When this photo was taken in 1958, MetroParkCentralis was still the 7th largest city in America. I saw the remains of these in a staggering number of places. The memorable ones were at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay and up the Tennessee Valley in Marin County just north of the Golden Gate. Others were found (great high school party spots in the 70s) at Selfridge Air Force Base just north of Detroit.
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| Nike Missile at Cleveland in 1958 |
I am amazed at the kind relentless dedication that would keep men on guard at these sites in all weathers against a malignant enemy year in and year out with nothing to see but the contrails of friendly planes flying peacefully between the US and Canada. I suppose their peers were found in the Coast Artillery who had forts, fortresses and batteries scattered up and down the American coastline. They lasted well into the The Great Patriotic War and yet, not counting our own goals during the Civil War, the last time they ever fired a shot in anger was during the War of 1812. They were a great source of patronage though for the defense that was in it.
In the urban areas wheresoever you find an untrammeled patch of inexplicable green you can probably trace its origin back to an air defense missile site or a coast defense site such as Governor's Island, Fortress Monroe, Angel Island,
Fort Adams.
4 comments:
And in Bratenahl and that driving range you pass on the way to the freeway. I'm not sure where the one in the photo was located - do you know?
I am amazed at the kind relentless dedication that would keep men on guard at these sites in all weathers against a malignant enemy year in and year out with nothing to see but the contrails of friendly planes flying peacefully between the US and Canada.
Ahem. At least the guys at the Nike sites were posted to CITIES. My brothers-in-arms and I in the long-range air defense radar bid'niz spent a whole lotta time on lonely, cold mountain tops in some of the most gawd-fersaken territory you can imagine... right here in the USofA. One such place.
Which is not meant to take anything away from the Nike guys, of course. ;-)
Curtis, the roommate of my cousin at West Point ( WP '43 who married his sister,) was in missiles in the Army post WWII and was an O-5 CO of the Nike Ajax/Hercules site on San Pablo Ridge, overlooking SF circa 1959-61. Had a GREAT view of the Bay--when the fog lifted, that is, which wasn't until about 1100 am. He made O-6 out of that assignment, then the Army canx their AD missile program and turned everything over to the AF and there went his meal ticket and all the Flags that had promoted him retired. He never made Flag rank as after that he never sat a promotion board that had a General he ever worked for..
The old site? It's now part of a National Park, natch..
I'm going to find out if all the locations of the Nike Hercules are on the intertubes.
I really don't think I was cut out for the USAF. That's what I told them after they told me my eyes had degraded below the minimum level for any kind of flying duty and then I joined the navy. I had to motivate the sonar operators in real and presumed minefields to keep alert to the danger and not fall asleep. (We worked pretty hard in those days). Trying to stay focused on long range--just about impossible.....except the one time we were doing surface surveillance in Failaka Island for Maritime Intercept Operations and atmospheric ducting often times allowed us to paint the coast of Iran with our radar. We didn't want to see Iran so much as the Shat-al-Arab and Khor-Abdullah which were effectively rendered invisible to our radar by the same atmospheric ducting.
VX, a lot of the time it all comes down to timing. It's easy sometimes to lose sight of that when things don't work out entirely as expected. I enjoy finding these cool remnants of a very different age. Like Fegler's railroad to Key West.
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