MAKE A MEME View Large Image Aerial View of Missile (NIKE) Site PH15L showing four NIKE (AJAX) Missiles elevated to the ready position, 24th Artillery Group, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Defense a part of Second Region, ARADACOM W/HQ at Fort George G Meade, Maryland. 20 ...
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Keywords: blackandwhite monochrome outdoor black and white Aerial View of Missile (NIKE) Site PH15L showing four NIKE (AJAX) Missiles elevated to the ready position, 24th Artillery Group, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Defense a part of Second Region, ARADACOM W/HQ at Fort George G Meade, Maryland. 20 October 1959 Courtesy of James Tobias / Historical Resources Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History. Bob Harcarik (D/506th) recalls, "Actually, being on the Nike sites (Warminster, Bristol and back to Warminster) was one of the best tours I had in the Army. I was the Battery Commander at Bristol from Aug 56 to Jul 57. Happened to be the Senior Lieutenant in the Battalion. When a new Capt arrived he got the Bristol site and back to Warminster I went as the Exec Officer for a dual site. "One of the things I enjoyed was talking to various civil groups and explaining the role of the site. Lots of good times and met a bunch of fine folks. One episode does come to mind. Was talking to a group of student nurses, can't remember the hospital. Thought all went real well. After the dissertation and questions and answers found out that I had scared the devil out of some of them. Guess I got a little to carried away. "Off time was spent in a variety of ways, just like today. Sleeping, chasing girls, barhopping, site seeing. Dependent on the alert status we were on determined whether you could leave the site or not. 5 minute status meant you had to be ready to fire a missile within 5 minutes. So crews stayed on site. 10 minute, you had better be near by. 30 minute - same thing. Stand down - after normal duty hours free to go unless assigned guard duty, etc. "First of all, we tried to be good citizens and not do anything to draw unfavorable attention. I think we were pretty successful there. Being an old farm boy from Illinois, late fall of 56, I noticed a field of corn adjacent to our launch area had not been picked. Inquiry revealed it belonged to a family just up the road from the launch area. My platoon seargent knew the folks and said that on occasion they had borrowed some of their equipment to help maintain the area (grass & weed cutting, another story). I suggested that he contact her and offer to pick the corn for them. Several of he men in the launch area were also farm boys. They accepted and 4 days later, their corn was picked and cribbed. They threw one hell of party for the troops that participated. We were also invited to march in parades. The Roslyn VFW treated us like royalty. "Was [also] looking at your web site and pictures and brought to mind how close on of our radars were to the turnpike. This in turn brought to mind a gentleman from the CIA spent three weeks on the site trying to figure out how to protect the radars, i.e., someone sitting on the turnpike with a high powered rifle and a couple of rounds into the radar, particularly the rear of the dish where the magnetron was and poof. Its blind. Can't track anything. His conclusion was sand bags, 3' thick to the top of the dish. As I told him that would probably stop bullets but he just put blinders on the radar. Never did come up with an answer." Aerial View of Missile (NIKE) Site PH15L showing four NIKE (AJAX) Missiles elevated to the ready position, 24th Artillery Group, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Defense a part of Second Region, ARADACOM W/HQ at Fort George G Meade, Maryland. 20 October 1959 Courtesy of James Tobias / Historical Resources Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History. Bob Harcarik (D/506th) recalls, "Actually, being on the Nike sites (Warminster, Bristol and back to Warminster) was one of the best tours I had in the Army. I was the Battery Commander at Bristol from Aug 56 to Jul 57. Happened to be the Senior Lieutenant in the Battalion. When a new Capt arrived he got the Bristol site and back to Warminster I went as the Exec Officer for a dual site. "One of the things I enjoyed was talking to various civil groups and explaining the role of the site. Lots of good times and met a bunch of fine folks. One episode does come to mind. Was talking to a group of student nurses, can't remember the hospital. Thought all went real well. After the dissertation and questions and answers found out that I had scared the devil out of some of them. Guess I got a little to carried away. "Off time was spent in a variety of ways, just like today. Sleeping, chasing girls, barhopping, site seeing. Dependent on the alert status we were on determined whether you could leave the site or not. 5 minute status meant you had to be ready to fire a missile within 5 minutes. So crews stayed on site. 10 minute, you had better be near by. 30 minute - same thing. Stand down - after normal duty hours free to go unless assigned guard duty, etc. "First of all, we tried to be good citizens and not do anything to draw unfavorable attention. I think we were pretty successful there. Being an old farm boy from Illinois, late fall of 56, I noticed a field of corn adjacent to our launch area had not been picked. Inquiry revealed it belonged to a family just up the road from the launch area. My platoon seargent knew the folks and said that on occasion they had borrowed some of their equipment to help maintain the area (grass & weed cutting, another story). I suggested that he contact her and offer to pick the corn for them. Several of he men in the launch area were also farm boys. They accepted and 4 days later, their corn was picked and cribbed. They threw one hell of party for the troops that participated. We were also invited to march in parades. The Roslyn VFW treated us like royalty. "Was [also] looking at your web site and pictures and brought to mind how close on of our radars were to the turnpike. This in turn brought to mind a gentleman from the CIA spent three weeks on the site trying to figure out how to protect the radars, i.e., someone sitting on the turnpike with a high powered rifle and a couple of rounds into the radar, particularly the rear of the dish where the magnetron was and poof. Its blind. Can't track anything. His conclusion was sand bags, 3' thick to the top of the dish. As I told him that would probably stop bullets but he just put blinders on the radar. Never did come up with an answer."
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