Ted Swanson wrote:

• Sticking a test probe into a missile tracking magnetron, (just turned on - not up). Thrown back against the dome door zippers - unconscious. Luckily spread eagle.
• Mosquitoes at HM-69 in the middle of Everglades National Park.

Glen Talon wrote:

• How about being thrown from a moving truck breaking bone's (compound fracture)? This happened to a 16B whom was escorting with me at B3/71 (Turks welding covers)
• Or a head wound from the fins (Crew Chief)
• Being a nube and forgetting to stomp up the steps of the tower (everyone)
• Working down range at night and tower guards have not been told someone (people) is down range
• Rebuilding berms and equipment turning over, with injuries to MPs an 16Bs (most sites)
• Down range water so polluted sends MPs and 16Bs to 5th Gen hospital (those deemed sickest and could be spared)
• Finding warhead seal broken moving it up range for maintenance and doing it up wind (Black sargent turns white)
• Ending up with an eye injury losing 10% of sight from metal fragments moving same war head (Me)
• Having a security alert at night with gas masks and running through down range (two MPs injured)
• Last being the MP whom was moving the ammo trailer that lost three fingers (fuel shortage had to take a cab)
• Best thing working a Nike site some of the best DAMN people whom made it work :)

Nike Vet Glen Talon N.H. Chair CWVA
Cold War Veterans Assc.

UNDIQUE VENIMUS

Battery B, 5^th Battalion, 6^th Air Defense Artillery:

On a hill with our radars, we were on hot status. Suddenly we heard a number of shots. We called for immediate backup! One of our MPs had fallen asleep in the guard shack with a full load of ammo in his M16. Life was never dull on the hill. Down range we had a MP who lost it and decided to shoot at our Nukes. He was escorted to the nearby hospital.

• Terrorists
• Armed military aircraft (nuclear?) continually strafing the site
• 600-800 pound wild boars in the forest
• Getting "buzzed" by the HIPAR
• Driving on the autobahn
• Isolation
• Hypothermia
• SMLM vehicles
• Magnesium IFC vans burn quick
• Icy mountain roads that automotive vehicles slide on
• Oktoberfest was last night and they had all this wine there and...

Subject: danger in the Everglades:

• Alligator poachers spotlighting our sentry dogs at A252 in the Everglades
• Cottonmouth and rattlesnakes between the security fences
• Rats scrounging for dog food in the kennel shacks
• Snakes crawling on window awnings at night, feeding on the insects that were drawn to the lights
• Alligators running across the road at night in front of motorcycles
• Dogs constantly getting bit by snakes while on patrol.  Vets at Homestead AFB had to treat them- a tricky procedure for both the vet and the dog handler.

• Getting called to duty at 3AM to go and save two MPs who were on a site-seeing mission in a snow storm and their jeep got stuck. Had to hike down to them and bring their gear and then march them back to IFC whining all the way about how cold it was (-80 white out).
• Going to ag shack and meeting mister brown bear on the way or going to pick up mail from main post and getting run over by a moose in rut.

-Sp4 Lonny Self 1978

From: "Tom de Grom"
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012

• As a PFC instructor for the Missile and Launcher school at Fort Bliss: Having someone raising the launcher without taking the "boots" off the cylinders... Watch out below!
• In maintenance at Redstone Arsenal after completing the radar and computer course: Having one of my technicians fire up the TT Radar after he took apart the waveguide and stuffed a rag in it to keep the moisture out... small fire!
• Still at Redstone: Having a generator mechanic switch out generators and not have it in phase with the other generator running to the van. My tech goes in and turns on three power switches, as we usually did... Big fire, burning cable all 252 feet, and about 1000 feet of wiring in the van!
• In maintenance at 4th Ord in Miesau Germany: Having to go out to a radar site during an inspection... A site tech cleaned the plastic shield with gas to make it sparkle, closed the clam-shell and then fired it up... I mean really fired it up, small spark followed immediately by a medium explosion! Oh, almost forgot, they also cleaned the metal mesh steps with kerosene and the inspecting officer fell... If I remember, it was just a broken arm or leg!
• Back at Redstone School: Having my tech override rotation on the acquisition radar and use it to kill birds in the trees.
• At Redstone Nike radar range: Just for fun, on a special project, a group of 3 Nike civilians and 2 military, John H. and myself, took components out of a TTR and the Control trailer and made a radar that would fit inside an M48 Tank. Every thing inside but a 1 meter dish to transmit. Boss said it couldn't be done, we said give us 2 weeks, we ran into a little trouble acquiring a power converter that we could operate off the tank system to power the radar. Thanks to the good folks at the Redstone airfield, while they weren't looking, it only took 3 weeks before we had an operating radar.
• Still at Redstone Nike radar range: We broke the locking mechanism on one of the trailers; you know the magnesium trailers, called post maintenance to fix it...
  While sitting in the break trailer with the door open we hear a pop and the light from an acetylene torch. John jumped from the break trailer to tackle the maintenance man before the torch hit the trailer. John did miss the 4 steps going down from the break trailer, but both survived.

Tom de Grom
MSG, USA
Retired

From: "Jim Derendinger"
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2012

• Second lt. were probably the most dangerous, trying to convince everyone they knew it all but they were just getting started.

I was a trainer for HqBn. 3/71 in Germany in 66, 67, 68 and loved every moment. We were all individuals but the men I trained were the best people in the service. I am so proud to have been a part it all.

From: "Hank"
To: webmaster@nikemissile.org
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2013 4:38:38 PM
Subject: Nike Herc night time thriller

Fort Tilden, Far Rockaway, NY

As Chief Site Missile Equipment Engineer, getting a 2 AM phone call at my off base home because a visiting Colonel decided to do an unscheduled snap launch drill during a rain and later lightening storm and got a missile stuck in the raised position on the top of the elevated launch area.

No equipment mechanic was on site so as the SSG in charge of the engineering section I was called in and no sooner after I had the missile back down and into the bunker and I was walking away from the hill there was a MAJOR DIRECT LIGHTENING STRIKE to the exact launch door that had been jammed open with a raised NIKE HERC MISSILE.

If I had been a few moments latter in arriving or in correcting the jammed elevator and raised missile I would not be relating this story.

Of course this was an incident that never officially happened.

-SSG Burns 63c40

From: "Robert Bennington"
To: webmaster@nikemissile.org
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 4:33:29 PM
Subject: Nike Herc Missile exploded

Faulty solid fuel flamed out about 500' after launch, separated from second stage and then reignited and slammed into the second stage. Huge fireball that almost reached the launcher. The guys in the bunker thought they were toast (literally).

-Robert Bennington 24p20 at McGregor

From: R. Alderson / SP5
Subject: Melting Waveguide
Date: Thursday, 19 December 2013

Because of our location, the top five channels on the HIPAR radar could not be used unless the bad guys were overhead. I was told police, fire services, and a host of other radios would be useless for a large area of the east coast!

Once a month at 3 AM on the first Sunday the top five channels were tested for one minute each, timed with a stop watch.

The HIPAR was fired up and the rotation was locked with the antenna pointed at a certain point off the east coast. Good luck to any fishing boats at that point of the ocean. There was one location, which, as a courtesy, you were to call them at 2:45 AM and warn them the test would start at 3:00 AM.

This was my first time doing this test. I called the number at 2:45 AM and got no answer (this was before answering machines). I called again at 2:55 AM but still no answer. I proceeded with the test at 3 AM. At 3:03 AM I received a call from our base switchboard. It was a very angry civilian screaming that we were melting the front end of his receiver: puddles of brass waveguide! Then he said "the emerald in the amplifier was melting also; oh my God stop, stop now!" My instructions said nothing about stopping the test, so I finished the tests, Cold War is Cold War! I updated my log and headed down the hill for some rest. We were short mechanics so we were working 24 hours on and 24 off. I mean we were working 24 hours straight.

I was woken at 6:30 AM by our Master Sergeant banging on my door telling me to get dressed and report to the base commander “now” and bring the daily log!

I reported as ordered. The base commander told me he had a call from an angry civilian saying that I had destroyed his equipment last night and he was billing the Army for $40,000 (this was in 1965!) I reviewed what I had done with the Captain and the test instructions. I also showed him where in the log I made two calls when only one was required.

While I was in his office, the base commander telephoned the civilian. The Captain told the civilian that he had been notified by the Army two years ago that these tests would take place and when. It was up to him to take whatever action was necessary to protect his equipment. The Captain said "my Specialist called you twice as a courtesy before the test took place but nobody answered the phone". The civilian said he must have been in the antenna, that was why the phone was not answered. After the call I was dismissed with a job well done. I never heard a word about the test again.

Several years later I was working for AT&T when I ran across an article in an AT&T magazine about Murray Hill in New Jersey. Murray Hill is where all the AT&T antenna experiments took place. Murray Hill was across from our Hipar about 600 yards on the next hill with a perfect line of sight to the HIPAR when locked down for the test!

Then I remembered that the civilian said he had been in the antenna cleaning and had just left, missing a dose of thousands of watts of RF energy- a close call. Think of being in the world’s biggest microwave oven, ouch!

The emerald that was melted was in one of the first RF laser amplifiers in the world!

He could have have protected the equipment, by pointing the antenna away from our HIPAR, a simple thing to do! This had been done for many tests in the past in the last two years.

The civilian on the phone and two other scientists received a Noble Prize for discovering cosmic background radiation in space, the C.O.B.E. project, after they rebuilt their antennas front end receiver!

R. Alderson / SP5
Hazlet, NJ

From: Hardy, Timothy A CIV (US)
Subject: Nike Site Dangers (UNCLASSIFIED)
Date: Fri, 15 May 2015

• Watching 2 MIG's fly over the Exclusion Area and buzz the tower, while tailed by 2 Tornado's (Italy).
• Static Probe without cover.
• Trichloroethylene and a carburetor.
• Painting Missiles in a non-ventilate area.
• Blown fuse in a nuclear warhead de-mating procedures, never saw the Italians run so fast. EOD failed to come out to see, but sent instructions on what to do. Thanks guys.
• Bored 11B's and Detonation Cord.
• 10 pound shape charge.

From: Michael Williquette
Subject: Nike site in Germany
Date: April 23, 2016

My name is Michael Williquette. I was stationed In Blankenheim, Germany from April 1965-Jan 1967. My MOS was 22f20 Nike electronic maintenance and warhead specialist. I was at Delta Team 43rd Artillary with our headquarters in Duran. I have an interesting story about a Belgian security guard fireing his Thompson sub-machine gun inside one of our barns with 8 nukes inside. He was playing with the seal on his clip and broke it. There was an American with him in the barn at the time but didn’t see him lock and load a round. His Thompson went off. We looked everywhere for the slug and SASCOM came in to search for it too. We never found the round and I am not sure what happened to the Belgian soldier but for all I know he is still in jail.

From: Rocky Stovall
Date: May 6, 2018

I have been wanting to put in my two cents about the dangers on Nike sites. Here are some dangers I encountered, some are just plain stupidity.

• Germany 1961: Being the only one in the back of a 5 ton when the driver slams on the brakes. Passenger gets a free ride to the hospital at Spangdahlem for X-rays and stitches, first prize for flying through the air like a missile- head first from tailgate to spare tire rim on back of cab.
• Germany 1962: As Duty driver I get a call from the CQ. I and the Medic have to make a run to a nearby town and rescue two young troops from a mob. Once the two are in the truck we head back to the unit only to be confronted by a mob of men that wanted our passengers. I had one thing to do – I drove through them, they all got clear.
• Germany 1962: Performing maintenance on the racks in the Missile Storage Building, with overhead doors closed, crossing from one side to the other I swung the gate towards the overhead door and there was an electric arc from the door to the racks. We had four missiles in the building.
• Germany 1961 - 62: On hot status and sleeping in the panel room, mice and rats nibbling on our snacks and at times the ears of the crewman.
• Germany Oct 1962: Frostbite while manning the perimeter during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Mobilization 1962: Driver decides to back his missile trailer loaded with a live Hercules- backs off the road down an embankment. No damage.

That’s it , I think - Rocky