Nike Missle Sites or how close you were to the Cold War

[BigFitz]

To go along with my post about CONELRAD, I thought I'd post some pics of Nike missle sites. If you lived near a large metropolitan or industrial center from the '50's to the '70's, chances were good you lived close to an anti-aircraft missle site. I can't even imagine such a system today, but there were hundreds of these setup across the country to keep the Russian Bear at bay.

Near downtown Cleveland

Marin Headlands near San Francisco

Chicago

Here's a link if you're curious about these missle sites and whether one was stationed near you.

http://ed-thelen.org/

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Really good idea for a thread! I have a couple of Nike missle sites near me. One of the barracks was turned into the HQ for Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The actual site where they held the missles is about a half-mile away & is now privately owned. There is another in the next town over caled Portage.

 

[jlee562]

There's one of the launch sites in the Marin headlands which still has a dummy missile that they roll out for show every now and again.

 

[BigFitz]

By the way, the political views of the website author do not reflect my views.

 

[Fletch]

Not Nike-related, but my dad helped design the TV monitoring system in the Titan missile silos near Denver in 1961-'62. It was his first job out of the Navy, where he had been a photo and film officer.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

We used to drive past one every week when going to the super market in dad's Dodge Coronet. The white dome that housed the launcher reminded me of a giant golf ball.

 

[MissLaurieMarie]

We used to drive past one every week when going to the super market in dad's Dodge Coronet. The white dome that housed the launcher reminded me of a giant golf ball.

The town I grew up near in Saskatchewan had 3 Radar towers on the Canadian Forces Pinetree Line during the cold war. Alsask used to be an army base (CFS Alsask) and a booming town in the 70s when my dad went to school. Now it's a almost a ghost town - the base, including barracks, church, swimming pool and rec centre is still there, but abandoned. There used to be housing but it was all condemned and torn down. It's creepy going back there - I used to work alone at the pool and it creeped me out locking up at night.
One of the radar towers is still there - and we call it the golf ball.

 

[Steven180]

An interesting and valuable topic for a thread - thanks! It's important not to forget that era of our history and how it still lingers today. There is so much from those years that kids today just could not imagine or appreciate. Maybe that was the final goal though.

How different the world is today...or is it?
M.

 

[Nick D]

I grew up next door to a SAC base. We were right in line with the runway, so were were often buzzed by squadrons of B-52s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The town where I grew up was the home to the deep-water port which routed jet fuel to both Loring Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Brunswick -- and we were always told that made us a rather significant secondary target. There was an air-raid siren on my street which they blew off every day at 1130AM, just so we'd know what an alert sounded like.

 

[scotrace]

Note: Thread moved to WWII. I know it's Cold War, but it fits better here than in the catch-all OB.

 

[MPicciotto]

Growing up within 50 miles of Washington DC we had a several of these sites around me. One was turned over to the county police department. I went to a civilian "Youth Police Academy" there once (several evenings over a couple of weeks learning about the police my buddy and I were the only ones in the class not there under court orders from a Juvenile Judge). Their room search, breaching etc training was done in one of the old missile bunkers, with most of the academy held in various old buildings on the grounds. Another site has been shut down and turned over to the county but nothing done to it. Some adjacent land was sold of many years ago and a housing development went in. As kids the rumor among us was those people couldn't have swimming pools because of underground bunkers from the old missiles. It was all hogwash of course. A friend of mine lives there and has a basement with no missile in it Another site is near me now and I'm not sure what goes on there. The map books list it as county, the signs when your near it say Federal property and it has a double gate on the driveway. No guard house, but the traffic in and out all own keys, they pull in, shut one gate then open the next. Also cell phones don't work too well near there. Oddly nobody I know in the area knows what it is. (a quick look with Google Maps) shows it to appear to be a radar and radio site. Guess it's still active in some function that would explain the spotty cell coverage.

Matt

 

[BigFitz]

The town where I grew up was the home to the deep-water port which routed jet fuel to both Loring Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Brunswick -- and we were always told that made us a rather significant secondary target. There was an air-raid siren on my street which they blew off every day at 1130AM, just so we'd know what an alert sounded like.

My brother was stationed in Brunswick for three years. He was a crewmember on a P-3 Orion sub hunter/killer.

The small town I grew up in also had a Civil Defense siren mounted on top of the municipal building. It was also used for summoning Volunteers of our fire dept. and was set off every night at 10 pm to let the underage know that curfew was in effect.

 

[Renault]

I grew up next door to a SAC base. We were right in line with the runway, so were were often buzzed by squadrons of B-52s.

Our elem. school and Jr. Hi school were in a direct path of all the B-52's leaving Carswell AFB (SAC) for SE Asia, in Ft.Worth Tx. I remember our teachers having to stop lectures to let the aircraft clear out so they could resume the lecture. This was in the mid-60's and ifyou went to our school either your dad was in one of those B-52's or they were working at the General Dynamics plant across the runway. My dad was at GD.

When I was a tyke (late 50's) we lived at the south end of the runway and the B-36's would shake the plaster off the wall.

I distinctly remember a scramble once in 1962 during the Cuban Missle crisis. They came on the local TV station and I remember them saying "This is NOT a test!". And they began calling the names of squadrons/units etc that were being put on alert or standby!

For any newbies in the Austin/Travis county Texas area, there is a Nike site on FM 2244 (Bee Caves Road) on the Hill just east of the intersection of Cuernavaca drive. After it was shut down the property was given to the Univ. of Texas System. I dunno if they still have it or if it's been sold.

Do any of you remember taking a gallon jug of water to school? We did in '62. Every student had to provide for themselves a gallon jug full of water. They were kept on a shelf in the back of the class with your name on it.They really didn't sell water in those days ('cept for maybe distilled water for your iron), so what your mom did was send you to school an old clorox bottle for the purpose!!!!

Renault

 

[Stearmen]

Norad

This non descript hunk of granite is an important Cold War artifact! It is a core sample from Cheyenne Mountain, the then future home of NORAD. My Dad was given it when he was supplying electrical equipment. As a side note, ENT Air Force base Colorado Springs, had no landing strips for airplanes and was land locked. The main base was 10 miles away and was called Peterson Field, go figure!

 

[Espee]

I was looking for something on the Maps feature of my iPhone the other day, and up popped a "Nike Missile Site." (East of Los Angeles.) Sometimes they're mentioned in passing on the news, for instance "The missing boys were believed to be hiking in the vicinity of an abandonded Nike missile site."
Mapquest has some quaint info in their database too, for instance place names left from railroad lines which no longer exist. I don't know if anyone living near, for instance, "Home Junction" west of L.A. even knows that they are. That's where a Pacific Electric line branched off to serve the "Soldiers Home" at Sawtelle-- now known as West L.A. VA Hospital.
But I still don't know how you get a computer map to show each town in a different color! Ya know, like most printed maps of the last 50 years?

 

[59Lark]

Several years ago, a fella told me that the lime pits nearby here, beachville ont, about a couple miles from my house , had at least two russian warheads aimed at them. Really Beachville is a whistle stop, its lime pit is one of the largest in the world, you did at least then need lime to make steel, so the russians were going to stop north american steel production and wipe beachville and a lot of oxford county off the map. 59LARK

 

[BigFitz]

When I was a tyke (late 50's) we lived at the south end of the runway and the B-36's would shake the plaster off the wall.

I distinctly remember a scramble once in 1962 during the Cuban Missle crisis. They came on the local TV station and I remember them saying "This is NOT a test!". And they began calling the names of squadrons/units etc that were being put on alert or standby!Renault

Seeing those giant B-36's in low level flight must've been a sight to see!

"This is NOT a test", what a chilling statement to hear on the TV or radio back in 1962! How old were you? Just curious if you were old enough to understand what might happen next.

 

[Renault]

Seeing those giant B-36's in low level flight must've been a sight to see!

"This is NOT a test", what a chilling statement to hear on the TV or radio back in 1962! How old were you? Just curious if you were old enough to understand what might happen next.

I was in the first grade. When it happened I paid little attention to it. I was talking or something, Dad told me to shut the he** up as he was trying to listen to what was being said. That's what REALLY got my attention! LOL! Then I remember hearing the announcer callingthe names of sections at Carswell, followed by something like "Report to your wing HQ"..... We had laid in several boxes of foodstuffs to take to the woods in the event of a bug out. Along with other necessities. Dunno what made 'em think we'd have got out with missles falling out of the sky!

 

[Tango Yankee]

I am a Cold War Veteran. It says so in my shadow box. My first duty station in 1980 was Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, assigned to HQ Strategic Air Command. It's funny... but I noticed over the years that those of us who had been assigned to HQ SAC would say that we were "at" SAC, wheras those assigned to other SAC bases would say they were "in" SAC. Those of us at SAC figured that if the balloon ever went up we were dead, along with everyone around the base. We NEVER had military exercises at SAC as we were performing our mission for real every day.

My wife was stationed at Carswell AFB in the late '80s through early '90s; she was on the base closure team. When they had their exercises the goal was to "flush the birds", i.e. get the bombers and tankers airborne as soon as possible. Every exercise ended with everyone on base being killed by nuclear missiles.

Ah, the memories!!!

Cheers,
Tom