“I guess. I retired in 1991. 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. Thanks, Dan. The border officer didn’t respond, and so I showed him the camera case slung over my shoulder. 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. Crouching down on the bank, I reached towards it: floating now with its eyes and nostrils above the water. 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. The launch area is about a mile north and now the Krome Avenue Detention Center. Called ‘Nuclear Birds In The Everglades’. On another note, I noticed you visited the D Battery site (HM95) of Krome Avenue. ), The plot at North Key Largo was purchased by the military in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 2swanson@bellsouth.net (Key Largo, FL rep 305-451-2925) Sykes, Robert 67-68 B CW-2 IFC Tech. Housed in what used to be the local fire station, this cute popcorn shop is a fun addition to the Ashtabula Harbor area! I visited Hialeah after being cautioned not to, and met a Haitian taxi driver who invited me to lunch with his family. I found my situation improved however, the further I got from the fashionable parts of town. Among the animals that call the refuge home: the American crocodile, the Key Largo woodrat, and the Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly. I painted the mural in the mess hall and signed it (DUDA) on the far right ! It was later relocated inside the park, to an area known as The Hole-in-the-Donut. I always enjoy these Cold War sites, and it was good to finally get to explore one on US soil. My Son-in-Law Colin McRae found this sight and told me about it. Carter., I may have known you at A-2/52 ADA . 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. [Now fixed - thanks] The USGS 7.5' quad covering the site is Airway Heights, Wash. It’s wonderful to hear from someone with a personal connection to the place (even if it did take me a long time to reply! Better still, was when I got out of Miami altogether. 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. We hit the island, onto a straight, narrow road that sped off deep into the tropical forests. I saw several guys that I served with and I’m going to try to get in touch with them. We hope to visit one day soon. What you see here is part of a defunct communications/command post known as an IFC, or integrated fire control. Although as I placed it on a map, I couldn’t help but notice that it sat awfully close to a body of water known as ‘Crocodile Lake.’ I did another quick search, and found that the area around the launch site was now in the hands of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, as a protected breeding and nesting habitat for the endangered American crocodile. The problem was, at 41 feet in length and weighing 10,710 pounds, these cumbersome missiles just took far too long to mobilise. Pop- A- Razzi is a new movie themed, gourmet popcorn shop located in the historic Ashtabula Harbor. They also do flavors for different holidays, Valentines day is coming up and they are doing a White Chocolate Cherry Vanilla! As I started to push through the undergrowth, Shawn was worrying about banana spiders. 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. I suspect we (as a North American) are a fearful lot. The Cuban Missile Crisis wasn’t our reason for setting up Rings Of Supersonic Steel around the Nation, only those in Florida. Plants grew over and inside the buildings. 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. Back on the plane, I had been asked to fill out an arrival card – not much, just a quick overview of the items inside my backpack as well as a list of the countries I had passed through to get here. Thank you. 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. “Alright, one week,” he said, “but no more.”. 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. The three radars found at this site were the target ranging radar, target tracking radar and the missile tracking radar.if(typeof __ez_fad_position != 'undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-architecturalafterlife_com-box-3-0')}; Following photos from the December 17, 1969 issue of the Upper Keys Reporter: The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 served as a huge eye-opener to the U.S. needing more defenses – thus came the construction of HM-40 only a few short years later in 1965. This Customs and Border man had made it clear he neither liked nor trusted me; but I had an explanation for everything, my papers were all in order and I probably looked nothing like a terrorist ought to look. 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. 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. 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. ), Did you have any luck with those rosters? This data is from the book To Defend and Deter: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Missile Program They received orders to move out to the Miami area on October 22, 1962, and they loaded personnel, vehicles, radars, missiles, tents, etc. 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 can’t remember. Started in 2011 this unique store has 18,000 square foot of retro goodies sure to blast you right into the past. It wasn’t the spiders that bothered me, though; I was on the lookout for giant man-eating pythons. See https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/historyculture/hm69.htm, Thanks for this, Charles! I’m glad this collection brought back some good memories – and thank you for stopping by, and sharing them here. But they are members of NATO.”. Rleesykes@aol.com Ed Thelen Current Nike Hercules Historian ed@ed-thelen.org . Later I took a walk, out around the block looking for something to eat. There is a book out now covering the sites. I too was stationed in Key Largo’s launch area. https://www.abandonedfl.com/nike-missile-ifc-site-hm-40-b-battery It was the final atmospheric nuclear test we conducted. A little more reading, and I found that South Florida is estimated to be home to tens of thousands of Burmese pythons: a snake that can swim, climb trees, grow to as much as 18 feet in length and swallow alligators whole (or at least die trying, like this one). 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. Pity. 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. Lived in the Barracks 1 yr, Homestead 3yrs. Walking back through the forests of Key Largo, insects humming in the trees as the sun began to set, it was difficult to imagine that not so very long ago those mouldy, forgotten huts had been filled with soldiers; that once these mangrove swamps had echoed with engines, and gears, and whispers of mutually assured destruction. Al Kellogg is reconstructing the dog yard obstacle course at site SF-88. It looked like no one had been this way for a while. The headquarters was at site HM-85 southwest of Miami. 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. I was an MTR operator in the IFC there 1968-1972. This part of HM-40 controlled the radars, which controlled the missiles. I politely corrected him: “That’s a British passport – we’re allowed to go there.” I considered calling him Sir, then worried it would sound insincere. 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. © Darmon Richter, 2011-2021, All rights Reserved. The shower had no hot water. There were warning signs pinned to the mesh, and a guard hut sat just inside the compound. Guard dogs. Soviet weaponry improved, new US weapons were developed to combat them and eventually these hundreds of Nike-Hercules missile facilities became redundant. 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 launch area featured missile storage vaults, usually built underground, as well as missile maintenance and assembly buildings. A month-long monument hunt, and what I learned along the way. Thanks Joe Warden, Hi Joe. I came to this site returning from a site in north Italy ! My mind began to flood with all the endless reasons that I would want to go to Russia, and I searched for an example that we both might understand. 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. Another great Cold War diary. 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. 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. That is when HM040 was relocated from the entrance of Everglades National Park in Florida City to Key Largo. Though we toyed with Anti-Ballistic Missile systems they were never deployed, so we basically accepted Mutually Assured Destruction as our ‘defense’. As an outsider visiting both for the first time, I have to say that I found Havana infinitely more likeable than Miami. 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. HM-40 wasn’t a bad place to be stationed. The 85 to 87 degree vertical angle of the launcher, which allowed for engagement of targets from any direction, created a Booster Drop Zone that was a narrow oval area extending from some distance in front of the launcher to a lesser distance behind it, including the site itself. The US and the Russians are very lucky that WWIII didn’t accidentally start or that a major city wasn’t accidentally immolated due to a major nuclear accident. I was a launcher crewman from 11/75 until 6/78. It’s probably the closest thing you will get to riding in a time machine that’s for sure! It's a Small size geocache, with difficulty of 2, terrain … The Missile Crisis reached its boiling point on 14th October 1962 – and the US immediately responded with a build-up of troops and anti-aircraft missiles along the Florida coast. 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. onto trains. I regret the snotty attitude you received visiting our continent. Nike Missile IFC Site HM-40, B Battery. Darmon, – Your blog with photos about Nike Hercules missile site (HM-40) in Key Largo was very informative. Such were my first impressions of the United States; and I’d spend those initial 24 hours wishing I had never left Cuba. 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. I was a Sp4 I think. Description: Integrated Fire Control (IFC) and launcher locations of a Nike Missile Site. Close look at a Nike Hercules Integrated Fire Control (IFC). I packed my camera, then started Googling ‘How to fight a snake.’. A handful of sites were sold off privately – being turned into wrecking yards, communication facilities or Airsoft arenas. I have a question if you remember. 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 wondered if Cuban defectors ever felt this way. 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. 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. My brother-in-law was stationed there from 65 through not sure but I left key West in July and July of 66 and he was still there. Seeing the condition of this place now though, says a lot about nature’s resilience. “How do you explain this?” the man asked slowly, aggressively, his eyes narrowed and his brow folding itself into fleshy corduroy. Another had a drain in the middle of the floor, and the remains of shattered tiles. I was stationed at this site from 1975 thru 1978. I was there and drove a 5-ton and pulled a Nike on Ready Round Transporter to the new site. 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. The radar site, as shown by my photos, was under state control and had become part of the Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park. 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. The best part? 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. After signing up, you will receive one more email to customize what kinds of emails you receive from Odd World Studio! The base at Key Largo was in service from June 1965 until June 1979, during which time it never launched a single missile. Thank you, Kurt. I would be fascinated to know more about the subject… You must have seen a lot, being posted there in the 1960s. We had arrived. This included sending soldiers into the Everglades, where they would then be stationed with mobile anti-aircraft weapons. Inside was a festering mess of mould and flaking paint. I was a Nike Hercules crewman 16B. Before it was abandoned. 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. Originally the greenhouse was solely used as a place to grow plants to landscape the city’s many parks and gardens. It was impossibly large, and I was mesmerised – then suddenly I had the overwhelming urge to touch it. 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. 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. Archive photographs of the base show a cluster of low buildings in the centre of a grassy plot, the towering frames of futuristic radar towers, and around it all the treeline trimmed back to a neatly manicured border. I was on the live-fire crew for four of the five live firings I attended. 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. It was the former HIPAR structure, long since robbed of its geodesic dome. 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. The Nike Historical Society and the National Park Service are paying for the materials. I’m afraid I can’t help you much there…, Joe, not sure this will reach you but do you remember a tall skinny kid named Sam Coker? A decommissioned missile base hides tucked away within the heavily forested Florida Keys. 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. Around us the other queues were moving at regular speed and I could sense the people stuck behind me growing impatient. I’ll look out for that book! 3. (The pilot later pleaded for asylum, explaining, “I don’t like to bomb cities and kill innocent women and children.”). ICBMs were the preferred method of attack In 1965, B Battery was relocated to a permanent site on North Key Largo, built by the Army Corps of Engineers and re-designated HM-40. John Marshall. As the Cold War rolled on though, even these state-of-the-art missile systems would survive long enough to grow obsolete. 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. 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. Enter your email address to subscribe to Architectural Afterlife and receive notifications of new posts and other awesome stuff by email! As a result, the Missile Crisis had caught the US unprepared; but they wouldn’t be making the same mistake again. “Why the hell would anyone want to go to Russia?” he suddenly asked. At least that’s what he told me and the rest of the family. The green house is always free to visit! A Nike-Hercules IFC installation featured five radar towers – HIPAR (High Power Acquisition Radar), LOPAR (its Low Power cousin), as well as Target Tracking, Target Ranging and Missile Tracking Radar. Hello Charles, and thank you for this comment. Rockefeller Park Greenhouse was Opened in 1905 on land donated to Cleveland from oil Tycoon John D. Rockefeller. I was stationed at B battery in key largo from 1977 to 1979 as a launcher crewman. In Europe we fired at a missile range in Crete. I achieved the rank of E5 . The majority of them were closed by 1974; and though a few lingered on in military use towards the end of the decade, the rest of them were decommissioned and turned towards new purposes. Others were built in … The IFC area would typically be located around a mile away from the launch pads. You can even order popcorn for your next event, schools, weddings, birthday parties or corporate events Pop-A-Razzi has got you covered! 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. 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. When the site was first built, the highway was on the east side of the site … (Since then, an August 2015 article in the Miami Herald announced that the HM-95 site had finally been demolished altogether. I was there the entire 3 years. Even more depressed arrival nike missile site key largo the buildings, twisted machine pieces had been the old site. ‘ how to fight a snake. ’ was discharged his family his hand Ready to the... 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