US ARMY MISSILE DEFENSE COMMAND NIKE/HERCULES VIGILANT- INVINCIBLE

NORAD USAF COMMAND AND CONTROL OPERATIONS Call Sign "HUNTRESS"

NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND USAF

 NORAD CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ICBM EARLY WARNING AND NUCLEAR WAR OPERATIONS COMMAND CENTER

CODE NAME "HUNTRESS"
FRONT ENTRANCE 1960's

Air Defense Doctrine and Procedures



All services--Army, Navy, and Air Force--are involved in air defense operations.
ARMY AIR DEFENSE OPERATIONS AUTHORITY
Specific authorization for the Army to engage in air defense operations is derived from the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Pub. 2, United Action Armed Forces (UNAAF), November 1959. These directives assign the Army primary functions as follows: "To organize, train, and equip Army forces for the conduct of prompt and sustained combat operations on land--specifically, forces to defeat enemy land forces and to seize, occupy, and defend land area." UNAAF assigns the Army the following air defense missions: "To organize, train, and equip Army air defense units, including provision of Army forces as required for defense of the United States against air attack, in accordance with doctrines established by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
CONCEPT OF AIR DEFENSE OPERATIONS
The broad principles of Army air defense doctrine are stated in FM 44-1, U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Employment. The provisions in FM 44-1 apply to US Army air defense artillery units with a unified command or serving in a combined force. The policies and procedures prescribed by the joint air defense commander will prevail when they conflict with doctrine and procedures described in FM 44-1.

NORTH AMERICAN AIR DEFENSE COMMAND
The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) is a combined command exercising operational control of forces allocated for air defense of Canada, Alaska, and the continental United States. Its mission is "to defend the North American Continent against an attack. " Headquarters NORAD, located at Colorado Springs, Colorado, prepares operational plans, conducts tactical exercises and readiness tests, and coordinates plans and requirements for new air defense weapons. It is the supreme headquarters for directing the air defense of North America in the event of war.

NORAD AIR DEFENSE SECTOR MAP 1960-1975

EVOLUTION                                                              




NORAD was formed in September 1957 following an agreement between the governments of Canada and the United States which, in effect, was official recognition of the fact that air defense of the two countries is an mdlvisible task. A high-level Canadian-United States committee (Military Cooperation Committee) drew up an emergency plan far the common defense of North America and directed that air defense organizations of the two countries prepare detailed emergency air defense plans. The first of these was issued in 1950.
Early in 1954, the same committee authorized a combined planning group of representatives from the Royal Canadian Air Force and the US Air Force Air Defense Command. Studies conducted by this group indicated that the best air defense of North America was an integrated defense, with forces of both countries operating under a single command, responsible to both governments. Following the completion of another study 2 years later which had the same conclusions, integration of operational control of the two forces was recommended .
In the meantime, the two countries had gone ahead with the development of a joint radar warning network. Together, they built the Pine Tree line of radars across southern Canada. Canada started constructingthe mid-Canada line, and the United States began the distant early warning (DEW) line across the northern rim of the continent. Conditions for operating and manning these lines were mutually agreed upon.
Thus, by 1957, there had been a considerable history of joint planning, coordinating, and sharing, and the need for further integration had been recognized. In August of that year, the United States Secretary of Defense and the Canadian Minister of National Defence announced that the two governments had agreed to establish a system of integrated operational control of air defense forces for North America and an integrated headquarters. On 12 September 1957, NORAD was established, followed by the signing of an official agreement by both countries on 12 May 1958.
The Commander in Chief, North American Air Defense Command (CINCNORAD), was to be responsible to the Chief, Defence Staff of Canada, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. The agreement further stipulated that the appointment of CINCNORAD and his deputy had to be approved by both governments and that both would not be from the same country.
NORAD FORCES
NORAD has no organic fighting elements of its own, but is furnished combat-ready forces, including Reserve and National Guard forces, by three component commands (fig 1): US Army Air Defense Command(ARADCOM), US Air Force Aerospace Defense Command (USAF ADC), and Canadian Forces Air Defence Command (CF ADC), plus the air defense forces of the Alaskan Command. CINCNORAD exercises operational control over all air defense forces attached or otherwise made available by component commanders and the Alaskan Command.
ARADCOM furnishes Nike Hercules missiles (high-altitude, surface-to-air) and Hawk missiles (low- and medium-altitude, surface to-air). Under this command are the US Army missile units protecting the key population and industrial centers of the United States.









NORAD OPERATIONS CONTROL ROOM AND CURRENT NATIONAL DEFENSE CONDITION INFORMATION (DEFense CONdition)

Most of NORAD's fighter-interceptor squadrons are provided by the USAF ADC. This component also contributes Bomarc surface-to-air missiles, CONUS radar squadrons, and early warning airborne radars. USAF ADC is responsible for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) and SPACETRACK (a part of the Space Detection and Tracking System(SPADATS)), providing NORAD important information about ballistic missiles and orbiting space objects. The Air National Guard provides interceptor squadrons on full-time assignment to NORAD through USAF ADC. The CF ADC provides fighter-interceptor squadrons and long-range radars which contribute heavily to performance of surveillance, detection, and identification functions.
Alaskan air defense forces are made available to CINCNORAD for operational control. This force is not a component of NORAD. The force, consisting of Army and Air Force AD weapons, are part of the Alaskan Command (a unified command). Commander in Chief, Alaska (CINCAL), has a dual role. He is the commander of the Alaskan Command and also the commander of the Alaskan NORAD region. The geographical boundaries of the Alaskan Command and Alaskan NORAD region are the same.
The US Navy's space surveillance system (NAVSPASUR) furnishes information to NORAD on orbiting space objects. The US Navy would also provide augmentation forces upon direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) is a unified command made up of US personnel within the NORAD structure. This organization gives the US a capability of unilateral action where strictly United States interests are involved. Accordingly, the mission of CONAD is aerospace defense of Alaska, Greenland, and the continental United States (CONUS), and Mexico if requested by the Mexican Government. The senior American officer in NORAD is the Commander in Chief, Continental Air Defense (CWCONAD). If CINCNORAD is an American, he also is CINCONAD. If CINCNORAD is a Canadian, then the Deputy CINCNORAD is CINCONAD.

OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
To accomplish its mission, NORAD is guided by these air defense principles: hit the enemy as far out as possible; increase the pressure as he continues; complicate his tactical problem be mpl,ying a family of weapons to perform low, medium, high, close-in, and distant missions; and realize optimum economy and efficiency of effort through centralized direction and decentralized execution of the air battle.
NORAD must guard against manned bomber attack as well as ballistic missile attack. It must watch over the North American Continent from treetops to beyond the atmosphere. Currently, the North American Continent is divided into eight regional areas (fig 2) of air defense responsibility· Each region commander is responsible to CINCNORAD for all air defense activity within his designated area.

1960s NORAD AND AIR DEFENSE OPERATION CHART OF CONUS (CONtinental United States)

 Each NORAD region is the basic unit for decentralized fighting of the air battle. Regions that cross the international boundary are manned jointly by United States and Canadian personnel. The sizes of regions vary depending generally on the amount of air traffic and number of vital target areas located within each region.
To perform its mission, NORAD must accomplish four basic actions: detect the presence of airborne objects, aircraft, or missiles; identiiy them as friendly or hostile; intercept and examine those not identified as friendly; and destroy those identified as hostile, using interceptor aircraft or air defense missiles.
NORAD employs several detection and warning systems, each designed to detect one of the three possible threats. The northernmost detection system is BMEWS. The three BMEWS stations(Thule, Greenland(fig 3), Clear, Alaska(fig 4) and Flyingdales Moor in Northern England) employ electronic systems providing detection and early warning of attack from enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM)
BMEWS was made possible by scientific developments in the electronics field. The system uses huge radars, approximately the size of a football field, which can detect a missile at a distance of 3,000 miles. The power required for a single station would meet the electrical needs of a small city.
The heart of the BMEWS detection system is a combination transmitter-receiver which transmits an extremely brief burst of energy many times each second in narrow fans of radiofrequency energy at two different degrees of elevation. As a missile passes through these fans, it reflects energy to the station, enabling the coordinates of flight to be recorded. From a set of coordinates, the trajectory can be plotted and the impact point, time, and point of launch calculated. Data processing equipment at the site rapidly computes the data and flashes a warning to NORAD.



EARLY WARNING RADAR COVERAGE OF NORTH AMERICA AND THE BALLISTIC MISSILE EARLY WARNING STATIONS (BMEWS) AND USAF RADAR INSTALLATIONS 1958-1990 NORAD LOCATED IN MIDDLE OF DIAGRAM

Another detection system is the manned bomber sunreillance network, composed of land-based radar networks (fig 5) and Air Force planes. The first line of radars begins in the far north with the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line (fig 6). This radar fence, which stretches from the eastern shores of Greenland across the Canadian Arctic to Western Alaska, provides initial warning of attack by manned bombers. A ground-based radar system, called contiguous coverage, is extended out to sea off the southeast coast by Air Force radar planes (fig 7). All of these systems are joined together by a communications network terminating in the NORAD Combat Operations Center at Colorado Springs, Colorad
Another part of the NORAD detection and warning system is the Space Detection and Tracking System (SPADATS) which keeps track of all manmade objects in space. Through a global system of radar, radio, and optical sensors, the system brings under NORAD operational control space detection and tracking resources available to the military. Civilian and government scientific agencies throughout the free world contribute to the system on a cooperative basis.
Primary military members of the SPADATS are the USAF SPACETRACK system and US Navy's NAVSPASUR. SPACETRACK provides tracking information through a series of USAF sensors (radar, optical, and electronic). The CF ADC provides inputs from an optical sunreillance device, the Baker-Nunn camera (fig 8). NAVSPASUR is composed of three powerful transmitter stations and six receiver stations alternately spaced across the southern United States from California to Georgia. Data from this network are furnished to NORAD Space Defense Center(SDC) computers through the system's headquarters and opei-ations center at Dahlgren, Virginia.

Space tracking information from this widespread system flows into the SDC (fig 9) at Colorado Springs wnere giant digital computers digest reams of complex orbital data on space objects.
The wide variety of data received from the numerous sources enables the SDC to provide complete and timely cracking information on manmade objects in space. SDC also maintains a running catalog, constantly revised and updated, on space traffic. Thousands of observations are received daily and are used to refine existing orbital characteristics of hundreds of objects. This includes not only payloads but space junk, such as burned-out boosters and wires the size of a lead pencil.


THE RADAR PICTURED AND SITE WAS THE LOCATION OF USAF GAT TRACKING , IDENTIFICATION FRIEND OR FOE ,SAGE AND WAS BUILT FOR THE USAF BOMARC INSTALLATION SOUTH OF IT. THE OTHER RADARS IN CONJUCTION WIH MONTAUK ALLOWED FOR PRECISE TARGET TRACKING AND DATA FOR COMMAND AND CONTROL FACILITIES. UNIDENTIFIED BOGEYS THAT WERE  IN US AIRSPACE WOULD BE DETECTED  THE  SUFFOLK AFB  WOULD SCRAMBLE ALERT INTERCEPTORS  THAT WOULD HIT THE AFTERBURNERS AND GO SCREAMING  IN TO THE SKY TO CONFRONT AND IDENTIFY THE APPROACHING OBJECT AND IF NEED BE SPLASH THE BOGEY INTO THE ATLANTIC OCEA

Once the computers have digested all the tracking data and produced their findings, the information can be transmitted to the battle staff area in the adjacent NORAD combat operations center by closed-circuit television.
Identification is one of NORAD's most difficult problems, caused chiefly by the large amount of air traffic in the United States and Canada. On the average, there are approximately 1,200 overwater flights daily and an estimated 200,000 internal flights .
Aircraft penetrating the North American Continent enter air defense identification zones (ADIZ) established around and throughout the continent to assist in identification processing. Any aircraft originating from an oversea area must enter an ADIZ within 20 miles of a predetermined point and within 5 minutes of an estimated time, based on the pilot's flight plan filed at his takeoff point and sent ahead to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inthe United States and Department of Transport (DOT) in Canada. This information is relayed to appropriate NORAD region control centers (NRCC) and used for correlation when the track is acquired.
If an aircraft enters an ADIZ, but is not within prescribed limits, it is declared an unknown and interceptors may be scrambled to make positive visual identification. The ADIZ system is part of the NORAD identification process known as flight plan correlation.
Under combat conditions, the identification process would be somewhat simplified when provisions of emergency plans and security control of air traffic and air navigational aids (SCATANA) are placed in effect. SCATANA provides for orderly grounding of nonessential aircraft and establishing military control over radio navigational aids.
In view of the large number of aircraft flights taking place within NORAD airspace in any given 24-hour period, it is a rare day when none of these appear at the NORAD combat operations center as unknown. The average number of unknowns in the system has steadily declined over the years untir now the number isapproximately 40 per month. Of these, it is common to find two or three instances where interceptors are scrambled recalled before intercept because of the identity being established by further communication checks.
The regular fighter-interceptor squadrons (fig 10) of the NORAD system, in an emergency, would be augmented by available fighter aircraft of the US Navy, US Marine Corps, US Air Forces, Air National Guard, and interceptor training units of the CF ADC. All of these forces are highly mobile and constantly practice dispersal and forward base deployment.

NORAD COMBAT OPERATIONS CENTER
Nerve center of the North American Air Defense Command is the Combat Operations Center (COG) situated in Cheyenne Mountain, south of Colorado Springs (fig 11). The COC is housed in steel buildings beneath more than a thousand feet of solid granite. The main part of the COC is a three-story building complex (fig 12) constructed within the intersecting chambers. It includes 200,000 square feet of floorspace to accommodate a maximum of 1,800 people. The COC is virtually safe from thermonuclear attack (fig 13). It is from the COC that the first warning of an attack on North America would come. If such an attack should come, the air battle for survival of the United States and Canada would be directed from the operations room in norad.
Data are received in the COC from the huge complex of radar stations, interceptor squadrons, missile sites, space tracking and ballistic missile warning units, and NORAD regions and are stored in a large digital computer. Here, too, information is received from other sources, such as the Strategic Air Command (SAC), naval forces off both coasts, the Pentagon, and the Department of National Defence in Canada. This information is displayed on an electronic wall display system (fig 14). The system permits almost instantaneous observation of the positions of aerospace and seaborne objects thousands of miles away and over any part of the continent covered by radar networks. It flashes surveillance information on large, theater-like screens for easy observation.

Included is a map of North America, the surrounding oceans, Greenland, Iceland, parts of Siberia, and the Caribbean islands. Symbols show the location and direction of travel of all aircraft of special interest to NORAD. These may be strategic friendly elements or a commercial or military aircraft that for one reason or another is classed as an unknown until positive identification is made. NORAD is interested in unidentified submarines, friendly aircraft carriers, Soviet fishing trawlers, and air activity over Cuba and Siberia. All this is presented on the main display with special coded symbols that provide a variety of information about the subject.
To the right of the main display is the weapon status hoard. This is associated with the main display, and information on the board is received, processed, and displayed automatically. The top part of this board, referred to as the "commander's box score, " shows at a glance the number of hostile aircraft in the NORAD system, the number of unla~owns, the weapons committedto these tracks, the kills made, and NORAD losses. Below is a listingof worldwide major military commands and their defense readiness conditions. The bottom part of the status board shows the number of weapons available to NORAD on a 5-minute alert, including fighter-interceptors and surface-to-air missiles

Other types and sources of information are available on call. The weather forecast office in the COC is manned with trained meteorologists who are always on duty and ready to provide the latest weather information, either in person or through the closed-circuit television network, to monitors in front of each member of the battle staff. SDC is located in the COC (fig 15) and can provide information (fig 16) to the battle staff either by a per sonal briefing or through the television system.

SEMIAUTOMATIC GROUND ENVIRONMENT
Conduct of an area air defense battle requires a vast amount of information, dependable communications, and coordination among many organizations. Receiving this information, processing it, and using the necessary instructions in the limited time available proved impossible for unaided human beings, and an electronic air surveillance and weapon control system was devised to do the job. This system, called semiautomatic ground environment (SAGE), receives information, processesit, and communicates instructions to those control and command
 the flow of data to and from the NORAD region control center (NRCC) in the air defense organization. Data are transmitted automatically to the NRCC from ground-based search radars and, on demand, from height-finder radars. Information on weapon status, weather, and airborne early warning is received by telephone, radio, and teletype and is programed into the computer. Similarly, data from the NRCC are transmitted automatically to direct Bomarc missiles and aircraft equipped with data link receivers to hostile aircraft. Digital data transmission is used to pass hostile track information to Missile Mentor (AN/TSQ-51) or battery integration and radar display equipment (BIRDIE) command, control, and coordination systems for action by Nike Hercules and Hawk fire units. Selected data are automatically sent to adjacent NRCC's. Manned interceptors, not equipped with data link, are directed to the hostile aircraft by voice (ultrahigh frequency (UHF) radio). Telephone, teletype, and radio are used to pass information to civil defense agencies, SAG, and other headquarters.





UNITED STATES ARMY AIR DEFENSE COMMAND

The US Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM) is both a major combat command of the US Army and a component of NORAD. As a member of the two-nation air defense organi zation, ARADCOM is assigned the mission of providing combat-ready Army forces to the Commander in Chief, NORAD, for the air defense of designated strategic and metropolitan target complexes. The mainstay of ARADCOM's weapon inventory is nuclear-capable Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles. Nike Hercules missiles are augmented by nonnuclear Hawk missiles, currently deployed in defense of the Homestead-Miami and Key West areas in southern Florida. Nike Hercules is effective even at altitudes up to 150,000 feet and the Hawk from treetop level to 38,000 feet.




This is the story of the United States Army Air Defense Command! Project Nike was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Ajax, in 1953. A great number of the technologies and rocket systems used for developing the Nike Ajax were re-used for a number of functions, many of which were given the "Nike" name (after Nike, the goddess of victory from Greek mythology). The missile's first-stage solid rocket booster became the basis for many types of rocket including the Nike Hercules missile and NASA's Nike Smoke rocket, used for upper-atmosphere research.

FORTRESS LONG ISLAND A COLD WAR BRIEFING OF WHAT WAS AND NOW GONE LEAVING GHOSTS OF COLD WAR SOLDIERS

LONG ISLAND THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE FOR NEW YORK CITY AND LONG ISLAND DEFENDING THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES FROM COMMUNIST AGGRESSION

Greek Goddess of Victory
http://www.newsday.com/features/printedition/longislandlife/ny-fstory.eat-lcov0310.
The original story appeared in Newsday March 2002
The Russians Were Coming
But Long Island was ready with a string of Cold War defenses, some of which are still intact today

THE MOVIE ABOVE IS ABOUT THE MISSILE SYSTEM THAT WAS IN PLACE ON LONG ISLAND MOST RESIDENTS OF THE AREAS THAT HOSTED THESE MISSILE UNITS WERE UNAWARE THEY WERE THERE AND WERE NUCLEAR ARMED, THE WARHEAD WAS BIGGER THAN THE HIROSHIMA YIELD, THERE ARE STORIES OF THE US ARMY UNITS THAT WERE CHARGED WITH THE TASK OF USING THESE WEAPONS HAVING CLOSE CALLS THAT WOULD OF CAUSED THE NIKE HERCULES ROCKET WARHEAD TO GO OFF, AND THE STORY OF THE LAST NIKE SITE IN ROCKY POINT TOWN OF BROOKHAVEN ON LONG ISLANDS NORTH SHORE BEING SHUT DOWN AND DECOMMISSIONED DURING THIS PROCEDURE THE ROCKET WARHEADS WERE LOADED ON HELICOPTERS, ONCE AIRBORNE A FEW MINUTES OUT THE HELICOPTER WAS EXPERIENCING MECHANICAL PROBLEMS AND WAS FORCED TO LAND AT JONES BEACH ON A BUSY SUMMER DAY. THE SUNBATHERS HAD NO IDEA WHAT THE CARGO WAS INSIDE THE HEAVILY PROTECTED HELICOPTER AND IF THEY DID THEY MAY HAVE FLED THE BEACH THAT DAY. LONG ISLANDS COLD WAR DEFENSE OF NEW YORK CITY AND MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT FACILITIES THAT WERE ALL OVER LONG ISLAND AND WERE IMPORTANT TO THE UNITED STATES DEFENSE DURING THE COLD WAR YEARS THE STORY BELOW AND THE VIDEO WILL GIVE YOU A CLEAR PICTURE OF WHAT THESE UNITS AND THEIR WEAPONS WERE TASKED WITH AND THEIR POWER,

By Bill Bleyer

March 10, 2002
RAYMOND GROHS was a radar operator at an Army anti-aircraft missile base in October 1962 when President John F. Kennedy announced the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Just as JFK reached the point in his televised speech when he issued an ultimatum to Soviet leaders to remove the missiles, the alert siren at Grohs' base blared.

"We knew it meant business," Grohs remembered. Everyone raced to the vans that housed the controls for operating the radar and launching the 35-foot-long Nike Ajax missiles, which could destroy enemy planes carrying nuclear bombs up to 28 miles away.
While other servicemen prepared to raise some of the 60 missiles from underground storage bunkers less than a mile away, Grohs stared transfixed at the display of five colored lights in the control van that indicated the level of security threat. They blinked to DEFCON-3, two steps below all-out war.
"It was pretty bad because we were never at that level before," he said. "All of a sudden I got the sickest feeling in my stomach, and so did everybody else."
Grohs, an airman first class who was serving full time in the Army National Guard, found time to call his wife at home three miles away and urged her to take their two children to his parents' house farther from the base. "She wanted to stay close to me," recalled Grohs, now 64 and living in Long Beach. "She said, 'If I'm going to die, I'll die near you.'"
So she remained at home and he remained by his missiles -- not at some remote installation in the Great Plains, but in Lido Beach.
From the end of World War II into the early 1980s, Long Island was on the front lines of the Cold War. It played a pivotal role in shielding the metropolitan area and the Northeast from nuclear attack with a string of radar installations, air bases and anti-aircraft missile batteries.

F-101 VOODOO FROM THE AIR DEFENSE COMMAND WING  LOCATED AT SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR FORCE BASE ON PATROL OF SUFFOLK'S AIRSPACE SCAFB CLOSED IN EARLY 1969

Fortress Long Island ran from Grohs' Nike site in Lido Beach to a radar complex near Montauk Point. Some installations were isolated; others were practically in the backyards of suburbia. Bowing to reality, the military didn't try to keep them a secret. The Army went as far as hosting open houses at some bases.

"Everybody knew about them," said John Hammond, 60, an Oyster Bay historian who remembers the 1950s air raid drills in schools and fallout shelters in public buildings and backyards. "You saw the Army trucks." He recalls watching a Nike Hercules missile rolling through downtown Oyster Bay in a 1958 parade.

But even many Long Islanders who remember the strong military presence do a double take when they learn that at times from the late 1950s until 1974, the missiles poised to strike from Rocky Point, North Amityville and Westhampton carried a nuclear punch.

The Nike Hercules, with a range of 87 miles, was topped with a nuclear warhead bearing the firepower of up to 30 kilotons of TNT, or three times the strength of the atomic bomb that leveled Nagasaki in 1945. BOMARC-A missiles could carry 10-kiloton warheads 240 miles. And some interceptor jets carried missiles with 2-kiloton warheads.
Those nuclear weapons, intended to destroy several Russian bombers at once, are long gone, but many remnants of Long Island's Cold War past remain.

The most visible is the empty 85-foot-tall concrete radar tower topped by a giant steel "sail" that dominates the landscape near Montauk Point. While it is slated to be revived as a museum in the future, other facilities have already been converted to new uses. The interceptor hangars at Suffolk County Air Force Base -- now Gabreski Airport -- are home to Air National Guard rescue helicopters. Buildings that once housed radar and missile technicians in Brookville are an environmental education center. A Lido Beach building where Ray Grohs spent much of his time from 1962 to 1964 is a kindergarten.

But all that lingers from the Lloyd Harbor Nike battery is a rusty chain-link fence.

***Long Island's most intact former Nike missile base is hidden at the rear of the Army Reserve Center on Route 25A in Rocky Point. The field surrounded by rusting barbed wire looks like a parking lot for vehicles painted in camouflage colors. But among the trucks is a line of low concrete boxes, steel doors and plates, and mushroom-shaped funnels. These are the entrances, missile elevator doors, escape hatches, ventilators and firing platforms of three Nike storage bunkers in use from 1957 through 1974.
Lifting a set of steel double doors like those on storm cellars provides access to a long, dank staircase littered with white paint chips. The stairs lead to a cavernous concrete vault where up to 10 missiles -- first Nike Ajax, then Hercules -- were stored on rolling horizontal racks, long gone. An elevator flush with the floor carried the missiles to the surface, where other large steel doors dropped open so the weapons could be loaded on launchers.
In one corner, a 6-inch-thick steel door leads to a warren of small rooms that served as a control center. "If they had a problem, they could run back here," said Staff Sgt. Brian Garcia, 34, of Farmingville, his voice echoing off the concrete walls as water dripped from the ceiling to pool in the crawlspace under the elevator. "At first it was kind of weird coming down here, thinking of what used to go on down here," said Garcia, a full-time Army reservist who oversees the site. "Now it's not such a big deal, but it is still spooky."
At ground level, the racks that held the missiles and the adjacent hydraulic arms that lifted them into launching position are gone. But several buildings used for missile assembly and testing remain and are used for storage and maintenance. One of them, surrounded by a 12-foot-tall earthen berm, was where Nike Hercules warheads were attached to the missiles.
In theory, the berm would deflect the force of an accidental nuclear explosion from the rest of the base, said Donald Bender, a historical consultant from New Jersey who is an expert on the region's Cold War arsenal. Happily this theory was never tested; there was never a weapons accident at any Long Island site, he said.
***

SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR FORCE BASE USAF AIR POLICE WITH K-9 ON PATROL OF THE FLIGHTLINE IN FRONT OF A F-101 VOODOO ALL WEATHER FIGHTER INTERCEPTOR USED BY AIR DEFENSE COMMAND BASES AROUND THE UNITED STATES SUFFOLK ALSO TRAINED USAF AIR POLICE K-9 TEAMS TO WORK WORLDWIDE AT AIRFORCE FACILITIES

Long Island's Cold War role was born of its geography. While every major American city was ringed by air defense hardware, "Long Island had a highly strategic location," Bender said. "It's near New York City and it juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, so if you're trying to stop an enemy aircraft, Long Island puts you out as far as you could go without getting your feet wet."
Moreover, the Island had a history of military aviation dating back to World War I. "We already had the air bases," said Barbara Kelly, an associate professor of media studies at Hofstra University. "Once the Cold War buildup came, it was natural."
It was also natural that when the Cold War installations were no longer needed, they were largely forgotten.
"Many Cold War-era military facilities remain unappreciated, or underappreciated, in terms of their historical value," said Bender, 40, who has been fascinated by airplanes and missiles since childhood. The sites are a half century old, but "they don't have that aura of history to them yet."
 He dreams of persuading the state to establish a Long Island Cold War Heritage Trail to interpret the sites.
"I think it's a terrific idea" for the future, said state Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro, whose agency is involved in creating heritage trails. She said the trail would be popular because of the focus on homeland security since Sept. 11.
A more immediate boost should come when Castro's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation opens part of the former Montauk Air Force Station at Camp Hero State Park to the public, planned by Memorial Day. The area around the Cold War buildings will still be off-limits for now, but the state has nominated the concrete radar tower and its 130-foot-wide, 70-ton antenna -- the only one of its kind still in existence in this country -- for the National Register of Historic Places. And Castro says that eventually part of the tower and some other military buildings will be be opened as historical exhibits




Ken Jacob came to Montauk in 1964 to oversee the computer that gathered information from radar antennas stretching from Massachusetts to Manorville. The facility was established in 1948 at the former Camp Hero Army base as one of the country's first regional long-range radar installations, capable of tracking planes 200 miles away.
"We used to watch the Russian bombers," Jacob, 67, recalled during a recent visit to the site with other veterans of the facility who still live in Montauk. "They would take off from Cuba and as they would come up the coast we would be tracking them on the scope. You'd see the fighters coming from Suffolk in Westhampton and Otis Air Force Base [in Massachusetts] and you'd see the Russian bombers go out to sea out of our airspace. It was more or less routine; they tried to test the radar."
The days might have been mostly routine but there was too much to do to be bored. "There was always something going on when you have a piece of equipment with 10,000 tubes," said Jacob, who was an Air Force master sergeant stationed at the base until 1973.
Whenever a plane appeared on the screens that could not be identified, interceptors would be scrambled. Usually, "they were all friendly aircraft that were off course," said Jim Sullivan, 71, who arrived in Montauk in 1957 to serve for a year as an Air Force radar controller guiding interceptors to their targets.
To hone their skills, the controllers were constantly given electronic practice targets to track. "We didn't know if some of them were real or not," Jacob said."I was never really worried about atomic attack," added Chuck Corron, 65, who moved to Montauk in 1962 to work for a contractor installing radar equipment and four years later became a civilian government employee. "I figured it was safe because everybody was counteracting each other. It was just a game."
But Corron, who worked at the air station for 17 years, remembers one day it didn't seem like a game at all. Someone forgot to realign the antenna after maintenance. "The antenna was off so everything came up as an unknown and they scrambled planes and one of them crashed," he said.
Many of the structures where Corron and the others worked are still at Camp Hero. Besides the concrete radar tower and antenna, there is the adjacent operations building, the concrete base of a small radar tower, several cinderblock barracks buildings, a communications center and the former commissary -- all vandalized and graffiti-smeared. Other structures were deemed too dilapidated and were removed last year by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Walking around the crumbling concrete exterior of the operations building, Jacob talked about the radar scopes and large plotting board that were once mounted inside. "The building was very secure; employees had to use a combination code to open the locked door on either end." Concrete slabs were erected in front of each door to protect against a nuclear blast from an enemy attack. "Inside there was a room where they stored all their secret codes they had to change every day for aircraft identification. There were no windows. It was dark inside with dim lights, and all the operators sat in front of scopes with a green light."
There was a similar scene in East Hills inside the regional Air Force command center where defensive strikes by missiles and interceptor jets were coordinated. The building at the former Roslyn Air Force Station still stands -- but only temporarily. The property will be transformed into a park by the Village of East Hills, which last year acquired the 50 acres from the federal government for $3 million. Some buildings dating to 1948 are being reused -- as a village hall, for example. But the command center and other structures stand in the way of a planned swimming pool and other recreational facilities.

The yellow cinderblock command center looks like a factory. But inside are two  distinctive features. One is the basement war room that looks like a carpeted squash court and features a glass-front observation room on the second floor; that was where the general in charge watched personnel mark the position of enemy aircraft on a two-story-high clear plastic map, now removed.The second reminder of more dangerous times is in the sub-basement: an air filtration system designed to protect the staff from chemical and biological warfare. At its heart are two rows of black filtration cylinders; brass plates state they were made by the Army's Chemical Warfare Service at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland.
When the commanders at Roslyn spotted a target to intercept, they sent word to the missile batteries and to the jet squadrons at the Suffolk and Mitchel Air Force bases. At Gabreski Airport (formerly Suffolk Air Force Base), eight unusual alert hangars that once housed interceptor jets are still standing. They look like peeling ruins -- thanks to a contractor applying the wrong paint to the galvanized steel skins -- but store rescue helicopters for the 106th Rescue Wing of the New York National Guard.
"The alert barns were designed to allow the aircraft to get out quickly," Bender said. "The doors were designed to open rapidly at either end of the hangar so the engines could be started in the hangar." The huge doors are counterweighted with large boxes of sand so they can tip up quickly.

Jim MacDougall, the 106th's executive officer, explained that "the taxiway is right out in front so they could just zip right out and shoot down the bad guys."

***"You sort of sense that the Cold War ghosts are still here," Bender said as he wandered around the former BOMARC missile base in Westhampton.



ONE OF THE 56 BOMARC USAF ANTI -AIRCRAFT MISSILE HANGARS OF THE SIXTH (AIR DEFENSE MISSILE SQUADRON) ALL WERE ARMED WITH NUCLEAR WARHEADS FROM 8 KILOTON TO HIGHER KILOTON RANGES AND WERE NYC'S PRIMARY AIR DEFENSE AND USAR NIKE AIR DEFENSE WERE FOR LOCAL DEFENSE OF NAVAL WEAPON FACILITY, BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABS RESEARCH AND NUCLEAR REACTOR, SCAFB, AND ROCKY POINT TRANS ATLANTIC RCA TRANSMITTER SITE AND THE HUNDRED'S OF VERY SECRET DEFENSE CONTRACTORS THAT MFG RADARS TO PARTS OF NUCLEAR DEVICES

Nowhere else on Long Island does the ominous knowlege of what once was collide so forcefully with the mundane reality of what is left behind Barracks and buildings where missiles were serviced are being used as Suffolk police and sheriff's department offices and training facilities and for archival records storage by the county clerk.
Just to the north are 56 one-story, 60-foot-long buildings made of reinforced concrete and steel, laid out with military precision in rows of seven.
The buildings, partially engulfed in brush, many with their doors and windows gaping open, look like rundown self-storage units. Indeed, they are stuffed with cast-off furniture, tires and office equipment. But between 1959 and 1964 each shed contained a BOMARC-A nuclear anti-aircraft missile.
Had the BOMARCs with their 10-kiloton warheads been needed, "the doors at the ends would open up, the roof would draw back and the missile would be raised to a vertical firing position by a big hydraulic arm," Bender said. "The missile would be launched right out of the building with flames and smoke -- very impressive.

"It seems like something right out of 1950s science fiction."

--------------------RAYMOND GROHS was a radar operator at an Army anti-aircraft missile... Jump to text »

from radar antennas stretching from Massachusetts to Manorville. Jump to text »

THE LARGE RADAR AT MONTAUK AIR FORCE STATION  WAS 1 OF 2 EVER CONSTRUCTED AND WAS A CRUCIAL RADAR TO NORAD AND SAC IT'S DATA WAS THE EYES AND EARS OF THE EARLY WARNING NETWORK THAT PROTECTED AMERICA, THIS RADAR IS STILL ON SITE BEING RESTORED FOR A COLD WAR MUSEUM BY THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AND OTHER COLD WAR HISTORICAL GROUPS AND THE MONTAUK AIR STATION NOW CLOSED WAS ALSO PART OF THE WORLD WAR 2 CAMP HERO ANTI SUBMARINE MISSION AND WAS A COASTAL DEFENSE INSTALLATION THAT IS STILL THERE TODAY. THE REASON THE DEPT. OF DEFENSE USED MONTAUK WAS THAT IT WAS THE FARTHEST NORTHEAST PIECE OF LAND THAT JUTTED OUT INTO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND WAS ABLE TO TRACK TARGETS FROM ITS LOCATION THAT LAND BASED RADAR COULD NOT. ONE OF THE MISSIONS THE AIR STATION HAD IN THE COLD WAR WAS TO WORK WITH A OCEAN BASED RADAR KNOWN AS A  "TEXAS TOWER". INSTALLATION #3" THE TOWER WAS A OIL DRILLING PLATFORM WITH A MASSIVE ARRAY OF RADAR AND CREWS DID TOURS ON THE ISOLATED STATION OVER A HUNDRED MILES OFF THE LONG ISLAND COAST . THE ONLY WAY TO COME AND GO WAS BY A USAF SEA KNIGHT HELICOPTER DUE TO THE ROUGH SURF AROUND THE STATION.

STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND - THE ALERT YEARS

THE SIXTH AIR DEFENSE MISSILE SQUADRON (BOMARC TYPE A) NUCLEAR AIR DEFENSE

USAF VEHICLES PASS BY BOMARC SUFFOLK CONTROL  AND ASSEMBLY BUILDING AT LAUNCHING AREA 1960's

BOMARC MISSILE IN LAUNCH SHED WARHEAD ATTACHED AT SUFFOLK COUNTY BOMARC LAUNCH SITE





SUFFOLK COUNTY AFB THE PRIMARY AIR DEFENSE CENTER FOR PROTECTION OF THE NEW YORK CITY METRO AREA AND THE REGIONAL TARGETS FOR SOVIET BOMBERS AND ICBMS



THE 1961 AERIAL OF THE BOMARC SITE AT SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR FORCE BASE LAUNCH AND TRACKING FACILITIES AND COFFIN TYPE LAUNCH SHEDS 1961



THE LAYOUT OF THE BOMARC SITE

THE INSIGNIA OF THE 6th ADMS WAS THE BACKGROUND OF BUILDINGS AGAINST A BLUE BACKGROUND AND BOMBERS BEING MET BY AIR DEFENSE THE ABOVE MISSION STATEMENT AND INFORMATION ON THE AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM IS REALLY THE ONLY INFORMATION OR HISTORY OF THE EVENTS AT SUFFOLK COUNTY AFB AND THE CRADLE OF AVIATIONS ACCOUNT OF THE BASE WAS THE ONLY HISTORY THAT WAS AVAILABLE FOR SOME TIME. THE LACK OF PICTURES AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF THE MISSLEERS ISHARD TO FIND SAVE THE INFORMATION FOUND AT RADOMES.ORG IF ANYBODY HAS PICTURES OF THE BOMARC DAY TO DAY ACTIVITIES PLEASE CONTACT - falloutshelter6@gmail To Liam Gibson , I WOULD LOVE TO SEE AND HEAR MORE ABOUT THE BOMARC MISSION OTHER THAN OFFICIAL FACTS AND 5 PICTURES AND AERIAL SHOTS OF THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ABANDONDED BASE I THINK THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED OUT HERE ON LONG ISLAND AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD DURING THE COLD WAR DESERVE THE RESPECT AND CREDIT AFFORDED EVERY COMBAT VETERAN IN THIS COUNTRY AND I TIP MY HAT TOO ALL OF YOU THAT SERVED KEEPING THE THREAT OF SOVIET AGGRESSION FAR FROM THE UNITED STATES, THANK YOU.











BOMARC REFUELING TYPE A BOMARCS WERE LIQUID FUELED UNKNOWN BOMARC LAUNCH HUT SUFFOLK COUNTY AFB 1960



1968 USAF "SURVIVE TO FIGHT" NUCLEAR COMBAT OPERATIONS AT SAC/ADC BASES POSTATTACK

USAF AIR DEFENSE COMMAND OPERATIONS DURING NUCLEAR ATTACK "SURVIVING TO FIGHT" (1968) STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND AND NORAD TRAINING FILM

THIS FILM SHOWS A SMALL BOMBER INTERCEPTOR BASE DURING  DEFCON 2 STATUS THE SCRAMBLE HORN SOUNDS  (F-101 VOODOO) FIGHTER INTERCEPTOR AIRCRAFT GET AIRBORNE TO ATTACK INCOMING BOMBERS AS DEFCON 1 IS DECLARED. SHORTLY AFTERWARD THE BASE IS HIT BY A NUCLEAR WEAPON DAMAGING BUT NOT KNOCKING OUT ITS COMMAND AND CONTROL. THE USAF SHOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPARATION PREPARDNESS AS THIS FILM SHOWS THE DAYS BEFORE AS WAR IS IMMINENT BASE OPERATIONS START DISPERSAL OF ASSETS AND THE BUILDING OF EASY TO BUILD SANDBAG CONEX CONTAINER FALLOUT AND BLAST SHELTERS WHICH SAVES THE OPERATIONS STAFF WHO MAN THE AIR BASE COMMAND CENTER. THEY GO ABOUT BATTLING BASE FIRES AND RADIOLOGICAL OPS, DECONTAMINATION, ALL IN PREPARATION FOR THE RETURN OF THE INTERCEPTOR OR OTHER USAF AIRCRAFT TO MAKE IT TO THE BASE FOR REARM AND REFUEL AND BATTLE THEY DO FIXING THE PRIMARY ALERTING AND COMMUNICATION LINES KNOCKED OUT DURING THE DETONATION OF A SOVIET WARHEAD, THE FIRE DEPARTMENT BATTLES THE FIRESTORMS AROUND THE BASE AND GETS TOO MUCH OF A DOSE REQUIRING MEDICAL AID, AS WE SEE THE WEARY FIRE CREWS HEAD TO THE COMMAND BUNKER THE f-101s ARE ABLE TO MAKE IT BACK AND HEAD OUT TO FIGHT AND PROTECT SOME MORE SHOWING THE VALUBLE SACRIFICES OF THE AIRMEN WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE.

        GREAT COLD WAR DOD TRAINING FILM BUT IN 1968 THE USAF WAS CUTTING BACK SAC AIR DEFENSE COMMAND BASES (SUFFOLK COUNTY 1969)AND WAS CUTTING THE AIRBORNE ALERTS ETC,THE FILM SHOWS AIRMEN OPERATING IN OD FATIGUES WITH MASKING TAPE AROUND POCKETS AND ZIPPERS TO KEEP OUT RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES, KINDA NOT TOO SMART BUT IT IS ONLY A TRAINING FILM ALTHOUGH THE TRAINING FILM IS TEXT BOOK USAF NUCLEAR ATTACK OPERATIONS AND A GEM IN THE COLD WAR HISTORY OF THE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND AND SHOWS THE DETERMINATION OF US MILITARY FORCES TO SURVIVE THE MISSION THAT BACK THEN WAS THE USE OF THIS NATIONS NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND PROTECTION OF AMERICA FROM THE SOVIET UNION AND ANY ENEMY DUMB ENOUGH TO ATTACK IT.

 

USAF STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND "SURVIVE TO FIGHT" POST ATTACK OPERATIONS

AT A AIR DEFENSE COMMAND BASE OUTLINING CLASSIC COLD WAR BATTLE PLANS

EASTERN SUFFOLK COUNTY MONTAUK AIR FORCE STATION (NEADS 140 miles east of NYC 15 fron SCAFB)

MONTAUK AIR FORCE STATION WAS THE NORTHEAST EYES AND EARS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UP TO THE MINUTE REPORTS TO NORAD (North American Air Defense)Command Cheyenne Mountain Colorado AND SAC (Strategic Air Command) Offut AFB Omaha Nebraska THE RADAR SCANNED 200 MILES OUT THE REAL DISTANCE IS STILL CLASSIFIED IT ALSO WAS THE PRIMARY CONTROL OF ONE OF THE TEXAS TOWERS (radar stations on oil platforms miles off thr U.S. coast) MONTAUKS MISSION WAS VERY IMPORTANT AND AFBs LIKE SUFFOLK ALSO DEPENDED ON THEM THE VARIOUS SAGE RADARS LOPAR,IFF DEPLOYED BY THE US ARMY AIR DEFENSE COMMAND ON DEFENSE HILL IN ROCKY POINT COULD NOT GET ALL THE RADAR COVERAGE NEEDED BY THE USAF THEIR SYSTEMS WERE BUSY WITH THE NIKE/HERCULES MISSILES DEPLOYED UP THERE SUFFOLK USAF DEPENDED ON BOMARCS GAT SITE AND OTHER RADAR INSTALLATIONS AROUND THE TRI STATE AREA BUT MONTAUK AIR FORCE STATION WAS EQUIPPED WITH THE STRONGEST ARRAY OF RADAR RECIEVERS IN THE NORTHEAST AND THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE USAF MONTAUK DID THEIR JOBS CONFIRMING ANY BREACH OF US AIRSPACE OR OBJECT WITH NO IFF TRANSMITTING (identification friend or foe) AND GET THAT TO SUFFOLK AND OFF THE INTERCEPTORS WENT LOOKING FOR THERE PREY HERE IS A LITTLE MORE INFO ON MONTAUK -

In the 1950's, the Cold War was on and the big concern was Soviet long-range bombers armed with nuclear weapons, so the Army gave over the western portion of the military reservation to the 773rd Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) Squadron. There job was plane spotting and aircraft identification. During this time the military reservation was run jointly by the Army and the Air Force, with the Air Force in the western portion and the Army in the eastern portion. In 1952, the 773rd was transferred to the 26th Air Division and operated as the Air Defense Direction Center. Several different types of additional surveillance and height finder radars were deployed at the base, the first radar units having been installed in 1948. In November 1957, the Army colsed the Camp Hero portion of the military reservation as Soviet long-distance bombers could fly well above ground-based artillery. The Air Force continued using the western half of the facility for radar surveillance. The Eastern portion of the site was donated to the state of New York, but it remained unused because of its close proximity to a high-security facility. In 1958 a SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) radar system was installed at what was now known as the Montauk Air Force Station and the facility was merged into the national air defense network, SAGE. The equipment included a huge AN/FPS-35 radar antenna, built by Sperry. The reflector was 126 feet long and 38 feet tall, weighing 40 tons, and was supposedly only the second ever built. It was able to detect airborne objects at distances of well over 200 miles. It also used "frequency diversity" technology making it resistant to electronic countermeasures. The site was run by the Air Force, but Sperry personnel ran and maintained the actual radar equipment. Radar data collected at the site was sent to the SAGE Direction Center located at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. The SAGE system was so powerful that it disrupted local TV and radio broadcasts, and had to be shut down several times and re-calibrated. The problems were later resolved. The Montauk facility was state of the art and many new systems were developed or tested there including magnetic memory for storage, light pens, keyboards, WAN's (Wide Area Networks) and modular circuit packaging. It was also a major part of the NORAD defense system, so security was very tight. The unit was renamed the 773rd Radar Squadron (SAGE) in 1963. In 1978 the Air Force submitted a proposal to the Carter
Administartaion to close the base, as the technology was largely obsolete due to satellite technology. It was determained to keep it operational until the new facility at Riverhead, New York was operational. The Air Force officially shut down its radar opperations on July 1st 1980 after a new radar system opperated by the FAA was made opperational in Riverhead, NY that could handle civilian and air defense requirments, making the SAGE system redundant. Considering its size, removing the huge antenna was problematic at best so it was "Abandoned in place" with its
controlling motors and electrontics removed, allowing it to move with the wind to prevent it from being torn off of its base in a storm. A GATR (Ground Air Transmitter Reciever) facility remained inservice to direct military aircraft operating within the region. This system was deactivated andremoved in 1984. Riverhead now controls all air traffic in the area.

SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR FORCE BASE "LAST OF THE INTERCEPTORS F-101 VOODOO"

F-101 VOODOO JET INTERCEPTOR  IT APPEARS THAT THEY MAY BE DOING MAINTENENCE BY GROUND CREWS THAT FIXED AND KEPT THESE ALL WEATHER JETS FLYING CALLED "WITCH DOCTORS" "MEDICINE MEN" IN KEEPING WITH THE VOODOO NAME ECW BACKSEATERS WERE CALLED "SCOPE WIZARDS THE PICTURE IS OF F-101s MOST LIKELY ON RUNWAY ALERT (KEEPING THE JET WARMED UP SO IT COULD BE STARTED AND AIRBORNE WITHIN MINUTES IF SCRAMBLED)
SUFFOLK COUNTY AFB UNK-DATE 

-LISTEN TO EARLY USAF OBSERVERS CORP "LOOK TO THE SKIES -WITH COL. CHUCK YEAGER "Look_To_The_Skies-Chuck_Yeager.html

 ONE OF THE SUFFOLK COUNTY AFB 

 ADC FIGHTER INTERCEPTORS PATROL THE NORTHEAST FROM SUFFOLK AIR FORCE BASE, IT WAS COMMON TO SEE SOVIET "BEAR" BOMBERS THAT WOULD DRIFT INTO U.S. AIRSPACE AND UPON CONFIRMATION THESE AIRCRAFT WOULD ESCORT THEM OUT OF U.S. AIRSPACE, THESE PILOTS AND BACKSEATERS WERE THE ONLY THING BETWEEN SOVIET BOMBERS LOADED WITH NUCLEAR ORDNANCE AND A MISSION TRAINED TO INFLICT DAMAGE AND BRING DEATH JUST AS THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN THE US AIR FORCE, SOME THINK BECAUSE THE SOVIETS WERE ALWAYS DOING WITHOUT LUXURIES AND EVEN NECCESITYS THEY WOULD OF BEEN AN EASY WIN IN WAR,MILITARY MEN KNOW THAT THE RUSSIAN THREAT WAS REAL THESE PEOPLE FOUGHT THE THIRD REICH WITH PRACTICALLY NOTHING IN THE BEGINNING OF OPERATION BARBAROSSA THE NAZI INVASION OF RUSSIA, RUSSIANS WOULD FIGHT IN ALL WEATHER AND HAD NO SYMPATHY, MOST THINK HITLER WAS THE BIGGEST MURDERING MANIAC BUT HITLER COULDN'T HOLD A CANDLE TO OLD IRON JOE STALIN WHO KILLED 30 MILLION OF HIS OWN COUNTRYMEN FOR BEING TOO SMART OR TO PROGRESSIVE OTHERS WERE SENT TO GULAGS IN SIBERIA A FROZEN WASTELAND FOR NOTHING. SOVIET MILITARY FORCES DURING THE COLD WAR WOULD OF FOUGHT TO THE DEATH BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT RETREAT, DURING WORLD WAR 2 THE POLITICAL OFFICERS WOULD PUSH MEN INTO BLAZING MACHINE GUN FIRE TILL THEY OVERWHELMED THE GUN AND THOSE WHO TURNED AROUND AND RETREATED ON THEIR OWN WERE MOWED DOWN BY A SOVIET MACHINE GUN SETUP TO MAKE SURE NO RUSSIAN FELL BACK AND THAT ALL PUSHED FORWARD. SO THESE SAME IDEALS AND FEARS WERE INSTILLED IN THE MEN WHO TRAINED TO OPERATE AND FLY BOMBERS, THE MEN IN THE SOVIET STRATEGIC ROCKET FORCES AND DID THEY HAVE AN EDGE OVER THEIR COUNTERPARTS?THANK GOD WE WILL NEVER KNOW AND THE MEN AND WOMEN AT BASES LIKE SUFFOLK HELD THAT LINE,THEY KEPT SOVIET INVADERS OR WEAPONS FROM TOUCHING THE GROUND IN THE UNITED STATES, THE COLD WAR MAY HAVE BEEN WON JUST BY SHOWING THE SOVIETS WE WOULD GO THE EXTRA MILE AND WE WOULD OF FOUGHT FOR OUR WAY OF LIFE.... WITHOUT A MACHINE GUN URGING US FORWARD.

THE B-58 "HUSTLER" ONE OF SAC's IRON FISTS



Add caSCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE  SCRAMBLE B-58 CREW REACTS TO THE WARNING KLAXON AND IS ON RUNWAY ALERT THEIR GOAL IS TO GET AIRBORNE AND AWAY FROM THEIR BASE IN THE EVENT SOVIET ICBMS CATCH THESE CREWS ON THE GROUND AND VAPORIZE STRATEGIC AIR COMMANDS BOMBERS, AS TIME PASSED DURING THE COLD WAR IT BEGAN TO BE IMPERATIVE THESE CREWS GOT AIRBORNE WITHIN MINUTES SINCE ICBMS OR SLBMS COULD REACH U.S. TARGETS IN MINUTESTHESE CREWS REMAINED IN ALERT ROOMS WAITING JETS IDLING AND FUELED CREWS READY AND IN G-SUITS GROUND CREWS KEEPING SUPPLIES AND THE AIRCRAFT ENGINES IDLING, YOU CAN SEE THE USAF STATION WAGON WITH ALERT CREW ON ITS FRONT END

 



B-58 HUSTLER ONE OF THE USAF BOMBERS THAT WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR NUCLEAR WEAPON DELIVERY ON TARGETS DEEP WITHIN SOVIET TERRITORY'S  WITH A TOP CEILING OF NEAR 100,000
FEET AND SPEEDS OF 1300 MPH THIS BOMBER WAS A LOT OF KICK ASS! THE CREW OF 3 ALL HAD ESCAPE PODS THAT WOULD EJECT VIA ROCKET SYSTEM AND
PROTECT THE CREW MEMBER FROM HIGH SPEED AND ALTITUDE DURING A EJECTION IT'S ABILITY TO FLY OVER 4500 MILES AND ITS SPEED WOULD GUARANTEE THESE AIRCRAFT WOULD MAKE IT TO THEIR TARGETS DEEP INTO THE SOVIET UNION





A USAF B-58 OVER SUFFOLK COUNTY NY ON A ROUTINE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND PATROL A PART OF GENERAL CURTIS LEMAYS NUCLEAR IRON FIST EARLY 1960's

THANKS TO TOM GREEN AT CIVIL DEFENSE MUSEUM FOR PICTURE 2 AND USAF COLD WAR HISTORICAL GROUP FOR THE OTHERS AND INFO - SHELTER_6

Suffolk County AFB

THE BELOW PICTURES ARE TAKEN AT SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR FORCE BASE  NEW YORK L.I. SOME WERE DURING OPEN HOUSE AND SOME WHERE DURING BASE OPERATIONS THE AIR DEFENSE COMMAND (ADC) MISSION WAS TO DEFEND THE REGION FROM SOVIET AIRCRAFT WHAT WAS THEN THE ENEMY, SOVIET BOMBERS CARRYING ATOMIC WEAPONS WOULD ROUTINELY FLY UP AND DOWN THE EASTERN SEABOARD AND THEY WOULD PLAY GAMES AS THEY DRIFTED INTO US AIRSPACE CAUSING INTERCEPTORS TO SCRAMBLE FROM SUFFOLK TO ESCORT THE "WAYWARD" SOVIET BOMBERS, SOMETIMES THERE WHERE PICTURES TAKEN OF EACH OTHERS AIRCRAFT ,A WAVE, AND EVEN THE BIRD (MIDDLE FINGER)AS THE TWO SUPPOSEDLY ENEMIES MET OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN,THE FEELING DURING THE COLD WAR WAS TENSE AS AMERICANS WERE SCHOOLED ON HOW TO SURVIVE A THERMONUCLEAR ATTACK AND THESE PILOTS WERE GIVEN NUCLEAR AIR TO AIR MISSILES TO SHOOT DOWN BOMBERS AND EVEN WERE TOLD IF ALL WEAPONS FAIL "RAM THE ENEMY AIRCRAFT" THE MEN WHO FLEW THESE MISSIONS WOULD OF DONE WHAT EVER NEEDED TO BE DONE AND THAT WAS THE SPECIAL GENERATION OF AMERICAN WHO THOUGH NO WAR WAS DECLARED HAD TO FIGHT A COLD WAR THAT COULD GO HOT AT ANY MOMENT AND FROM ANY INCIDENT EVEN A ROUTINE WAYWARD SOVIET AIRCRAFT COULD SET THE ENTIRE MACHINE IN MOTION ENDING IN A OUTCOME THAT COULD SET MANKIND BACK 1000s OF YEARS AND KILL BILLIONS, THAT WAS THE ATMOSPHERE THESE AIRMEN LIVED EVERY DAY ,  

 

     F-102    F-104 STARFIGHTER  1960s airshow SCAFB          

 


F-106 ALL WEATHER INTERCEPTORS SCRAMBLE ON ALERT TAKING OFF IN PAIRS TO INTERCEPT ENEMY CONTACTS