SIGforum.com Main Page The Lair Nike missiles - Chicago’s secret Cold War history is hidden in plain sight
Main Page The Lair Nike missiles - Chicago’s secret Cold War history is hidden in plain sightPage 1 2
Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| Member |
This 5:32 news report focuses on Nike site C-94L. The historical footage shows lots of different missiles, not just the Nike Ajax that were at this site. Chicago’s secret Cold War history is hidden in plain sight Before the Cold War’s race for space, we had our eyes on the skies for a different reason: wondering if the Soviets would send bombers through U.S. airspace. It’s a story that’s becoming more distant with each passing day, but one Chicagoland veteran is sifting through the remnants of that era — missile silos hidden... https://wgntv.com/2019/10/13/c...dden-in-plain-sight/ 2012 article about site restoration: https://www.dailyherald.com/ar...0730/news/707309911/ The site was originally a WWII Navy airfield: http://www.airfields-freeman.c..._NW.htm#libertyville | ||
|
Member |
Only so unrelated, I grew up on the landing path for Glenview NAS. Low flying military aircraft ran straight north down our Shermer road to the airstrip a mile or more down the way. A daily thing for us, a spectacle for visitors. We played in an undeveloped field south of the airfield, it was pock marked with what I guess were bomb craters, ready made bunkers for our war games.  I remember missile arrays displayed along the lake in downtown Chicago, for show or reassurance maybe? Set the controls for the heart of the Sun. | |||
|
| Member |
My Father was a crewman on the Nike missiles back in the mid 50's. Dad was stationed in New Jersey back then. FWIR him telling me, Chicago, New York, Philly, DC, and a lot of the other major cities were surrounded by the systems. As far as Chicago, there was the one up north, IIRC, there were two out in the western suburbs, one out southwest, and another in Hegwisch on the south east side of the city. ______________________________________________________________________ "When its time to shoot, shoot. Dont talk!" “What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.” —Author Tom Clancy | |||
|
Member |
We had Nike sites surrounding Los Angeles when I was growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1960's. I'd hike up to them on occasion and wonder: "WTF is going on behind that fence?" Its my understanding that these were tipped with nuclear warheads, so "close enough" was all that was needed to render their target (Russian aircraft) "killed." "I'm not fluent in the language of violence, but I know enough to get around in places where it's spoken." | |||
|
| Member |
Lots of NIKE sites around Detroit. In the Yoop, there was a BOMARC site at Raco AFS, just S/E of Newberry. This was to protect the Soo locks. The site is still there and I have stopped several times and asked the current tenant to let me visit. But no joy. Raco also had anti aircraft artillery. Another anti aircraft site was around the lighthouse in Big Bay. A soldier stationed there killed a local tavern owner, which was the basis for the book and movie Anatomy of a Murder. End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles | |||
|
| Member |
By far the best book about Nike (missiles, not running shoes) is "Rings of Supersonic Steel." It has maps of each city's Nike Ajax and Hercules sites, though much of that info can be found on the www. IIRC, there were about 270 launch sites built, most with with the underground magazines ("silos") and elevators to raise them to the surface for firing. http://www.holeintheheadpress.com/ringsofsteel.html The Raco AF BOMARC site is long gone, it was built on an old airfield: http://www.airfields-freeman.c...fields_MI_N.htm#raco Here's an intact AF BOMARC site in NJ: http://www.airfields-freeman.c...lds_NJ_E.htm#mcguire Army Nike site SF-88L is just across the Golden Gate Bridge and has been totally restored. Several years ago I got to ride down on the elevator, but I understand that is now verboten: https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm The Army briefly operated a Spartan/Sprint ABM complex outside Grand Forks ND in the mid 70s: https://www.srmsc.org/ | |||
|
| On the wrong side of the Mobius strip  |
When I lived in Long Beach, NY, I found out about the Nike missiles that were stationed there. The location is visible on Google maps. https://www.google.com/maps/@4.../data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en | |||
|
| Member |
The aerial shows the launcher (L) site. With a mile of each firing battery was the control (C) site with radars and primitive computers. These missiles were under command guidance the entire flight, all the way from lauunch to warhead detonation. | |||
|
Delusions of Adequacy |
Kids today would be like, "Nike made missiles?" They started building an Anti Ballistic Missile site just a few miles from our house in the late 60's. There was a big outcry as people thought it would just make us a bigger target. The project was abandoned, and the big pits they dug sat empty and filling with water for years. I have my own style of humor. I call it Snarkasm. | |||
|
Bolt Thrower |
Plenty of them around Seattle as you might expect. One of them was repurposed as the north west FEMA headquarters. | |||
|
Member |
Lived in Niles for about 6 years, from about 1959 to 1965. Dad took us to watch the planes many times. | |||
|
| Member |
My family was at Travis AFB in the mid-60's. There was a Nike Hercules site near the base. Took a tour as a child at the launch site, then we were taken up to the radar site up in the hills. http://www.militarymuseum.org/T86.html | |||
|
| Not as lean, not as mean, Still a Marine  |
Bangor ME had a BOMARC site, that was obsolete by the time it was finished being built. Crazy to think how fast technology grew back then. I had the chance to tour the few remaining unmolested "coffins" as a kid, before they were all transformed to garages or storage for the small businesses that moved in. I took my wife though it a few yeas back, she didn't even believe what I was showing her, until she saw some pictures that proved what I was saying. I shall respect you until you open your mouth, from that point on, you must earn it yourself. | |||
|
| Page late and a dollar short |
http://nikehercules.tripod.com/sitemenu.html -------------------------------------—————— ————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman) | |||
|
Raptorman |
We had a NIKE base in Albany. My father worked for AT&T and he kept the data PTP microwave communications systems operational. I believe it's what gave him cancer. ____________________________ Eeewwww, don't touch it! Here, poke at it with this stick. | |||
|
"Member" |
NYC was surrounded by 19(?) of them, a half dozen on the island alone. _____________________________________________________ Sliced bread, the greatest thing since the 1911. | |||
|
| Member |
Yep. I live a few miles from an old site NY73. It was in the Watchung Reservation. Now the site is a stable, as in horses. | |||
|
| Eschew Obfuscation |
I live about 20 minutes from this site; of course, I had no idea it was there. Very interesting. Thanks for posting this. _____________________________________________________________________ “Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again." - Will Durant | |||
|
Member |
I live less than a mile from that site. "Sometimes Magic sounds like Tape" -- The Amazing Johnathan | |||
|
| Member |
I grew up a few miles from Grumman and Fairchild Republic on Long Island. There was a Nike base a block away from my Elementary school. Several other sites were scattered around the area. With our proximity to NYC and most of the military aircraft being built nearby, we knew we were a target of the Soviets. | |||
|
| Powered by Social Strata | Page 1 2 |
 | Please Wait. Your request is being processed... |
|
SIGforum.com Main Page The Lair Nike missiles - Chicago’s secret Cold War history is hidden in plain sight
Main Page The Lair Nike missiles - Chicago’s secret Cold War history is hidden in plain sight© SIGforum 2024