Important Announcement

We would like to thank our loyal fellow members of the Nike Historical Society for your continued support over the years. We will be closing the Society, including the store, as of March 31, 2024. We have acquired a large repository of Nike technical information. The web site will continue to be available. It has been our pleasure to keep the legacy of the Nike missile's contribution of the successful conclusion to the Cold War.

the Board of Directors
Nike Historical Society

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7/23/2023: LA-88 (Los Angeles), from a presentation by the Chatsworth Historical Society, and including information from Greg Brown, who served at LA-88 and now volunteers with the Nike Historical Society at SF-88.

July 17, 2023: Roger R. started a conversation with Ed Durffee and Phil Esquibel about the inadvertent launch of a Nike missile in South Korea in 1967.


B C O cartoon

March 2023: Walter David Blanch today sent us what is apparently the missing cartoon in our collection of Matlick Nike cartoons.


August 10, 2022 New Law Expands VA Care and Benefits for Toxic-Exposed Veterans


Nike site HA-08 high par tower under construction

March 2022: Tom Cluff talks about his experiences in the Army and the two Nike Sites he served at in Connecticut. Plus he's included many photographs and documents from that time, including photos of site HA-08 being upgraded with elevated radar platforms and other improvements.


Al Kellogg is reconstructing the dog yard obstacle course at site SF-88. The Nike Historical Society and the National Park Service are paying for the materials. Although a lot of varied work is done to restore, maintain, and improve site SF-88, this is the first report of such work reported by NikeMissile.org. Al is president of the Nike Historical Society.

Sept. 2019: Thomas Moorer says being accidentally shot was a danger at Nike sites.

July 2019: Gerald Browning alerts us to a story from PBS station KQED about Nikes in the San Francisco bay area and SF-88 in particular.

April 1, 2019: Terry Fetterman sent a 1966 photo of himself at Fort Baker, in the San Francisco defense. Terry included a brief meaningful note.

April 1, 2019: Rocky Stovall shares memories of his experience in Germany with Nike Site Dangers.

OLDER NEWS

March 6, 2019: Tim Jordan served at C-50 (Homewood, IL, in the Chicago defense). He sent some photos (and plans to send more stories and photos).

January 11, 2019:Photos from Don McCuaig of SF-88 IFC taken when he was on active duty there. (Don shot and produced the “Our Town” video we use.)

January 10, 2019: Lowell Anger writes: My Dad, Irwin Anger, served with the 18th AAA in Pittsburgh during the Korean conflict. I have some of his photos of him and his friends at the base.

January 9, 2019:Pictures from Alvin "Butch" Ball of LA-29 radars, buildings, and some personnel when he was stationed there.

May 1, 2018: Barry Hayes has contributed his experiences with Nike Site Dangers.

April 2018: Want to know what a military abbreviations or term found on this web site means? The answer might be found on our new Glossary, Abbreviations, Acronyms page.

April 2018: Greg Brown’s LA-88 website includes the Col Jack Armstrong page. Armstrong was stationed at Ft. Baker at one time and was the Battalion Commander for the regular army Nike sites in Van Nuys during the mid 1960’s. Included are many newspaper clippings and black-and-white official US Army photos” from the estate of Col Armstrong.

April 2018: More from Rocky Stovall! He's written about his experiences at LA-29 and compares them to his work at German Nike sites.

April 2018: In 2004 Mark Morgan visited the launcher and IFC sites of LA-29, Brea, California. Here's his report.

September 15, 2017: Rocky Stovall's observations and experience as a missileman sometimes differed from those of others. He tells it as he saw it and as he knew it.

March 28, 2017: Patrick Mackay's flat feet did not stop the Selective Service from drafting him. He served in Milford, Connecticut, and wants his children and grandchildren to know of his service.

February 15, 2017: TD Barnes writes: I'm curious if you know about the Nike Hercules radar being used by the CIA at Area 51 in Nevada. In case you don't, I'll tell you a bit about it.

December 23, 2016: Tom Freitas has made a web site about the Washington-Baltimore defense area.

August 24, 2016: A Story of Gilbert Burke from his granddaughter, Emily A. Burke

July, 2016: Our Veterans Health section has additional pages with information and links, with emphasis on Veterans Administration health care, asbestos, and chemical exposure. Thanks go to Don Mullis for help with this.

May 26, 2016: Michael Williquette tells a story of a bullet fired in a barn containing nuclear tipped missiles.

May 26, 2016: Photographer Richard Lewis has made recent photographs and has written about Nike missile sites PH-23/25, PH-58, and NY-56.

Al Kellogg tells Dave Donovan what it took to be selected as a Nike missileman, and how not eating liver and onions in the mess hall could get you extra dessert.

February 5, 2016: In 1962 Moscow implemented a clandestine plan to locate nuclear-capable surface-to-surface missiles in Cuba. In response, the United States blockaded the island of Cuba by surrounding it with naval ships, creating an umbrella of Air Force interceptors and bombers, and positioning surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles in South Florida. These events brought the world to the brink of thermonuclear war and the potential for mutually assured destruction (MAD) of humankind. An essay by Charles Carter. Charles Carter’s new book is “Nuclear Birds in the Everglades”.

SP5 Don Mullis has contributed a list of the trials and tribulations he faced while working on Nikes.

CWO-3 Bill G. Price sent a couple of photos of HM-95.

Vince LaRosa was stationed at B Btry 4th of 43 and the 87th Artillery GP at Fort Richardson AK. He sent their unit crests and other photos.

November, 2015: Ted Swanson alerts us to WLRN's web page with many articles on the Cuban Missile crisis, including the role of Nike missiles.

Aug. 3, 2015: We've added four more cartoons by Bob Matlick to our HUMOR page. These wonderful old cartoons give some hint of the intensity of some Nike work while at the same time being irreverent about it all.

SP-5 Robert Layman, "B" Battery Missile Tracking Operator 75-78, manned a display for Homestead, FL Military Appreciation Day 30 May 2015

May 17, 2015: SPC Timothy Hardy has contributed a list of the dangers and terrors he faced while working on Nikes.

May 2015: John Garside writes: Hello everyone at the NIKE Historical Society. We finally finished the documentary about the NIKE bases. We contacted some of the enlisted guys that you sent us to, and they seemed into it. Then overnight they weren't. So, we were unable to include them in this... But that's ok, we think it turned out pretty good anyway. Thanks for all your help. The link is https://youtu.be/9kaoBeklaMo.

The Oozlefinch


Please send your questions about the Nike System to the Site historian at: historian@nikemissile.org

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