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

[Story]

Seeing those giant B-36's in low level flight must've been a sight to see!
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[video=youtube;hCViKu9XlbQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCViKu9XlbQ[/video]

I can remember seeing little silver Air National Guard F-102s headed east while sitting on the beach and if you tuned your AM transistor radio just right, you could listen to 'woodpecker' noises from the Soviet "fishing wessels" offshore.

This post has an onion tied to it's belt.

 

[Renault]

WOW! Thanks for posting Story! When I was born (1956) we lived on Fairfax st. In the West Ridglea neighborhood! South of the big traffic circle! We left there in late 1959 and moved further out on the westside. This was the old neighborhood!!!!!!!! Ft. Worth Gal will know where I'm talking about!

Renault

 

[mdove]

I grew up in sunny North Dakota. We had two air bases there, Minot and Grand Forks. Both had loaded, nukes, B-52's on the tarmack ready to go. I think there were 16 B-52's ready and loaded to go at each base. There was just enough fuel in them to get them up quickly...keep them light. Each had it's own tanker to refuel it once airborne. Used to be kind of scary to drive by and see them with some low ranking airman walking his guard post. There were also, IIRC, about 150 missle silos around each base. IIRC if ND would have seceded from the US thy would have been the 3 largest nuclear power in the world. To say we were in a target zone...... No, we did not have a bomb shelter....do not know anyone who did. I do remember buildings that were CD shelters with the yellow and black signs, and IIRC numbers on each. Also remember seeing the water and food and supply stockpiles in them.

 

[Atomic Age]

Here in Arizona we have the Titan Missile site that was used in Star Trek: First Contact. Its the only Titan Missile site in the country that is open to the pubic for tours.

http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/

Doug

 

[Slobo]

We had a Nike site in Fairfield, CT when I was a kid down by the beach. It is a landfill now. Also a police range where we could shoot.

 

[Foxer55]

I was a nuclear weapons specialist in the Army stationed in Germany. One of the missiles and warheads in our arsenal that I worked on was the Nike nuke warhead. We had a lot of them. Nike could be fitted with a tactical nuke depending on the requirement.

 

[Otter]

Thanks for reviving this thread, I missed it first time round!

 

[Story]

I didn't see Donald E. Bender's work linked here, so...
http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/N-A-ada.html

 

[Chasseur]

Not far from where I live is the remains of Fort Barrette which was a shore gun emplacement from the 1930s-40s and then a Nike missile site in the 1950s.

Originally in the 1930s it was a rather open gun affair for 16" naval guns:

Then during the war it was casemated up:

It was coverted to a Nike missile site after the war and remained so until the late 1950s or so.
Now its been abandoned, it was a public archery range for a period but I've heard even that stopped. Like most sites in Hawaii there is great controversy about what to do with it and hence nothing will be done with it and it'll sit here slowly decaying...

 

[gman41]

In New Jersey we had at least three that I know about besides sandy hook. Old Bridge Township had one on Jake Brown Rd some of which is still standing. They were called Madison Township back then.

Mountainside NJ had one in the Watchung Mountains on Summit Rd which is now the Union County Stables.

I believe there was one in Livingston NJ as well.

Hard to imagine living among soldiers and military vehicles in these areas today.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

In my area was missile site LA-32 lcoated in Garden Grove near Chapman and Western Avenues. The only remaining military presence is the headquarters of an Army Reserve unit and a small radar tower on Western. The rest is all built up with office and light industrial buildings.