I’m old enough to remember the Nike sites back in the day.
That was a building boom wasn’t it? Huge coffins all across the fruited plain with great white missiles on hydraulic lifts for the bomber threat that wasn’t.
I wonder if we still have Honest John’s, Jupiters and Pershings in our arsenal somewhere?
I’m old enough to remember the Nike sites back in the day.
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They were so cool!!
My battery's motor pool was about 5 miles from a remote Nike Hercules battery. We socialized quite a bit, as we were the only two Army units at Hahn AB. It was a difficult assignment for them, lots of pressure.
My battery's mission was short range air defense at Hahn, two platoons of Chaparral SP systems, and two platoons of Towed Vulcans. During 77-78, I was a platoon leader for three of the four platoons (not at the same time, of course).
One of my "extra duties" was to lead a platoon of 40 soldiers to support that Nike Hercules battery during their Nuclear Surety Inspections. The usual scenario was they were attacked by terrorists attempting to take over their cantonment area.
There are two of them in my neighborhood.