were 6 Hercules lined up cheek to jowl. On a drill or actual mission all launchers would be loaded with a variety of warheads so the BCO (Battery Control Officer) would have strategic options in engaging his assigned target. The strategy here in the Cold War was to use the largest warhead permitted by the situation to maximize success.
@hadd13 Have you seen the combined IFC/Admin Area site on Scantic Road, about 1/2 mile east of Rte 5? The Cross for the church that now occupies the land is on the tower where the Missile Tracking Radar was mounted back in the day. Talk about turning swords into plowshares?
As that part of CT is very flat and the location is the only 'hill' (what, 25'?) in the area, the towers give better radar views above the trees. Even at sea level surrounded by water on Sandy Hook we had up to 18' towers.
I have very distinct memories of touring a Nike Ajax site right here in our small town, It was designated D-51 Grosse Ile NAS. My adventurous friends and i toured the 3 silos there several times in the late 70s thru early 80s. This site was never updated to Nike Hercules, so it was deemed obsolete in 1962. I distinctly remember the darkness below, the acrid smells, and the sign on the wall stenciled saying "Make sure JATO Fins do not extend over platform when raising to surface" Cool cool cool
Pretty sure misfits made a song about these missiles