Cold War Relic

[WU2D]

I was driving through Vermont to the rental house I own in Canton NY up over Rouses Point last weekend and as I came out of Swanton near Alburg and for the first time, I noticed Missile Road.  I went down the road and found what looked like a scrap yard of some kind. The plot belongs to the Chevalier Drilling Company. Near the Quonset huts, surrounded by Chevalier's trucks and cranes, are two massive, metal-rimmed blocks of concrete. Each weighs 45 tons. They're actually doors nearly half a century old.

Turns out Swanton Vermont could take out Moscow. http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/bombs-away/Content?oid=2135204

[KL7OF]

There was some question as to whether those Atlas "F" missiles could reach Moscow...

[W7TFO]

The last complete silo, with a Titan missile, is about 100 mi. South of me.

It is a well-kept museum now, well worth a stop if you are out this way.

There is not much more sobering than standing the control room, thinking what it would've been like to turn both launch keys and light off that monster...

73DG

[KD6VXI]

I was lucky enough to get to go flying in a small plane with a family member once.   He took me over his parents house,  as a landmark,  and then farther up the mountain showed me some use slabs of concrete.

Even at a few hundred feet,  you could see they where designed to slide.

I understand these where Nike silos....   In the mountains of Brea,  CA.

Also,  San Diego's Laguna Mtn has all sorts of goodies to check out.   Early missile warning base from the air force,  missile silos and things I stumbled on as a kid I never did figure out wtf....

--Shane
KD6VXI

[N8ETQ]

  Yo'


      I was in one just south of CLE prolly 30 yrs
ago now. It too was in a cornfield and housed ATT
equipment unique to DOD circuits... Creepy enough to
be Cool... I think it was NIKE.

/Dan

[K9PNP]

There are a lot of these around, though most are now not recognizable for what they were.  Was involved with the Nike Hercules system in the 60's.

In case anyone is interested, here is a site with some info:

http://www.nikemissile.org/

[Steve - K4HX]

This radio club has there station and club house at an old Nike site.

http://www.w3vpr.org

IIRC correctly, the Nikes were defensive and short range (not ICBMs).

[W7TFO]

The giant discone HF antenna at the Titan museum is still extant, and hams are welcome to connect to the provided 50Z coax cable.

http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/index.php?pg=15

73DG

[W6TOM]

 My father was in the Massachusetts National Guard, when I was a kid he took me to some Nike sites around the Boston area. There is a site not far from where I live now in the Bay Area, top of a hill above San Leandro, CA, there is a number of radio sites there now, looks over the area well. There are still some old buildings and the concrete pads the radars were on.

 If you ever get to the Bay Area the is a well preserved site in Marin County just across the Golden Gate Bridge, I went there on a Saturday last year in August, there are a number of volunteers who served on these sites there as guides. One story that sticks in my mind is one guy telling how the Russians would fly into Alaska to test the air defenses and on one occasion they were just about to launch missiles on a group of Russian planes when they detected that they were on the target radar and turn a 180 degrees and left at high speed.

 https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm

[N0WEK]

There is a intact Atlas D site, one of three controlled by Offut Air Force base, near Arlington, NE that I used to fly over every day. It reverted to the local farmer when they decommissioned it after it had been in use for two years, missile development was moving fast. It still has it retractable tin roofs, blockhouse, generator building and guard shack and the fence is still intact. I never did get there on the ground to check it out, although I talked to the current owner about it. Her kids used it for paintball games, and it was rented out for grazing.

http://www.enterprisepub.com/arlingtoncitizen/photos/former-arlington-missile-base/collection_4ba8af96-6e5e-11e3-9bf0-001a4bcf6878.html#1

It was up for sale in 2013

http://www.enterprisepub.com/news/local_news/history-in-their-own-backyard/article_a36eeb88-6e62-11e3-9d15-001a4bcf6878.html

[WD8KDG]

I was lucky enough to get to go flying in a small plane with a family member once.   He took me over his parents house,  as a landmark,  and then farther up the mountain showed me some use slabs of concrete.

Even at a few hundred feet,  you could see they where designed to slide.

I understand these where Nike silos....   In the mountains of Brea,  CA.

Also,  San Diego's Laguna Mtn has all sorts of goodies to check out.   Early missile warning base from the air force,  missile silos and things I stumbled on as a kid I never did figure out wtf....

--Shane
KD6VXI

Brea, CA...........................I spent about 10 years there. Didn't know of the Nike silos, would be interested as to a more specific direction/location.

Thanks,
Craig

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Mike, I recall that site in Swanton being for sale some years back, but along with being flooded even back then and a nasty mess, it's really not near anything. Pumping it out would be the easy part.

If anyone ever decides they want one, these folks specialize in missile and other interesting properties:

http://www.missilebases.com/

IIRC correctly, the Nikes were defensive and short range (not ICBMs).

Correct. NIKE missiles were not in silos per say, though they were kept in what was referred to as magazines with iron doors. Generally three missiles per site. Silos would be Atlas or beyond. NIKE was originally a short range anti-aircraft weapon later developed into ABM capabilities.

Here's a look at one from overhead:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/39%C2%B024'02.0%22N+83%C2%B052'57.0%22W/@39.4008841,-83.8844102,289m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d39.400556!4d-83.8825

And some shots of the launch facilities.

[Mike/W8BAC]

This site is about a mile from my house. We drove by it when I was a kid. Occasionally we could see the missiles standing out of the magazines. I read the nuclear weapon tipped Nike's where set for air burst. You didn't have to score a direct hit.

[WB2EMS]

I remember seeing the Nike missiles on launchers as we'd go to and from Long Island to Westchester near one of the bridges as a kid, probably the Whitestone bridge. Being a geek, I thought they were cool. Ah, back in a day when we took defense as a serious subject.

[W1RKW]

CT has a former NIKE missile sight about 8 miles from my QTH here in CT. It's remnants are now in a state forest and cordoned off from would be explorers.

[KD6VXI]

I was lucky enough to get to go flying in a small plane with a family member once.   He took me over his parents house,  as a landmark,  and then farther up the mountain showed me some use slabs of concrete.

Even at a few hundred feet,  you could see they where designed to slide.

I understand these where Nike silos....   In the mountains of Brea,  CA.

Also,  San Diego's Laguna Mtn has all sorts of goodies to check out.   Early missile warning base from the air force,  missile silos and things I stumbled on as a kid I never did figure out wtf....

--Shane
KD6VXI

Brea, CA...........................I spent about 10 years there. Didn't know of the Nike silos, would be interested as to a more specific direction/location.

Thanks,
Craigy

Craig,

It was my grandmother's sisters home.   She passed away about 20 years ago,  but she did leave quite a few kids.   Let me see if I can get the address of the house they grew up in from one of the family.

Otherwise,  next time I'm down there (couple times a month),  I'll get some bearings.

I DO remember it was north of a large mall.   I had ridden my bike to the mall before (spent summers there).....   And was a pre teen,  so had to be somewhat close.

I'll see what I can do for ya.

--Shane
KD6VXI

Well,  that was easy.

My uncle who took me flying said he grew up on Alta Mesa Rd.   The missile area was to the north,  intermingled in the oil field stuff on the mtn he said.

It has been near 15 years since he's been back,  so it may be overgrown.   He's moved to the high Desert,  and used to fly out of Fullerton muni airport on a regular basis.

I'll dig up anything else I can.

[Opcom]

The last complete silo, with a Titan missile, is about 100 mi. South of me.

It is a well-kept museum now, well worth a stop if you are out this way.

There is not much more sobering than standing the control room, thinking what it would've been like to turn both launch keys and light off that monster...

73DG

Can you stand smugly in front of the controls and get yer pic taken?

I suppose it is long past de-milled.

[W7TFO]

Yep, you & a bud, as it took 2 to launch.  Imagine what pressures were on crews in those days, to hold the keys to such death & destruction.

The giant missile engine was hypergolic-fueled by hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide. 

When the launch sequence was initiated, the fuels were mixed internally and immediately went to high order with no stopping it.

The guide will say, however, if launch was to be scrubbed immediately, the order was to close the blast doors before the missile lifted off. 

Needless to say, at that point it was death for everyone in the facility.....

[WA2SQQ]

NJ had two that I'm aware of. One was in Mountainside and the other in Mahwah. The Mahwah site is now condos. Of more interst is the old Curtis Wright site near Lodi NJ. That site went down several levels. There are so many stories about it that it's difficult what was fact and what was urban legend.

[K9PNP]

This site is about a mile from my house. We drove by it when I was a kid. Occasionally we could see the missiles standing out of the magazines. I read the nuclear weapon tipped Nike's where set for air burst. You didn't have to score a direct hit.

You are correct.  The system tracked both the target and the missile and told the missile when to detonate.  Worked rather well considering the computing capability and technology of the time.

The current Patriot missile system uses basically the same method, but, obviously with much better technology and conventional warheads.