SuzukiSavage.com - Nike Missile Base PH75

philthymike

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Nike Missile Base PH75
04/24/17 at 06:36:43

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nike_missile_sites#Pennsylvania
Having an interest in Cold War history I've decided to make bike trips to visit remaining Nike missile base ruins in my surrounding area. I found a list of them online. In fact there are quite a few resources available for locating them and learning the history behind them.

Most of us older folks remember the air raid drills and hiding under our desks in school. These Nike facilities were setup around most major cities around the country (12 for Philly) in order to protect us a little better against Soviet bombers than our trusty desks could.

I find it disturbing that so much of this period in our history is being bulldozed and paved over or left to rot away. So I intend to go see these remaining historic sites by bike as I am able to.

This past weekend I went to see PH75 near Newtown Square, PA. Only 20 minute ride for me. Here's some pictures of the control facility. The launch facility is on the grounds of a National Guard base so no luck seeing it. But the gate to the control area had a big gap I could squeeze through so I did. It was heavily overgrown though so hard to move around to find things. I found a building and two radar towers.

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tower1.jpg

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philthymike

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Re: Nike Missile Base PH75
Reply #1 - 04/24/17 at 06:38:31

This might be the only building left standing or the others were so overgrown I couldn't see them.
I took some more pics let me know if you have an interest in seeing them.

Next weekend I'm going to try to find PH32 in NJ as well as visit the Nike Site PH-64DC in Pedricktown, NJ in Fort Pendricktown which was the Command Control base for this region.
http://www.radomes.org/museum/documents/GibbsboroAFSNJpedericktown.html

Quote:

Located adjacent to the Delaware River, the Pedricktown Army Air Defense Command Post contained a Missile Master fire distribution system capable of controlling all of the Nike missile batteries within the Philadelphia Defense Area.

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building.jpg

07 S40 (Thumpy): 666cc big bore, stage 2 webcam, dyna muffler, 412 shocks, Barnett clutch, Kawasaki ZL900 FE

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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #2 - 04/24/17 at 09:23:53 Buy one, sell tours,, move in, have it declared a national treasure, whatever...
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philthymike Serious Thumper Offline Wallowing in my own crapulence Posts: 1413 Philadelphia Area Gender:	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #3 - 04/24/17 at 09:30:32 SF-88 has been restored and you can take tours of it. https://youtu.be/J0owdCMDVDo Anybody else interested in finding and visiting these sites? They're all over the country. Maybe we can do a variation on the Scavenger Hunt?
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philthymike Serious Thumper Offline Wallowing in my own crapulence Posts: 1413 Philadelphia Area Gender:	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #4 - 04/24/17 at 10:02:41 Ironically the Nike Missile program began life as Project Thumper! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Wizard
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Gary_in_NJ Serious Thumper Offline LS650 Cafe Racer Posts: 2633 Amongst the Twisty Roads	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #5 - 04/24/17 at 10:17:21 I was born in '62, so I should have been aware of these...but for some reason this is new info to me. Maybe because none were near enough to me that I had any awareness. Good info and it made for some interesting reading.
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MnSpring

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Re: Nike Missile Base PH75
Reply #6 - 04/24/17 at 10:28:46

Here is a Photo of one:
http://legacy.mnhs.org/sites/legacy.mnhs.org/files/project_images/3284-photo_...

Others:
http://www.startribune.com/missile-in-st-bonifacius-stands-as-a-reminder-of-t...
http://discover-stboni.com/

10 Miles away from me.
When de activated, and sold, one site, with the under ground silos & Elevators, was used, (still is) for winter Storage of boats, MC' s etc.
The other property, made, explosive bolts, for US, jet ejection seats.

The Hercules Missile, which stands in the Park, every year, 'snowflakes', want it taken down. The, History committee, prevails.

When it was active, and several 100's of young, 18-20 year soldiers, were in town. One 17 year old female, got, 'pregnant', from swimming in a public pool.
(or so she said) LOL

A unique prescriptive, and reminder of the 'cold war'.

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Missle.jpg

Ben Franklin once said: "If you give up a freedom, for the sake of security, you will have neither".
Which is More TRUE, today, than yesterday.('06, S-40, Stock) well, mostly .

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thumperclone Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline PGR rider riding with respect Posts: 6077 Grand Junction Colorado Gender:	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #7 - 04/24/17 at 10:56:21 I was raised in socal in the 60s and remember seeing the nike test launches and the monthly "drop" drills
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Ruttly

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Re: Nike Missile Base PH75
Reply #8 - 04/24/17 at 11:48:55

There is a working Nike base (as a historical park) in Marin headlands in CA, operational except the missles.
Whole string on them from Canada to Mexico on the western seaboard.
One was minutes from where I grew up. They would give advanced warning of test firings to open your windows & doors ,if you lived too close it would blow your windows out. After it's closing we would go in the silos & artillery bunkers , got lots of stories about that place , if was cool !

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philthymike

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Re: Nike Missile Base PH75
Reply #9 - 04/24/17 at 12:16:02

I was raised in the same town as this...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauk_Air_Force_Station
Camp Hero. It is a state park now and you can go walk around and see the radar facility. Unfortunately they tore down 75% of the base's structures when it became a park.

As a kid I was fascinated by the huge rotating dish, which was operated even after decommissioning by a private company into the early 1980's.
It was originally part of the S.A.G.E. system under control by NORAD.
Once the place was finally shut down it became a favorite place to go for exploration while dirt biking. Later in life it became a favorite place to party. I had several inebriated dares out to the end of the catwalk in the cone. Looking back on it it is a wonder I'm still alive. After several unfortunate falls by drunken kids they stationed the Park Police headquarters on site. Which meant there was a slight possibility of getting caught. That didn't stop me either.
Anyways it was the start of my interest in this historical period. Now that I'm older it's more interesting in its history than as a party spot.

Many of the Nike sites were tied into SAGE over the years until the Nike program got shut down.
Overall it was a huge system with so many bases in the US as well as Greenland, Canada, Norway and elsewhere. There's so much to learn about it. I recently learned of Texas Tower 4 which I was shocked to not know about considering where I'm from. Gary_in_NJ might find it interesting as well. Google it.

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Ruttly Serious Thumper Offline Thumpers Rule Posts: 5109 Manteca , CA Gender:	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #10 - 04/24/17 at 12:43:05 The place was huge and tied to 2 other near by radar stations. We had many a good party's there as well as some great riding up on the 3 ridges that made up the site. In the last few years it's been covered over and is part of the coastal park system but still a few remnants remain !
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Dave

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Re: Nike Missile Base PH75
Reply #11 - 04/24/17 at 12:59:43

I am not aware of anything cool like that around northern Kentucky. Cincinnati has an old subway that has tunnels - but they never got any cars so they just ran utilities in the tunnels....they have complete stations that were never used. There are also some "beer tunnels" and large underground rooms where they used to age lager (I have been in some of those).

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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28886 L.A. California Gender:	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #12 - 04/24/17 at 13:13:21 It's a wonder we made it thru the cold war.
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philthymike

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Re: Nike Missile Base PH75
Reply #13 - 04/24/17 at 13:25:27

Dave wrote on 04/24/17 at 12:59:43:

I am not aware of anything cool like that around northern Kentucky. Cincinnati has an old subway that has tunnels - but they never got any cars so they just ran utilities in the tunnels....they have complete stations that were never used. There are also some "beer tunnels" and large underground rooms where they used to age lager (I have been in some of those).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nike_missile_sites#Ohio
Looks like the 4 installations for the Cincinnati–Dayton area are still there and in good condition too.

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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 18100 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Nike Missile Base PH75 Reply #14 - 04/24/17 at 13:57:17 I had no idea those were around here...or how to search for them. It appear they are all locked behind gates and fences........
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