NYC NIKE SITE NY-15 AIR DEFENSE FROM THE ISLAND OF THE DEAD

COLLIERS MAGAZINE ARTISTIC RENDERING OF NYC (NEW YORK COUNTY) MANHATTAN  WITH A DETONATION OF A SOVIET ATOMIC WEAPON AROUND MIDTOWN VIA A LONG RANGE SOVIET
New York City at risk, 1950--In "Hiroshima U.S.A." artist Chesley Bonestell imagined an atomic bomb attack on the city. Painted for the cover of Collier's, August 5, 1950 (reproduced courtesy of Bonest BOMBER GETTING THROUGH THE AIR DEFENSE NETWORK AROUND NYC

 NY-15 Fort Slocum (david and harts islands) Davids Island Home to the Fire Control Point And Radar And Tracking Facilities Shared The Island With A USAF Base That Did Not Have Flight Operations Or Defense Capabilities And Hundreds of Years Of History While Its Brother Harts Island Was The Island Where Potters Field Was and Various Correctional Facilities ,The Missile Men Shared Space With Over 3/4 s of Million People,..Dead That is And if you were  on The Island You Were Part of  Or Were a

1) US Army NIKE Missileer 2) NYC Corrections Officer 3) Rikers Island  Inmate 4)The Walking Dead

The US Army Left The Island to NYC Corrections in 1963  all other New York Area NIKE sites Lasted till At Least 1975, Weird....

Aerial view of the Integrated Fire Control Area for Nike missile Battery NY-15 at Fort Slocum (adjacent to center and lower right mortar pits), looking north, late  1950s

.               AERIAL VIEW OF HART ISLAND Battery NY-15:“Combat-Ready Outfit”

In a 2007 interview, Rich Lowery, who served as a radar operator in the Sighting Station from 1959 to 1961, described daily life at the battery. Most of the work was routine: daily radar adjustment, constant tracking of local commercial and military air traffic, regular shifts on guard duty and administrative tasks, studying, waiting and watching. There were drills too, of course, and on a couple of occasions, there was the excitement of a real alert when an unknown aircraft flew into the battery’s patrol sector

Mr. Lowery remembers the pride he and his fellow crewmen felt in their work. It was the Cold War, and they "were a… combat-ready outfit.”

THE AMAZING NIKE FACILITY KNOWN AS NY-15 IN THE LONG ISLAND SOUND 1 MILE FROM MANHATTAN ISLAND STANDING ON THE ELEVATED PLATFORM OF THE J TRAIN AT MYRTLE AVENUE IF YOU LOOK NORTH SOME OF THE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS TOWERS ARE VISIBLE WAY ACROSS QUEENS AND KINGS (BROOKLYN) COUNTIES AND CAN BE SEEN FROM CITY ISLAND BEACH IN THE BRONX

RADAR LOCATION BEING CHECKED AT THE CONTROL POINT THE RADIO TOWER IN THE BACKGROUND IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE TOWER VISIBLE FROM BROOKLYN

SCHOOL FIELD TRIP TO NY-15 NIKE FACILITY OF NYC AREA SHOWN IS THE NIKE "AJAX" THE FIRST OF THE ANTI AIR MISSILES DEPLOYED AROUND LARGE CITIES THIS INCLUDED  GROUND TO AIR ARTILERY UNITS AND WERE SETUP  SOMETIMES INDEPENDENT OF A NIKE UNIT INSIDE CITY LIMITS, WHAT IF THIS TYPE OF AIR DEFENSE WAS  CURRENT TECHNOLOGY HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF IT WERE USED TO DOWN A HIJACKED 757 HEADED TOWARDS A CITY OR NUCEAR POWER PLANT? THE MEN WHO WERE RESPONSIBLE BACK THEN HAD TO BE SURE THE UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT WAS AN ENEMY AIRCRAFT WHEN ONE STRAYED INTO THE RADAR AREA FOR THIS NIKE BATTERY, ITS A LOT OF RESPONSIBILITY AND DON'T FORGET THEY DID COME IN NUCLEAR VARIETYS AT OTHER NY SITES. 

PERIMETER FENCING AROUND THE HART ISLAND NIKE SITE WAS PATROLLED BY K-9 TEAMS AND JEEP PATROLS AS WELL AS SEARCHLIGHTS IN CERTAIN AREAS  



HERE A US ARAADCOM  UNIT EXPLAINS THE MISSION OF PROTECTION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK NEXT TO A MOBILE LAUNCHER  ARMED WITH A NIKE AJAX CONTAINING A H.E.High Explosive) WARHEAD NOT  the NUCLEAR TYPE

A TEXTBOOK SCHEMATIC OF THE AVERAGE NIKE MISSILE BATTERY LAUNCH AREA

HERE A US ARMY NIKE CREW SIT ON THE LAUNCHER OF A NIKE UNIT  NEW YORK NIKE MISILEERS  WERE ONE OF THE MOST DECORATED UNITS WINNING MANY PRACTICE WARGAMES AND ABILITY TO SET UP AND PUT THEIR MISSILE ON TARGET EXERCISES FASTER THAN ANY OTHER
IN THE NATION 

US ARMY OPEN HOUSE WITH NIKE AJAX IN FOREGROUND ON DAVIDS ISLAND AFTER 1963 OR FORT SLOCUM THE ISLANDS IN THE WESTERN PART OF LONG ISLAND SOUND ARE SO FULL OF HISTORY ITS A SHAME THEY WERE NOT PRESERVED AND HARTS ISLAND IS UNAPPROACHABLE DUE TO ITS CONNECTION WITH RIKERS ISLAND. INMATES WORKING AT POTTERS FIELD WHICH HAS BEEN ON THE ISLAND A HUNDRED +YEARS  INTER NYCs INDIGENT AND UNCLAIMED BODIES OF THE DECEASED WITH NO FAMILY AND ARE BURIED IN LARGE PITS.

ANNA M CROSS TOURS HARTS ISLANDDOC PUTS BASE BUILDINGS TO USE
The caption for the above photo in DOC's 1962 annual report reads: "At the opening of the new housing quarters for minor offenders on Hart island, Director of Operations Anthony Principe, Commissioner Anna M. Kross and Warden Edward Dros review the potential of the new annex. Note the army-barracks huts in the rear. Inmate labor performs landscaping and maintenance chores." [From the NYCHS-maintained archives at the NYC DOC Academy

THE END OF THE ISLAND AND DEACTIVATION OF THE NIKE SITE

JUST IN HISTORY OF THESE ISLANDS I COULD START A WEBPAGE HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF USING THE ISLANDS TO HOUSE INMATES,CIVIL WAR PRISONERS,WAYWARD YOUTH,POTTERS FIELD,NIKE SITE ,ETC

One of the first Nike missile sites constructed within the New York metropolitan area was a site known as Nike missile battery "NY-15." Site NY-15 was also one of the most unusual Nike installations, for its facilities were constructed on two separate islands located in the extreme western portion of Long Island Sound. 

The site's headquarters and its Control Area (containing the site's radars and the ground-based missile guidance equipment) were located on Davids Island, near New Rochelle. Its Launcher Area (containing the missiles and< the launching infrastructure) was constructed on nearby Hart Island. By building on these two islands, the Army was able to quickly establish site NY-15 with a minimum of effort, avoiding the often difficult and contentious process of acquiring parcels of privately-owned land from individual owners.

MISSILE ASSEMBLY & TEST BUILDING (Ruins)


The fins and control surfaces of the missiles were attached within the building that stood here where also their internal guidance equipment was tested before they were moved to the adjacent fueling and warheading area. A portion of the curving concrete path over which the missiles were moved can be still be seen at the north end of the foundation.

Davids Island was already under federal control. It was the site of Fort Slocum, a seacoast fort established during the mid-19th century to defend the approaches to New York City. During the latter half of the 20th century, Fort Slocum served as a headquarters for various military commands and was also the site of several armed forces schools. Due to the location of its headquarters and Control Area at this installation, Nike missile site NY-15 was also known as the Fort Slocum Nike missile battery.

The limited size of Davids Island, however, dictated that the Launcher Area containing the missiles had to be located elsewhere. Hart Island, located some two miles to the southwest, provided a relatively easy solution in this situation. The island was already owned by the City of New York. Due to its use by the Department of Correction, casual visitors were not permitted. Hart Island's proximity to Davids Island, and the clear and unobstructed "line of sight" between the two islands (an essential requirement of the Nike ground-based guidance and control system) made it an appropriate location for the Army's new missile launching facility.

CRANE - ACID FUELING AREA

The most dangerous operations were performed within a compound here where sloping earthen walls (now largely obscured by vegetation) were constructed to deflect the force of an accidental explosion. The missiles received their liquid fuel/oxidizer mixture here and the warheads were inserted before the missiles were joined to their booster rockets. The crane was used to lift and move the missiles and other components.

Nike missile battery NY-15, the only missile site within to New York metro area to be located entirely on two offshore islands, was declared operational during 1955. It was initially designated as Battery "D" of the Army's 66th Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion. Headquartered at historic Fort Totten in northern Queens, the 66th Battalion also controlled three additional Nike missile batteries defending the New York metropolitan area

Nike missile site NY-15's Launcher Area was situated within a narrow parcel of land within the northern half of Hart Island. The Launcher Area contained all of the facilities needed to assemble, test, store and launch the site's compliment of twenty supersonic Nike Ajax missiles.

One important function of the Launcher Area was the initial assembly and testing of the missiles. Due to Interstate Commerce Commission regulations restricting shipments of explosive materials, Nike Ajax missiles had to be shipped to Nike missile sites nationwide in an unassembled condition. Major components (missile bodies, fins, booster rockets and warheads) were transported to the Hart Island site by means of a special pier complex constructed by the Army on the island's western shore

THE INSIDE OF THE IFC INTEGRATED FIRE CONTROL AREA ON DAVIDS ISLAND

 THE TWO ISLANDS ARE VERY DIFFERENT AND DAVID ISLAND HAS THE EMPTY BUILDINGS AND CIVIL WAR ERA JAILS AND CHURCHES A VERY BEAUTIFU PLACE BUT OVER ON HARTS DO NOT GET CAUGHT NYC CORRECTIONS ARE NYCs BOLDEST or TOUGHEST AND TRESPASSING COULD BE CONSTRUED AS YOU WERE LEAVING SOMETHING FOR A INMATE TO GET WHILE WORKING AT POTTERS FIELD AND ESCAPE WITH OR BRING BACK INTO THE FACIITY, THEY DO NOT PLAY, NIGHTIME TRIPS SUCK SINCE ITS DARK AND NOT ENJOYABLE SO DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME , IF YOU CAMP OUT BE VERY DISCREET AND LEAVE BEFORE 3pn Courtesy of urban spelunking friends....





THE FORT SLOCUM (DAVIDS ISLAND )WATER TOWER,
THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE HAD A BASE ON THE ISLAND THAT WAS FOR VARIOUS DUTIES WITH NO AIR OPERATIONS OR DEFENSE OPERATIONS

TEENS DROWN TRYING TO VISIT NIKE SITE
 A boat believed to have been used by the four teenage boys who vanished in the frigid waters off City Island a week ago has been found at nearby Hart Island, police said yesterday.

Harbor cops spotted the capsized 7-foot fiberglass dinghy Friday morning when ice shifted, police said. The black-hulled craft with a beige interior was in shallow water about 30 feet from the Hart Island shoreline.
The discovery was seen as grim confirmation of the boys' fate, but the parents of one teen refused to accept the boat as evidence their son is dead.
No trace of the youths has been found.
An exhaustive search effort covering 60 miles of Long Island Sound was launched Jan. 25 for four friends - Max Guarino, 17, of Manhattan; Henry Badillo, 17, of the Bronx; Charles (Carlo) Wertenbaker, 16, of City Island, and Andrew Melnikov, 16, of the upper East Side - who apparently had set out from City Island for Hart Island, a half-mile away, in a rowboat the previous night.
'We're gonna die'
The last contact from them was a 12-second call to 911 in which Henry said, "Hello . . . we're on the Long Island Sound in a boat off the coast of City I. . . . We're gonna die."
(the bodies were not found until May)

Brief History of Hart Island Nike Missile Site


-- The Cold War in LI Sound: Part III --

By Donald E. Bender




The entire base was enclosed behind steel cyclone type fences topped barbed wire and access was strictly controlled by armed sentries. Large warning signs, posted at regular intervals, helped to discourage curious boaters from attempting to land and trespass.


The base also contained a Generator Building featuring diesel generators that supplied electrical power to the missile site whenever an alert was called. Internal power was used during practice alerts in order to simulate actual wartime conditions during which the region's electrical power grid might have become unstable due to bomb damage, the electromagnetic effects of nuclear detonations or deliberate sabotage.
The Hart Island missile site and all of its "sister" sites within the New York metropolitan area were initially equipped with the first-generation Nike missile system known as Nike Ajax.Beginning in 1958, however, select Nike installations within the region were upgraded to fire a new, second-generation Nike missile known as the Nike Hercules.



The Nike Hercules missile represented a vast improvement over the Nike Ajax. It offered a higher maximum speed, improved altitude capabilities, and roughly three times the range of its predecessor. More significantly, the Nike Hercules could be armed with a powerful, defensive nuclear warhead enabling a single Hercules missile to destroy a formation of several attacking aircraft.
The greatly enhanced capabilities of the Nike Hercules system meant that fewer missile sites were required to defend the New York metropolitan area. Only 10 of the original 19 Nike missile sites in the region were upgraded to use the Army's new missile system. Some of the sites equipped with the new Hercules missiles remained in operation through 1974. By contrast, all of the unmodified Nike Ajax equipped sites in the region were inactivated by 1963. Probably due to its close proximity to the center of the New York Defense Area, Nike site NY-15 did not receive the new Nike Hercules missile system. It continued to operate its Nike Ajax missiles until it was finally inactivated during 1961.
NIKE BASE CLOSING

The Army presents NYC Correction Commissioner Anna M. Kross with a wooden propeller from a target aircraft in this digital version of the Hart Island Nike base-closing ceremonies photo. [From the NYCHS-maintained archives at the NYC DOC Academy.]

Battery "D" of the Army's 1st Battalion, 55th Artillery - the second and final unit to command this site - held its final inactivation ceremonies on June 30, 1961. During the ceremonies, the battery commander presented New York City Department of Correction Commissioner Anna M. Kross with a wooden propeller from a Radio Controlled Aerial Target or "RCAT." Also attending the inactivation ceremonies on Hart Island that day were the Deputy Correction Commissioner and the Hart Island Warden.
Following the deactivation of the Army's Nike facility, the New York City Department of Correction acquired the former Hart Island missile installation. On July 23, 1962, the DOC opened a new facility for the "housing of family court cases and traffic offenders". Commissioner Anna M. Kross presided over the opening. DOC PUTS BASE BUILDINGS TO USE

The caption for the above photo in DOC's 1962 annual report reads: "At the opening of the new housing quarters for minor offenders on Hart island, Director of Operations Anthony Principe, Commissioner Anna M. Kross and Warden Edward Dros review the potential of the new annex. Note the army-barracks huts in the rear. Inmate labor performs landscaping and maintenance chores." [From the NYCHS-maintained archives at the NYC DOC Academy.]



The Army's prefabricated, steel Utica-style barracks, left behind after the site was closed, provided accommodations for the island's new temporary residents. The Army's diesel-powered electrical generation facility remained in use and was operated for the DOC by inmates residing on the island.



Numerous relics of the Army's Hart Island missile launching facility remain visible today. Close to the island's northern end, the exterior surfaces of the two underground missile magazines are easily discerned. The adjacent fueling and warheading area remains intact, although its protective earthen berms are now heavily overgrown with vegetation. A rusted crane designed to lift and move missiles now stands idle near the center of this facility.

AIR VENTALATION HOODS SURVIVE THE NEGLECT ON HARTS ISLAND .HERE THE MISSILE MAGAZINE  OVERGROWN AND CLOSED ARE DISAPPEARING INTO HARTS ISLAND.

INMATES REPLACE SOLDIERS AT BASE

Under "Workhouse of the City of New York," the following text

"On July 23, 1962, the abandoned US Army Nike Missile Base located at this institution was opened as a facility for the housing of Family Court cases and traffic offenders . . . Here 105 first offender traffic and family commitments are satisfactorily and healthfully housed in the metal Utica-type barracks buildings abanonded by the army . . . "Inmates housed therein do all sanitation and other minor maintenance requirements, along with the establishment of inmate fire watchers on a 24-hour basis. Inmates are also assigned to the disel-powered generator plant where they have successfully mantained efficient and continual operation of all power plant facilitAcademy.]

Further south, foundation remnants of the demolished Missile Assembly and Test Building can be distinguished. Several concrete slab foundations, created to support the Army's prefabricated barracks, are located nearby. Although the barracks were eventually removed by the Department of Corrections, the Army's combined kitchen and mess hall remains intact. It currently serves inmates from the Riker's Island correctional facility who have volunteered to perform burial or landscaping activities on Hart Island. On the island's western shore, the pier complex constructed by the Army to move men, missiles and supplies to and from the Nike installation lies abandoned and unused.

Today, the Cold War is but a memory. New Yorkers no longer live in profound fear of a nuclear Armageddon. The tense and often frightening circumstances of that era which brought the Army and its Nike missiles to Hart Island are long past. A monument erected by inmates on the island during 1948 stands close to the abandoned missile site. Inscribed on its northern facade is a single word: PEACE. How times have changd

THE PEACE MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BEFORE THE NIKE SITE 1948 BY PRISONERS WHY? WAS IT TO APPEASE RESTLESS SPIRITS OF THE DEAD THAT ARE BURIED HERE ON HARTS ISLAND THE OFFICIAL AMOUNT IS IN THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS I WOULD SAY IT IS PROBABLY CLOSER TO OVER A MILLION SINCE THE RECORDS KEPT ON POTTERS FIELD MOST LIKELY WERE NOT SCRUTINIZED AND THEY HAVE BEEN DOING THIS HERE HUNDREDS OF YEARS, I TEACH A CLASS ON RIKERS ONCE A MONTH AND HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET PERMISSION TO GO OUT TO HARTS ISLAND FOR A VISIT AND IT IS HARD , MR BENDER IS A LUCKY GUY TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO VISIT THIS SITE AND I USE SOME OF HIS HISTORY FROM A CORRECTIONS WEBSITE, THIS TWO ISLAND  BASE IS A UNIQUE DEFENSE SYSTEM AND I AM SUPRISED IT WAS NOT USED AT A BETTER CAPACITY BY UPGRADING IT TO HERCULES TYPE MISSILES ,EVEN WITH THE CLOSE PROXIMITY TO NYC THE ISLANDS COULD OF BEEN USED ALOT BETTER THAN A PLACE FOR CIVIL WAR POWS AND THE CONSTANT JAIL THEMED USES AND AN ISLAND OF  BURYING THE POOR.
THE ISLAND WAS NEVER UPGRADED TO A NUCLEAR WARHEAD CARRYING HERCULES TYPE MISSILE  BUT I CAME ACROSS THIS STORY AThttp://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread321772/pg

This information comes to me from a retired USA Air Force officer, who was dating my elderly and widowed aunt last year. Based upon my own investigation, the story seems plausible.



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Hart Island is a small and somewhat desolate island off the coast of the Bronx Borough of New York City, in Long Island Sound. The island is off limits to the public. You will be arrested if you make any attempt to approach the island.



In the 1950s and 1960s, this island was home to a highly secret base, containing at least 24 Nike Ajax missiles. This comprised part of the USA anti-ballistic missile system, to protect New York City, intended as a last-line of defense against a nuclear air attack by the USSR or other foreign nuclear power.



In the 1960’s, there was an attempt to replace the missile with a later generation weapon system known as the Nike Hercules missile. Unlike the Nike Ajax, this new system used nuclear tipped warheads so as to more reliably kill incoming bombers and missiles.



In 1961, a single nuclear tipped Nike Hercules missile was moved onto Hart Island as an initial, and fully operational deployment. The nuclear warhead was stored separately from the missile, but was occasionally installed on it during drills and exercises, which happened every few months.



Whenever the nuclear warhead was added to the missile (a process which took a full day) there were several safeguards. To prevent accidental triggering of the warhead, a special mechanical interlock – a “safing key” – had to be physically from the warhead, and insert into the fire control panel. The fire control panel could not be disconnected from the radar system, and put in “drill mode”, until this special key had been inserted into its proper “safe” location.



According to my source, the second or third time they conducted an operational drill, they had to stop the simulated firing of the missile due to a technical problem. They decided to scratch the test. When they went to remove the warhead, a supervisor found this safing key was still inserted!



The key that had been inserted into the fire control panel was a SPARE key. Apparently, the technicians had not realized that the key inserted into the fire control panel was suppose to be the same key that existed on the warhead. The warhead had not been adequately disabled.



Here is the scariest part. The technical glitch, which had stopped the exercise, was that an accelerometer had blown out, so that the warhead thought the missile had actually been launched. This was the second (and only) safety that prevented nuclear detonation.



Given the failure of the accelerometer, and failure to remove the safing key from the warhead, if the exercise had not been stopped, THE NIKE NUCLEAR WARHEAD WOULD HAVE DETONATED.



Note: This small, desolate, unapproachable Hart Island is only about five miles from the center of Manhattan Island, New York City.



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To anyone with inside info. Do you think this story could be true?

REMEMBER DO NOT KILL THE MESSENGER , MAY BE IT WAS TRUE MAY BE NOT I WILL KEEP ON EYE ON THAT POST TO SEE THE OUTCOME.SOME OF THIS POST WAS FROM DON BENDER A MAN DEDICATED TO KEEPING THIS GREAT HISTORY ALIVE.  THANK YOU.

Bender Associates Historical Consultants. A recognized authority on Cold War air defense facilities, his activities have been featured in major media including the New York Times, WNBC-TV and National Public Radio. He maintains an extensive web site on Nike Missiles and Missile Sites. He can be reached via e-mail at bender@alpha.fdu.edu or by telephone at (973) 535-8362