The missiles are coming home. Or at least a few are, along with some salvaged radars and fire command trailers...

Working in conjunction with Cold War experts and volunteers, the US National Parks Service hopes to restore a US Nike missile base to its former glory. The remnants of the base are on 20 acres of land in the Sandy Hook Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The base, a carefully guarded part of Fort Hancock until the mid-1970s, has since been stripped, used for storage and Park vehicle maintenance, and overgrown with dune-friendly poison ivy. It is still considered the most complete base in the country, with most of the buildings and underground magazines intact.

Nike missile expert Don Bender presented a talk on the "Cold War Defenders" on August 2 at Fort Hancock. Bender is consulting with Tom Hoffman, Sandy Hook historian, and the Park as they gather relics that will provide a more complete view of life under the nuclear sun.

The Nike missile program was designed in the 1950s to protect major US cities and military installations with defensive rings of guided missiles. The conventional warheaded Nike Ajax missile, then the nuclear-capable Nike Hercules, would shoot off like 2-ton bottle rockets to greet high altitude Soviet bombers. The missiles were only fired in tests in remote areas of the world; the Jersey shore never experienced its final "Bad Day at the Beach" scenario.

Restoration activity has accelerated with the recent find of a vintage Nike Ajax missile. The missile was spotted at an Army-Navy store in Chambersburg, PA, an American flag fluttering from its side. Cost: $3,500, paid for by the Sandy Hook Foundation and donated to the project. The Park has procured other critical items, including some high power acquisition radar, and mobile fire control units. Bender was able to identify where these pieces fit into the Nike missile base puzzle.

Bender and Hoffman gave us a tour of the control area, about a mile from where the missiles were housed. The little guard house had been repainted in authentic "deadly force" green, though threats of ticks and poison ivy do more to keep out today's intruders. The fire control trailers were clustered near rusty radar platforms and decaying structures.

Park officials are hopeful that funds can be raised to do a good restoration of the base, allowing access to the public, perhaps "in a few years." For now, the site is only open for special tours.

But you can visit Guardian Park, near the tip of Sandy Hook, to see a monument to some unsung heroes of the Cold War. Fort Hancock has maintained a tribute for over twenty years to the memory of the Cold War missile men of the US Army. A whitewashed Nike Hercules missile stands adjacent to a simple granite monument. The monument names six soldiers and four civilians who were killed by a non-nuclear explosion at a Nike missile base in nearby Middletown on May 22, 1958. [08/05/2001]

November 26, 2009