BOMARC 'em (Russian bombers)
When I was a kid my town had nuclear tipped Hercules SAM missile installations as part of the ring that protected New York and Philadelphia, the installations were just a few miles from my home. I’m sure that made my town a target at the time, as a Soviet surprise ICBM or SLBM attack would look to knock out those installations to allow their bombers to get through. Eventually as ICBM’s became even more prevalent with less emphasis on bombers, the Hercules sites were considered obsolete and decommissioned back in the 1970s. Don’t know if my town is a direct target anymore, but I’m close enough to New York that it probably doesn’t matter anyway.
The Soviets put the lie to themselves in the ABM treaty. They claimed Russia would never be the first to use nuclear weapons. In the treaty, the two countries agreed to protect the missile silos with ABMs, or their cities, but not both.
The US elected to ring our missile sites with ABMs. The Soviets elected to ring Moscow, giving the lie to their no first strike claim. There was no need to protect their ICBM sites because those missiles would be launched in a first strike.
Moscow was ringed to defend against the counter strike.
By ringing our missile sites with ABMs, we were defending our ability to retaliate.
Was that Ft. Hancock, NJ? I drove up there in 65 from Ft. Monmouth. I saw the Nike site. One of the guys I was stationed with a year later had been assigned to that base.