Did anyone attend squadron meetings at a Nike Missile site?

[ascorbate]

Did anyone in this forum ever attend weekly CAP squadron meetings at a deactivated Nike missile site? Upon joining CAP in 1975, I attended weekly meetings as a cadet member of the Gunpowder Composite Squadron (18026). Thursday night meetings were held at the BA-09 Nike missile launch site in Kingsville, MD, USA.

An aerial view of the site is still available at:
http://wikimapia.org/1646413/Former_NIKE_Missile_Launch_Site_BA_09

[Stonewall]

No.  But I was a member of Fairfax Composite Squadron and Mount Vernon Composite Squadron in National Capital Wing from 1992 to 2006 and some of my fellow seniors talked about going up to Gunpowder back in the 70s.  Gordon McIntosh, Derrill Ballenger, Frank McConnell.  Any of those ring a bell?

We were very close to this location:  Fairfax Nike Missile Site.

[Ranger75]

Mark  --  I recall the specific site you refer to well.  Rather than utilizing the MDWG HQ Quonset Huts located at BWI, the Gunpowder site was often the preferred location for WG-level weekend classroom training activities.    I believe the last time I would have been at the site was in 1973 when I was a C/Col and presented an ARC advanced first aid course as an element of the MDWG Ranger training program.  Thanks for the memory.   

[bosshawk]

Having lived in Fairfax County for twenty years, I was interested in the sign pictured.  I lived in Great Falls for almost ten years and saw the remains of that Nike site many times.   It had been turned over to the National Weather Service, I think and there were lots of radar antennas all over the place.

As an ROTC cadet, I did have the opportunity to go to a real, live Nike site located at Hampton Roads, Va(can't remember the name of the Army post on the beach).  Always remembered that visit.  Saw lots of Hawk sites in Korea when I was on active duty.  We used to fly against them, for practice, in our OV-1 Mohawks.

Ah, yes, those were the days.

[Cecil DP]

While I wasn't a member of the Squadron, Beverly Composite Squadron  MAWG used to meet at a Missle Site until the early 90's.

[ascorbate]

Mark  --  I recall the specific site you refer to well.  Rather than utilizing the MDWG HQ Quonset Huts located at BWI, the Gunpowder site was often the preferred location for WG-level weekend classroom training activities.    I believe the last time I would have been at the site was in 1973 when I was a C/Col and presented an ARC advanced first aid course as an element of the MDWG Ranger training program.  Thanks for the memory.   

Your comment made me think of a few other things:

1) Gunpowder Composite Squadron also served as a site for Maryland Wing Type B encampments (that were spread over a couple of consecutive weekends, no weekdays) in 1975 and 1976. Maryland Wing Type A encampments lasted one rigorous week during the peak of summer and were held at Pope AFB (North Carolina) in 1975 and at Patuxent Naval Air Station in 1976 & 1977. At the 1977 encampment, I was awarded "Honor Squadron Commander."

2) Sometime in the mid 1970s, Maryland Wing hosted a SAREX that was held at the Tolchester (BA-30, BA-31) Nike missile site which I believe was home to the Tolchester Composite Squadron. Anyone else remember this?

3) For those interested in visiting a deactivated Nike missile site today, check out the: Nike Historical Society - http://www.nikemissile.org. As part of the SALT I treaty signed between the US and the USSR, each superpower was allowed to maintain, for historical purposes, an authentic surface-to-air missile site. SF-88 in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (just north of the Golden Gate Bridge) is a Cold War relic which has the distinction of being the only restored Nike missile site in the entire country. The next time you're in the San Francisco Bay area, go out of your way to visit this site! On certain dates, one can even ride the working elevators down into the "pits" where mock-ups of authentic Nike missiles are being stored.

4) I took numerous pictures during my cadet days at the BA-09 Nike missile site. First, I need to find them and second, apparently I need to post 100 times in this forum before I have picture posting privileges.


BTW: Exactly where were those MD Wing HQ Quonset huts located at BWI?

[Stonewall]

As an ROTC cadet, I did have the opportunity to go to a real, live Nike site located at Hampton Roads, Va(can't remember the name of the Army post on the beach).

Ft. Story.  Here's the linky -->> Ft. Story Home Page.

[jimmydeanno]

I was thinking Camp Pendleton... there's a CAP Squadron there.  But there is a lot of military bases in Hampton Roads.  There's also Ft. Monroe and Ft. Eustis, which both border the water...

[JAFO78]

You can find more information here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_missile


I believe there was a Nike site outside of St. Boni, Mn west of Lake Minnetonka, which is west of downtown Minneapolis by approx 25 to 30 miles. On State HWY 7, And County Rd 92. This was in the area where I lived and my parents do. They have a missile on display at the city play ground.

There are 2 different locations, the second about a mile or two north next to a golf course on County Rd 19 on county line with Hennepin and Carver County. The second site was used as a regional Fire Department Training Academy. It now sits unused. last I heard, it was a Hazardous Waste Area. the RFDTA seemed to be blamed more for the HAZmat then the US Army. 

[bosshawk]

Stonewall: you are correct: Ft. Story.  While I was trying to go to sleep after writing that post, I remembered the name of the place.  Not having been to Story for probably 50 years, I simply forgot.  I was at Eustis for ROTC Summer Camp in 1956, then went back in 59 for TOBC(Transportation Officers Basic Course): we did a week of amphibious training at Story while at Eustis.

[Larry Mangum]

I joined the Beverly Composite Squadron in Mass, not too long after they moved out of the Nike site. We where located in the hangar offices next to the tower.

[Stonewall]

I was thinking Camp Pendleton...

Camp Pendleton is an "State Base" for the National Guard. There's Army & Air Guard plus the state boys camp for bad kids.

Camp Pendleton has an awesome special for military folks that very few people know about.  You can rent full-size houses there for like $70 a night or trailers for $45 a night.  I'm sure they've gone up, but I used to go there every summer for a week from '96 to '01. 

[NIN]

MI Wing (well, one of our groups, Group 11) had Nike site D-87 in Commerce Township, MI. (those of us from the "city" called it "Union Lake" although that was not entirely accurate. Slim Freytag is from Union Lake and I expect he'll chime in on this one when he gets a chance)

Sometime in the mid 1980s, like 1983, the state of Michigan took the site back and turned it into one of those "troubled kid" facilities.  Man, those barracks and the chow hall were excellent.  Col Mike Saile, the current MI Wing Commander, was in Group 11 back in those days and I'm sure he could tell stories about pipes breaking and all the awful maintenance nightmares that place was. While we cadets were unhappy to see it go, I'm sure a lot of seniors breathed a sigh of relief when it "went away."

Another site, D-86 in Southfield, MI, was right next door to the American Motors Building (now the "American Center") and home to a USAR and USNR facility.  The USAR facility had already been built, but the missile pits and the refueling berm were still extant. The condos which have cropped up around that site were not there WIWAC, and we used to play "war games" on the site, including the creek that ran thru the whole deal. The former "Farmington Composite Squadron," later renamed "Starfire Cadet Squadron," met at the USAR center there.  That unit's commander?  Then Captain (now MG) Amy Courter.   

(Starfire and Columbia Sqs merged in 1994 to become the South Oakland Sq, meeting at that same site, which I was commander of from 1997 to 1998.. Small world, eh?)

[Ranger75]

Mark  --  As I recall, MDWG HQs in those days was located just off of the BW Parkway on the SW corner of BWI's boundaries.  --  Jim  #206

[Cecil DP]

I joined the Beverly Composite Squadron in Mass, not too long after they moved out of the Nike site. We where located in the hangar offices next to the tower.

I remember, the commander, LtCol Gallant was the first commander at the Airport.

[CAP_truth]

In the late 60's and 70s we had a squadron within our group that met at a Nike site southwest of Chicago in Townley Park Illinois. As a senior member and a squadron commander we had group training missions and SARDA missions at that base. The squadron use to have formations on the elevator. Cadets love it.

[Slim]

MI Wing (well, one of our groups, Group 11) had Nike site D-87 in Commerce Township, MI. (those of us from the "city" called it "Union Lake" although that was not entirely accurate. Slim Freytag is from Union Lake and I expect he'll chime in on this one when he gets a chance)

Sometime in the mid 1980s, like 1983, the state of Michigan took the site back and turned it into one of those "troubled kid" facilities.  Man, those barracks and the chow hall were excellent.  Col Mike Saile, the current MI Wing Commander, was in Group 11 back in those days and I'm sure he could tell stories about pipes breaking and all the awful maintenance nightmares that place was. While we cadets were unhappy to see it go, I'm sure a lot of seniors breathed a sigh of relief when it "went away."

Another site, D-86 in Southfield, MI, was right next door to the American Motors Building (now the "American Center") and home to a USAR and USNR facility.  The USAR facility had already been built, but the missile pits and the refueling berm were still extant. The condos which have cropped up around that site were not there WIWAC, and we used to play "war games" on the site, including the creek that ran thru the whole deal. The former "Farmington Composite Squadron," later renamed "Starfire Cadet Squadron," met at the USAR center there.  That unit's commander?  Then Captain (now MG) Amy Courter.   

(Starfire and Columbia Sqs merged in 1994 to become the South Oakland Sq, meeting at that same site, which I was commander of from 1997 to 1998.. Small world, eh?)

I grew up about 4 miles from the Nike site in Union Lake, and have very vague recollections of the camp, including helos flying in there, when it was still active.  It was just one of those places all of the locals knew about, and knew to avoid.  I do remember a training activity there WIWAC, but the state took it back shortly after I joined. 

I came to South Oakland after Nin left, and we still met in that USAR center, though the squids moved out and another AR unit moved into their building after he left.  We got the boot from there in 2002

Some interesting info on the Detroit-Cleveland network can be found here.  I threw a post up in the guestbook on that page and had some email contact with vets from the Union Lake site, all of whom were surprised that the place is still there and that the admin area is pretty much unchanged.

[♠SARKID♠]

I live about five minutes from an old site and work within spitting distance of another.  The one by my house was bought up and a guy built a house next to the pad.  In satellite photos from 2005 he has one of the missile bay doors open.

[majdomke]

I did my OCS as a cadet at a retired Nike site just outside Detroit back around '84. It was pretty cool, the silos were still there but secured. We used the building for barracks, classrooms and meals. It seemed like it was being upkept by someone for CAP's use. Too long ago to remember it all. I do have some pics in case anyone's interested, but they are mostly of people doing things since I was also there as an Asst. Wing PAO.

[Larry Mangum]

I joined the Beverly Composite Squadron in Mass, not too long after they moved out of the Nike site. We where located in the hangar offices next to the tower.

I remember, the commander, LtCol Gallant was the first commander at the Airport.

Major Mark Gallant, was my unit commander.