If it flies, it dies

Last week I realized my lifelong dream of visiting a Nike missile site. The Nike system was a surface-to-air missile designed to shoot down squadrons of Soviet bombers as they approached US cities. Nike sites were spread all over the country and concentrated around major industrial areas. In the Chicago region, there were Nike missile installations at Jackson Park, Montrose Point, Wolf Lake, Fort Sheridan, and the Skokie Lagoons, to name a few [1]. The only restored Nike missile site in the country is Site SF-88, located in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco.

Behold the sweetness in my photo album from the site or from the official National Park Service site (the Marin Headlands are part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area).



I learned from the friendly NPS volunteer that the guardian of the Nike missileers is the Oozlefinch, a featherless bird usually often shown wearing an artilleryman's helmet and either grasping a Nike Hercules or crushing a Soviet aircraft in its talons. The Oozlefinch has no eyelids to disrupt its constant vigilance, so it flies backwards to keep dust out of its eyes. Worthy missileers were inducted into the the Ancient and Honorable Order of the Oozlefinch and then awarded various Oozlefinchling degrees as they merited. The motto of the Order is "Quid ad sceleratorum curamus," which may be loosely translated as "What the hell do we care?" [2]

The History Channel's "Weird US" series did a segment on the Nike program which they have kindly posted on YouTube.


[1] Ed Thelen's Nike Missile Web Site
[2] History of the Oozlefinch by Errol Porter

Bonus: NBC 5 Special Report: Chicago's Nuclear Missile History

Atomic Tourism

It has come to my attention that a number of Cold War sites are now open for tourism. Road trip, anyone?


Nuclear explosion sites

• The Trinity site in New Mexico is open two days a year
  
• Nevada Test Site
  

Aircraft and missiles on display

• The B-29 Enola Gay is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington-Dulles Airport*
  
• The B-29 Bockscar is on display at The National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio*
  
• The Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, Kansas, has an outstanding collection of Cold War and Space Race artifacts from both the US and Soviet programs; they also have both a V-1 and a V-2 on display.*
  
• Strategic Air & Space Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
  

ICBM Silos and Nike Batteries

• Minuteman Missile NHS, outside Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota
  
• Titan Missile Museum, Tucson, Arizona
  
• Nike missile site SF-88, Golden Gate NRA, Marin County, California (update: I was there in August 2007 - see my post "If it flies, it dies.")*
  
• Chanute Air Museum, Rantoul, Illinois, has a nice collection of aircraft as well as a genuine USAF missile silo maintenance trainer.*
  

Other atomic tourist sites:

• Atomic Tourist
  
• This dude from Milwaukee has been to several of the above sites and has kindly posted his pictures and narrative: Trinity, Minuteman Missile NHS, and the Titan Missile Museum.
  

* denotes that I've been there and it's totally sweet.


Closing thought, from the journal of one of The Mighty Rando's lab-mates:

The U.S. government has a huge stockpile of nukes. Somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000, although no one--not even the government--knows for sure. Those beautiful engines of destruction were lovingly crafted out of pure taxpayer greenbacks, and by golly, they owe us. I say the government ought to be forced (either by popular vote, or because I damn well told 'em to) to set off one nuke every year at the Nevada test range, on the ground or in the air, just so dads all over the country can pile the family into the pickup or camper and drive out to the desert to see a little fireworks display, USA style. It would be good for all of us. To remind us that nukes exist, that they exist for a reason, and that we Americans are going to be their most important stewards forever. Because we built 'em first, we built the most, and they are not going to go away, no matter how much we might wish that they would. Hell, we ought to invite foreign dignitaries, too. I think that certain terrorist-coddling Middle Eastern heads of state could learn a lot from seeing a few square miles of desert instantly turned into glass.

Ask Doctor Vector: The Star-Spangled Incredible Hulk