Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Military B17 & NIKE Missile

Funny, but I would have expected an official film to have the aircraft accurately identified.

Interesting video. If that missile could carry a nuclear warhead it would indicate huge strides in decreasing nuclear warhead size in the preceding 10 years.

called it a B 29, but was actually a B 17...

watching one get hit like that and falling and burning is like watching someone wreck a nice 1955 Chevy....

Those were the days when all we worried about was mutually assured destruction!

That pyramid looking structure looked like the one at near Nekoma ND. That was a Nike base for about a day. Opened and then closed.

It’s size is daunting on the prairie.

G5m: I was a real "Nike" missile nut when I was young (10'ish - 1957). I had a cool plastic model Nike in my bedroom and I begged my family to sign up for permission to tour the underground silos at the nearby Nike missile base where the Nike's stood ready. The Air Force advertised a "one time" local residents tour for people who lived near the base (near Renton, Washington) and my parents relented and signed us up.
It was very interesting and I tried to memorize everything I saw because cameras were NOT allowed.
The Air Force even treated us "neighbors" to a wonderful fried chicken lunch after the presentation and tour. I actually was allowed to "touch" a Nike missile then! At the Air Force presentation it was alluded to that the Nike missiles would fly through the Russian bombers thus neutralizing them.
Anyway years later after the Nike missile "protect America" shield program was ended and the bases and missiles removed it became common knowledge that the Nike missiles did NOT need to strike an approaching Russian bomber they just had to be within a 2 mile radius as the nuclear warheads they REALLY were carring could wipe out all bombers in that 2 mile radius!
If you look carefully in stop action at the linked to video it sure appears to me that the bomber in question blew up from an internal explosive in its wing.
I don't know I am no expert but I do remember when my family learned that the Air Force was hurling Nike's up above our homes that had nuclear (atomic?) warheads we were not pleased.
Can anyone clarify my contentions regarding the Nike missiles?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

There were 3 generations of Nike missiles - Nike Ajax, Nike Hercules, and Nike Zeus. The Ajax was conventional HE, the Hercules and Zeus could be armed with conventional high explosive or nuclear warheads. All were taken out of US service in mid 70s, some other countries kept them a little longer. I don't expect any nukes were live fired over US.

In the mid 80s I had an additional duty as the OIC of the ammunition storage area at FT Greely, I had one storage building that the sole occupant was a case of 10 Nike Hercules safe and arming devices for the nuclear version. Pain in the butt due to surety program and classification. They were hold over from an old storage test program, every time we tried to get rid of them the answer was "hold on to them pending possible foreign sale".

I just looked at this thread again. I tried a bit and was finally able to stop it and see the missile just as it was about to hit the right wing. It's at 2:12 and just the tiniest part of a second. You can see the white missile trail at the left, at the time of explosion. Interesting stuff.

Way back when when I was about 6 or so my dad took me to an air show put on by the Air Force at a local training base. It was really neat. Some jets that the Air Force was proud to show and WW2 aircraft and what I remember most was a Japanese 'Baka' suicide rocket propelled bomb that was to be used against ships. Good memories you brought back.

That was a Nike Ajax. I guarded Nike Hercules missiles in the 1970's.

kwg

No nukes were live fired over the U.S. except some testing somewhere out west. Nukes were put on the Nike Hercules and shot pretty much straight up and exploded to test yield and results. I'm sure some EMP tests were run as well. It's my understanding that the Nuke Hercules went as high as 70 miles up. I found this on line and when I went back to make a copy of it the information had been removed as it was still classified.

Some HE (high explosive) Nikes were tested in Alaska in the early 1960's from Site Summit just outside of Anchorage. I understand the tests were only marginally successful. At least one was "fail safed" early in the test because the radar did not pick it up after it launched. The other 2 went north over Wasilla and were eventually fail safed at a high altitiude over uninhabited country. The last Nike Hercules unit was de-mobed in 1979. It was the 1/43d ADA at Ft. Richardson Alaska. I left Site Summit in June 1976. Greece and Korea had the Nikes for several more years before retiring them as well sometime in the 1980's.

The Army and Air Force now has some replacement missiles at Ft. Greely Alaska. They are specifically there to intercept anything coming from China, Russia and North Korea. I don't know what missile they are using for this mission other than they are anti missile missiles.

kwg

Lots of interesting reading here

https://nikemissile.org/

There's an old nike missile base I can see from my backyard in Denton, TX. The support buildings sold to a private owner and the University of North Texas bought the silo's (hanger actually, as I believe these were rail fired) for record storage. Interesting history Denton Nike Base

There were a number of others around/near Dallas.

This video shows a Nike Ajax. I was stationed at a Nike Hercules base about 15 miles out of Anchorage Alaska in the middle 1970's. I was just back there for the first time in 46 years. kwg

I visited that site in 2019, when I was in Anchorage with a friend that lives there. We were treated to a nice meal and a tour of the old missile site with some past site employees that showed us what the Nike missile defense system used to be. It is sad that they couldn’t have preserved the base as a testament to the Cold War…

Hello Shrap
That first picture is of post 2 or Bravo Command. It was the last stop before someone went into the Exclusion Area. I spent a lot of time in that guard shack. When I wasn't walking around a missile section I was working out of that building.

You probably met one of the guys I was stationed with. He moved back to Alaska in the late 1970's and spent 32 years working for the USGS. He is in the picture with me in the middle. The other guy is from Yakima Washington. He grew up in Selah and was the next-door neighbor to my step grandfather's sister. We didn't know this until we got to talking about family one day and the names all came up.

Both Marvin and Greg walked up to the IFC/barracks building in 1983 and found the building to be in a very sad state. Ft. Richardson tore the IFC/barracks down in the early 2000's as I recall. Greg decided to try to save what is left and aligned himself up with the Alaska Historical Society. They agreed to take on the project of saving what is left. It appears the US Army uses the site for some kind of training as there was loads of blank .223 and 7.62 brass on the ground. We had to clear Range Control before we could go up.

The railroad tie guard shack out in the roadway was commissioned by one of the Commanders. His name was B.C. Jolly. Cpt. Jolly was a grunt in Viet Nam and then he returned to Viet Nam after getting a commission as a helicopter pilot. He survived that and in order to stay in the Army he took a job as a Nike Hercules Officer. He retired as an LTC and supposedly went to work at Anchorage P.D. He was seriously hurt and partially paralyzed in a snow mobile accident sometime while working for APD. He is now deceased. That guard shack is a testament to Cpt Jolly and his respect for those of us on the Security team. All of the members of the Security team put an effort into building that guard shack. I'm glad it's still standing.

In the first picture I was standing in what was the mess hall and took the shot looking pretty much north toward Wasilla. The second picture is Cpt Jolly's guard shack.

Yes, it's sad to see it's current condition. I can only guess that some day Ft. Richardson will forever end any visits to the site. All I know is that at one time it was my home and it was just another adventure I took in my youth. For a couple of hours on July 20th I was 21 years old and I was re-living that adventure. I hope to see it again before my demise.

kwg