The officer sighed, gave an impotent nod and gazed over the list again. Each of them consisted of two facilities, linked by underground cabling – the Launching Area, and Integrated Fire Control (IFC) site. I checked into a hostel near Miami Beach. My Son-in-Law Colin McRae found this sight and told me about it. As an outsider visiting both for the first time, I have to say that I found Havana infinitely more likeable than Miami. Over these next decades, the Earth will continue to swallow what we have left behind, and some day the soil here will breathe freely once more. Because of many endangered species and the remoteness of the site a back country permit is required to hike here. I asked him if I should be worrying about crocodiles on my visit to HM-40. Lived in the Barracks 1 yr, Homestead 3yrs. HM-40L Nike missile site (Google Maps). The Nike base on Key Largo, known as B Battery, became operational in 1965, as one of four Nike bases constructed in South Florida after the Cuban missile crisis. Four Nike Hercules missile bases, including this one within Crocodile Lake Wildlife Refuge, were constructed in South Florida in response to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Anyway, thank you again for getting in touch – and if you can point me in the direction of your own work, I’d be very glad to read it. I worked in the launching area and also work some in the IFC area. HM-40 was one of the first places where HAWK missile units were used, before transitioning to mostly NIKE. See all 34 comments on “WMDs in the Florida Keys: The Abandoned Nike Missile Site HM-40”, Poltergeists, ritual murder & a live-in succubus – the 1000-year-old pub with a ghostly reputation. That was just the primary, building phase however – the figure didn’t account for the following decade-and-a-half of maintenance and round-the-clock radar operation that went into these 265 missile sites. There are plans set to let the areas natural vegetative state consume all that was left behind, returning it to the rich and earthy piece of land it once was. The Launcher area of HM-40 is now located in the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a protected breeding and nesting area for the endangered American crocodile. There were never any live firings of missiles from any operational sites with the exception of one site in Alaska which was designated for the local units to use for live-fire training. People warned me about ‘bad neighbourhoods,’ and so I went looking for them. As a result, the Missile Crisis had caught the US unprepared; but they wouldn’t be making the same mistake again. It was initially a temporary Nike Ajax site, and was later allocated Nike Hercules missiles and moved to Key Largo to the site designated HM-40. Al is president of the Nike Historical Society. Razor wire. Thank you, Kurt. I was a Military Policeman stationed at the Krome Avenue D-2-52 Site in 1974 to 1975 and after a year in Korea, the C-2-52 Site in Carol City, Florida in 1976. On the far right I signed the mural (DUDA) ! Proud to have been one of the Warrant Officers to maintain the Missiles and the Launching Area. The pilot was one of Batista’s men: the Cuban dictator against whose armies the Castro brothers were waging their revolution. Nevertheless, in both the US and Cuba the Other retains a certain forbidden appeal: many are the Cuban defectors who’ve drowned at sea while trying to make the crossing; I’ve seen US citizens line up at Havana Airport, meanwhile, to bribe the border staff not to put a stamp in their passport. Rleesykes@aol.com Ed Thelen Current Nike Hercules Historian ed@ed-thelen.org Over The years a new entryway and meeting area were added to the greenhouse along with beautiful botanical gardens that anyone can visit. It looked like no one had been this way for a while. Back in Havana, I had seen the (since deactivated) missiles that played a starring role in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis; and since then I’d been reading stories about the US response, about an arsenal of defensive positions built around the coastline of South Florida. Most of the rooms were featureless, bare, with little clue as to their prior function; in other spaces though, I’d find tell-tale signs of past lives. The Nike base on Key Largo, known as B Battery, became operational in 1965 as one of four Nike bases constructed in South Florida after the Cuban missile crisis. ), The plot at North Key Largo was purchased by the military in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was stationed at B battery in key largo from 1977 to 1979 as a launcher crewman. Looking down the old SR-905 in Key Largo, you can barely see the crumbling remains of a former radar site, rusting to dust between hectic overgrowth. Darmon, I was a Nike Hercules Fire Control Crewman at three sites between 1971 and 1978 … NY56 in New Jersey, A/5/6 ADA in West Germany, and HM69 for my last few months in the Army. “How do you explain this?” the man asked slowly, aggressively, his eyes narrowed and his brow folding itself into fleshy corduroy. That is when HM040 was relocated from the entrance of Everglades National Park in Florida City to Key Largo. Where and how does man best live in harmony with nature ? SFC Keith Burnett (Retired), Do you have any pictures of the building? Crouching down on the bank, I reached towards it: floating now with its eyes and nostrils above the water. As the nuclear-capable Nike Hercules was phased in the lesser Nike Ajax with 1/3 the range was phased out and the number of sites was steadily reduced. Just inside the launch area was the ‘Ready Room’ – where troops were housed on standby, ready for an emergency launch against incoming bombs or aircraft. But that seems to have been the nature of the whole Cold War fiasco: an insane game of threats and stockpiles and strong words. I remember Mr Peyton well and have spoken of him often to my wife as well as fellow soldiers. According to reports however, the IFC site was still there – and disappearing beneath the rapidly returning foliage of the Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park. Looking down the old SR-905 in Key Largo, you can barely see the crumbling remains of a former radar site, rusting to dust between hectic overgrowth. The 31800 acres quoted was not a constant throughout the life of the Nike program. I suspect we (as a North American) are a fearful lot. Stationed there 70 to 74. They also do flavors for different holidays, Valentines day is coming up and they are doing a White Chocolate Cherry Vanilla! Great story, I was one of the soldiers at HM-40 from June 1968 till June 1972. Now the United States Customs and Border Protection officer was flicking through my passport, and coming across all kinds of colourful stamps from places like North Korea. It’s incredible what a few decades of neglect can do. I was an MTR operator in the IFC there 1968-1972. Current Aerial View of Launcher Site Missile and Launcher Parts Diagram: Underground Magazines and Launchers Diagram: Underground Magazines and Ground Level Launchers Model of a Typical Launch Site Ajax Missiles on Launchers The missile control site was at a separate location marked by cache GC216HD Nike Site S-13/14 Redmond: Battery Control Area. . Called ‘Nuclear Birds In The Everglades’. I was stationed at this site in 1978 for 18 months. NIKE HERCULES SITES – 1965 – 1979 from Charles Carter Last Active U.S. Nike sites march 2011 The pictures in the admin area were ghostly. F-07 Spokane C - 6 NE, Newkirk Rd & Lyon Rd [(updated 3/2002) GPS 47-42-08, 117-34-35 ] L - 4.5 NE, Craig Rd, N of Deno Rd [I think you have the location of the launch and control areas for F-07 and F-45 reversed. It has brought back some wonderful memories. This data is from the book To Defend and Deter: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Missile Program I was there the entire 3 years. I am planning a trip to Key Largo in May and will be going to the old missile site. I was a launcher crewman from 11/75 until 6/78. Thanks for all these pictures I have really enjoyed and have many memories and stories from dear old “B” Battery. Are the roster ever up dated? Florida is only 90 miles from Cuba, but the travel bans imposed on either side of that stretch of water have allowed propaganda to flourish in place of real knowledge. One of them had been preserved more or less intact: the Nike Missile Site HM-69, which had fallen under the care of the US National Park Service. Before my week was up, I decided to investigate – heading down to the Florida Keys, in search of an abandoned Nike-Hercules missile site constructed just across the water from Havana. They offer a variety of savory , sweet and seasonal popcorn flavors! I tried the door to the nearest building, and it opened with a push. I regret the snotty attitude you received visiting our continent. The wind tore at my hair, it roared through the vehicle and destroyed any hope of conversation; so that all we could do was look out at the view, the bright bays that opened up to left and right of us and ahead, the island: where the long, humpbacked causeway curved down like a rollercoaster to disappear into a tight-knit burst of waxy green forest. He glared up at me. Chances are when you hear about The Keys the first thing you think about is probably the shimmering coastal beaches, but there is so much more to the Sunshine State. The headquarters was at site HM-85 southwest of Miami. We already had scores of Nike sites elsewhere to destroy hostile aircraft of our Cold War adversaries. We had driven in on its replacement, and from looking at maps I knew that the base lay in the corner formed by these two tarmac strips. Could you possibly direct me to some of your writing? The tension of the Cold War led the American government to believe that the U.S.S.R. was stockpiling missiles on Cuba to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. We hope to visit one day soon. In 1965 the Key Largo site was re-designated HM-40, as it welcomed the arrival of Battery B: a unit whose Nike-Hercules missiles had previously been involved in atmospheric nuclear tests as a part of ‘Operation Fishbowl.’ The base at Key Largo was in service from June 1965 until June 1979, during which time it never launched a single missile. The Cuban Missile Crisis wasn’t our reason for setting up Rings Of Supersonic Steel around the Nation, only those in Florida. But it was the Everglades that made me fall in love with Florida. My MOS was launched. He was a role model for many. The machinery here was less rotted than elsewhere; paint flaked from metal parts like dead skin, but the grease of gears and levers seemed to be keeping the worst of the rust at bay. I decided to contact a local expert for advice, so I sent a message to David Bulit – author of Lost Miami and the Abandoned Florida blog. I’ll look out for that book! My Homestead hosts hadn’t joined me on that trip. On another note, I noticed you visited the D Battery site (HM95) of Krome Avenue. Plants grew over and inside the buildings. “They’ve been your allies for almost a century,” I added helpfully, then immediately regretted it. The waves shone white, every ripple a reflection of the Florida sun as we flew over Card Sound Bridge with the windows rolled right down. When I first arrived in Florida, all I knew was that these places had existed once; and that a few of them, just maybe, might be worth a visit. I retired in 1991. Though we toyed with Anti-Ballistic Missile systems they were never deployed, so we basically accepted Mutually Assured Destruction as our ‘defense’. I was stood on a grassy bank when someone pointed it out, a grey-green shadow moving slowly beneath the surface of the water. This article lists sites in the United States, however the United States Army also deployed Nike missiles to Europe as part of the NATO alliance, with sites being operated by both American and European military forces. Sir can you tell me how many Nike Hercs were in each storage barn at B Battery in Key Largo. Three other missile sites were built: B Battery in Key Largo, C Battery in Miramar, and D Battery near Miami on the site of today’s Krome Immigration Detention Center. Enter your email address to subscribe to Architectural Afterlife and receive notifications of new posts and other awesome stuff by email! I packed my camera, then started Googling ‘How to fight a snake.’. Explore HM-40L Nike missile site in Key Largo, FL as it appears on Google Maps as well as pictures, stories and other notable nearby locations on VirtualGlobetrotting.com. In 1982, the Navy transferred 4.2 acres in fee land to the Air Force. Among the animals that call the refuge home: the American crocodile, the Key Largo woodrat, and the Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly. The streets were dirty with litter, not picked painstakingly clean like the pavements in Havana. In 1974 there were 52 CONUS Hercules sites and all but the four in Florida were deactivated. There was nowhere to go from here but the way ahead, and soon enough I spotted it: a splayed finger rising just above the level of the trees, a stubby tower topped with a rusted platform. What you see here is part of a defunct communications/command post known as an IFC, or integrated fire control. Later I took a walk, out around the block looking for something to eat. (The pilot later pleaded for asylum, explaining, “I don’t like to bomb cities and kill innocent women and children.”). The Boeing B-50 Superfortress was only operated by the USAF. I was an MP, arrived in the Everglades in 1978 and stayed until the site closed. We visited a ‘gator sanctuary and took an airboat safari out across the sawgrass marsh; later, I got to see one of the prehistoric brutes up close and in the wild. And then, quite suddenly, our forest path spilled out into a road: bumpy asphalt, its edges already lost beneath an oncoming tide of leaves and humus. I found my situation improved however, the further I got from the fashionable parts of town. The following is a list of Nike missile sites. The thefts happened between February and April at the Army’s old Nike Hercules radar site located within Dagny Johnson Key Largo Botanical … onto trains. Sgt. The rest of the CONUS units would send crews to McGregor Range New Mexico once per year for live-fire practice. I’ve bookmarked the site for next time…. I too was stationed in Key Largo’s launch area. I tried to get a beer instead, but the waiter refused me service unless I came back with my passport. Many memories of this place. Around all that meanwhile, was an area designated as a drop zone. The use of Nike missiles was thought of as extremely advanced during this time, as they were one of the first types of missile to actually track their targets. Along the track we began to pass wreckage – broken machines, old tyres – that suggested we were getting close to something. It took until 14th November for these Nike-Hercules sites to be operational though, missing the Crisis itself by a wide margin. Though I loved my time serving with Nike Hercules, the prospect of bouncing between this dismal location, South Korea, Alaska and Germany was partly responsible for my decision to decline to re-enlist. All that effort, all that cost, 14 years of use and not a single missile fired from either side of the curtain. ), Did you have any luck with those rosters? I was stationed at this site from 1975 thru 1978. They were good people – kind, welcoming, everything that had been missing from my first few days in the US. Vegetation covered almost all the windows, so that only a pale green-tinted light could filter through. Steps led down into the dank space, where a web of pipes and valves and dials converged onto metal tanks. The azimuth of the launchers (AL) was primarily chosen to make that area to be minimally populated. This position was to be reinforced with a complement of newly developed Nike-Hercules missiles – the 2nd Missile Battalion, 52nd Air Defence Artillery Group received their orders on 22nd October to establish defensive firing positions around Miami and the Homestead Air Force Base. You have successfully joined to receive updates from Odd World Studio! landing at Daytona Beach Airport, Florida, https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/historyculture/hm69.htm, The Ancient Ram Inn: A Visit to ‘England’s Most Haunted House’, The Soviet Legacy: Inside Cuba’s Unfinished Nuclear Power Station, Myth & Memory in the Balkans: The ‘Spomeniks’ of Former Yugoslavia. https://www.abandonedfl.com/nike-missile-ifc-site-hm-40-b-battery Rather I’d got talking to one of their neighbours – Shawn – and when I mentioned the rumour of Cold War ruins down at Key Largo, he was right onboard. I took a closer look at the boiler tank in the corner – the arrangement of pumps and plates on its surface gave the illusion of an almost-human face. No dust – the place was too humid for that, but instead the walls were moist to touch and coloured, in places, with strange and exotic moulds. The base at Key Largo was in service from June 1965 until June 1979, during which time it never launched a single missile. The forest had moved back in: tropical trees burst through tarmac. Nike Hercules was considered obsolete in the US except for Florida and Alaska because no one expected us to ever be attacked by manned aircraft again. There were storerooms, with locks on the doors and heaps of broken shelving; a different room, perhaps the former dispensary, was filled with old glass bottles that lay on the floor amongst the leaves and debris. These were things I knew, things I could mentally prepare for; but the prospect of being eaten alive by reptiles was new and terrifying. These forgotten missile bases melted into parks and wilderness; and such was the case at the place where I was headed, the rotten remains of the HM-40 Nike-Hercules missile site that lay festering somewhere in the tropical vegetation of Key Largo. Hundreds of permanent Nike missile sites were built across the US in the years that followed. Love your first impressions of the fast food nation. I nodded and thanked him, while wondering how he planned to enforce this one-week limit; and then I collected my backpack from the carousel, passed through the final customs border and stepped out into the balmy heat of the Sunshine State. ICBMs were the preferred method of attack Thank you. Notice: It seems you have Javascript disabled in your Browser. I was a spc E4 at this site 1968 – 1969. I visited Hialeah after being cautioned not to, and met a Haitian taxi driver who invited me to lunch with his family. Worked in the IFC area(the hill). We hit the island, onto a straight, narrow road that sped off deep into the tropical forests. Quiet 905 – An Abandoned NIKE Missile Base in the Florida Keys A decommissioned missile base hides tucked away within the heavily forested Florida Keys. Some of the Nike missile sites were wiped off the map altogether – their storage silos were filled in, hydraulic launchers were damaged to prevent operation, and in many cases the launch sites were completely buried beneath fresh concrete. You should have looked a little deeper into Everglades National Park where former Nike Hercules missile site (HM-69) now has two Nike Hercules on display. The problem was, at 41 feet in length and weighing 10,710 pounds, these cumbersome missiles just took far too long to mobilise. I was on B team. So we parked not far off, and made for a path that opened up amongst the hardwood trees. The only real tell-tale sign that this place was once a missile site is a picture of a Nike missile painted on the vine-covered side of the control building. © Darmon Richter, 2011-2021, All rights Reserved. A sixth, small-yet-crucial antenna provided the ‘IFF’ system: Identification, Friend or Foe. I was a missile crewman. I worked with and for Mr Louis Peyton. That was the administration and radar area that was demolished and not the launch area. His job was to sit near the panel with his hand ready to hit the button to launch the missiles. “Alright, one week,” he said, “but no more.”. Another had a drain in the middle of the floor, and the remains of shattered tiles. In December 1958, a Cuban Douglas B-26 Invader made an unauthorized – and perhaps more concerning, undetected – landing at Daytona Beach Airport, Florida. It is shocking to see it now. It didn’t take me long to find co-ordinates for the HM-40 IFC Missile Site on Key Largo. The Nike Historical Society and the National Park Service are paying for the materials. I would be fascinated to know more about the subject… You must have seen a lot, being posted there in the 1960s. The HIPAR had a range of over 150 miles, and was contained within a protective geodesic fibreglass shell: its ‘radome.’ The LOPAR served mainly as a backup system and as it operated on a different frequency, it could still be used even if the HIPAR radar was jammed. The Everglades National Park is basically just a massive river: a very shallow, marshy one, 60 miles from bank to bank and filled with alligators. I saw several guys that I served with and I’m going to try to get in touch with them. Mine read: Turkey, Russia, Cuba. The launch area is about a mile north and now the Krome Avenue Detention Center. The radar site, as shown by my photos, was under state control and had become part of the Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park. I achieved the rank of E5 . NIKE: Homestead-Miami Nike Site HM-40L: USAF: Key Largo Beacon Annex, MDVX: This Nike site served as such from 1964 to 1979, and in 1981 it was transferred to the Navy. Named after the Greek, winged goddess of victory, the Nike Missile site HM-69 was originally located just west of Ingraham Highway, nearly one mile before the entrance to Everglades National Park. I was a prescribed load list clerk. As I started to push through the undergrowth, Shawn was worrying about banana spiders. The border officer didn’t respond, and so I showed him the camera case slung over my shoulder. Can’t wait to share a bag with my Valentine! There were warning signs pinned to the mesh, and a guard hut sat just inside the compound. In order to submit a comment to this post, please write this code along with your comment: 19f4bb5dc6fc60cf2369bf534e32edfd. Al Kellogg is reconstructing the dog yard obstacle course at site SF-88. “Why the hell would anyone want to go to Russia?” he suddenly asked. The soft underside of its neck puffed out, inflating like a bullfrog, and then it let out a long, deep sound somewhere between a belch and a subdued roar. It has been a long time and I am anxious to see the area again after 43 years. Rockefeller Park Greenhouse was Opened in 1905 on land donated to Cleveland from oil Tycoon John D. Rockefeller. The personnel manning the Nike sites around Miami were from the Army's 2nd Missile Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Group, Batteries A, C and D, in rapid deployment mode at Fort Bliss, Texas. Located not far from the three missile magazines and launch pads, is a sentry dog kennel and a missile maintenance and control building. I have really enjoyed these sights. I was a Nike Hercules crewman 16B. We had arrived. The undetected arrival of the craft at a major airstrip highlighted the very real vulnerabilities of the United States’ southern frontier. It’s easy enough to get the basic dates and details from a history book, but I find it so much more interesting to hear anecdotes from the people on the ground. And thanks for the information about the Krome Avenue site. Another great Cold War diary. pss. Around us the other queues were moving at regular speed and I could sense the people stuck behind me growing impatient. After closure, the launching site was largely torn down: the missile maintenance barns were demolished and the launch pads buried beneath three feet of concrete. Close look at a Nike Hercules Integrated Fire Control (IFC). I still had a few hours to kill before setting off to the Keys. Men stationed at the missile base knew they faced a death sentence should an attack from Cuba ever be launched. Before it was abandoned. The order was given to dig-in – and Washington began to construct what authors Mark Morgan & Mark Berhow would refer to as Rings of Supersonic Steel around the United States’ major cities. If you need any additional information about that missile site or any of the other three that were in the Homestead-Miami Air Defense 1962-1969, don’t hesitate to ask. It’s quite a show. I’d already met a ‘gator, and though the experience was certainly memorable I had no more desire to run into giant reptiles in the wild… and certainly not broody, nesting crocodiles. The IFC area would typically be located around a mile away from the launch pads. A hard, dry root had wormed its way across the floorboards – I nearly jumped a mile when I glanced down, and momentarily mistook it for a snake. My name is Rick Lail. 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. Seeing the condition of this place now though, says a lot about nature’s resilience. I just finished Command And Control by Eric Schlosser. At least that’s what he told me and the rest of the family. From what I could find online however, there didn’t appear to be a lot of it left – no more than a graffiti-tattered shell of broken buildings. These Nike bases, each one of them came with a package of roughly 120 acres attached: to ensure that when a propellant booster rocket disengaged and fell away from the missile, it fell not onto houses but into empty, military land. When eventually we headed back towards the old state road, the thing that stuck with me most about HM-40 was the waste it represented. 1. How do you explain this ….. man’s grand mechanizations, or is it arrogance. The radar tower was no longer visible, but turning back in what I guessed was its direction we followed the old road for a while… and soon, we came across a chain-link fence hanging rusted from its posts. His voice quavered slightly and a very human note crept into it – as though sheer disbelief were winning the battle over his forced professionalism. The more time I spent outside the predominantly white, English-speaking neighbourhoods, the more I grew to appreciate Miami. “Turkey,” he said, “that’s the Middle East, isn’t it?”, “Well… part of it is,” I answered, wondering where he planned to go with this. 1962 - 1965 - When A, C, and D Batteries were dispatched from Ft. Bliss, Texas to south Florida at the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis, B Battery was on maneuvers on Johnston Island in the Pacific test firing Nike Hercules missiles with nuclear warheads as part of Operation Dominic. It also was the site of a former Nike missile base. I was on the live-fire crew for four of the five live firings I attended. Thanks Alford – I’ll have to check this out, I’d love to know more. He looked up at me, looked back at the card on the counter between us, he sighed hard and his fingers tapped out a frustrated, broken rhythm on the desk. The base was in the process of being dragged slowly into the ground – like a ship at sea, I thought, clutched in the tentacles of some monstrous kraken from the deep. It wasn’t exactly the experience I was looking for, though: time frozen in a cold, museum setting and with guards guides shepherding tourists from one carefully curated photo opportunity to the next. Joseph H. Warden ( Jan. 23, 2017) 9:00 pm, I looked on the roster for B Battery, 1965 – 1968 and didn’t see my name. There is a book out now covering the sites. During these years, soldiers were also living within the grounds of this particular part of HM-40.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-architecturalafterlife_com-medrectangle-3-0')}; In June 1979, HM-40 was abandoned permanently, while the launch site – which no longer stands – was under federal control and became part of the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge. 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