Visited a Nike Missile base today
 

I didn't realize they were nuke tipped.

The tour guide told us they could reach mach speed in the distance of their own length.
150 dBA at launch with a 300 foot long fire plume.

They raised the weapon into launch position and then we went downstairs.

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They brought the missile underground on a hydraulic elevator.

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5 others down here

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They told us the missile could travel from SF to Sac in 17 seconds.

Supposedly the most expensive military system in history.
30 years of maintaining nearly 300 sites and 220,000 missiles.

The tour is the first Saturday of the month at the Marin Headlands.


KT

They could carry a nuke that was more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

I always thought these were designed to hit their target.
Nope, just get close and go nuclear.

They were supposed to go very high, flatten out and dive towards the target at high speed.

Makes you wonder what tech has advanced to in the last 40 years.


KT

Also, the area is home to many abandoned military defense installations.

This is a hardened big gun battery.

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Very strange to walk through all of the tunnels and artillery storage areas.

The area has many old sites that were designed to protect the Bay Area from WWI, WWII and even WWIII attacks.

Under the SF side of the Golden Gate bridge is an old Brick military fort.
Fort Point, San Francisco - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


KT

Marin Headlands - Golden Gate National Recreation Area

The views of the Bay Area are very nice from the top of the hills.

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KT

Very cool! I was going to visit one near Albuquerque when there on business but ran out of time. Interesting artifact of an era that will hopefully never be repeated.

We toured that one a few years ago.

They had the radar units spinning and let us ride the elevator into the magazine. Most of the volunteers were stationed there at one time in their careers - spoke of "lighting up" airliners late at night for "practice". Heh...

This is a _must see_ tour, especially considering you can ride the SF city bus there.

They told us the missile could travel from SF to Sac in 17 seconds.
With some of our BS laws coming from Sacremento this fact makes me say Hmmmm

MIM-14 Nike-Hercules - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I'm sad that so much of our technology is for killing.


KT

The tour guides, who were older men that were stationed at the base years ago, felt the same way.

There were 11 such bases in the Bay Area back in the 70's.
Most people didn't know there were nuclear missiles at the ready on both sides of the Golden Gate.


KT

Here's a video I just found from the same base.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x5LhIfAN1-Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Same tour guide, too.


KT

Very cool stuff. I used to ride my bicycle past this place when roaming the hood during my elementary school years.


Richboro Pennsylvania Nike Base PH07A

At the time it was just some abandoned building to myself and my fellow ankle biting hoodlums

Youz' guys would would not believe all the nukes we had spread all over the world....back in the day. AA missiles were a very small part of it.

I was part of SASCOM back in 69-70. The first two letters in the acronym are "Special Ammunition". My detachment alone kept about 40 of em'. Pick a NATO country....they were there.

We had a Nike missle base in Westport, CT in the late 50's and early 60's. It was a short lived base, but we had fun looking around there in the mid 70's.

I'm surprised those haven't all been turned into wine cellars by now

Cool but scary. Thank the sweet Jesus they were never used.

There is one in Denton Texas, It has 4 launchers. I fly all of my students over it.

I grew up around those things. My father was a Nike Hercules Missle Specialist. CWO4 when he retired. When I was 14 I went to White Sands New Mexico and saw them range tested. Awsome experience. And you're right, they were not designed to be a direct strike weapon, having a nuclear warhead they only had to be close to be effective.

One in Fullerton, Ca too.

There is one about half a mile from my house (Fort MacArthur).

What I hear is they were air to air anti nuke missiles, as said meant to just get close and detonate to take down any incoming bombers/missiles.

Most likely some fallout would drift onto US soil, the lesser of two evils.

There were a bunch of those around my area . Still a lot of remnants remaining. Amazed that they placed so many of them smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood.