The 69th Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) Gun Battalion (90mm) arrives at Fort Tilden.
Updated: October 2, 2000
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Two Nike batteries were to emplace at what used to be the Newport Naval Air Station, a small field as air stations go. The other batteries were to emplace at Selfridge Air Force Base at Mount Clemens. All four positions were above ground installations and I assume they were not where actual sites with underground magazines were to be constructed.
Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Battery were located at Fort Wayne, close to downtown Detroit, on West Jefferson Avenue, next to the Detroit River. (My BOQ window let me look southeast into Canada, and I never was able to adjust to that.)
Site Numbers probably didn't come into common usage until
there were more than just a few to be concerned with. We never
referred to any of our sites by number; it was just Newport or
Selfridge, with a battery letter if needed.
Much of the literature clearly states that "early" deployments
were above ground, but soon all sites were the "standard" with an
underground magazine. Little or no emphasis is placed on the fact that the early systems were fielded just as the system was conceived and developed for field army use, i.e., purposely designed to be semi-mobile (which is the same as mobile but without the assignment of all the tow vehicles that would be required to tow all the trailers). Every piece of major equipment is designed as a trailer with wheels; launcher-loader units were easily disassembled and prepared to be towed. Each battery had 16 launch rails that had to be transported at two per trailer. The MTR, TTR, LCT, BCT, RCT, everything had wheels. It was a property book nightmare. Unless so used by some of the foreign users, the "mobility" capability built in was a real expensive unused option.
Our battalion headquarters being in Detroit with two batteries
about 30 miles to the south, and two batteries being about 30 miles to the north, with bad traffic both directions, made staff visits and coordination rather a difficult task. Sometimes the Bn CO and I would travel together, and often we would coordinate and one go north and one go south, and try to cover for each other that way.
Two un-publicized problems that remain in the back of my memory are:
Former members of the 516th, that were retained, had no
security clearances, and the level of "Confidential" was required to even handle the equipment or read the manuals. They couldn't even pull guard duty around the equipment at night. We had to establish a security system with badges, arrange for clearance clearances to be requested and processed, and to set up a complete security record keeping system (pre computer days).
One Nike booster rocket contained over 500 pounds (I don't
recall the exact amount.) of solid propellant classed as a high
explosive, but the ICC transportation label's most appropriate name was merely "JATO", which implied a much smaller item. Anyway, we had difficulty making the Michigan State Patrol take us seriously when someone would call and suggest that they ought to give us an escort when we transported a convoy of boosters from a rail siding near Newport all the way to Selfridge. After a short face-to-face visit and some statistics, they quickly agreed to help.
The USAF Regional Air Defense Command Center was located
at Selfridge and the Army Regional ADC was just across the street
in another building. Being a Bn S-3 I was on the night/weekend
duty roster to be the Acting Army Regional Air Defense
Commander. When my time came around to go to Selfridge to pull
this duty, I would often call and request permission to visit the AF center. It was very elaborate compared to the Army's and was very informative regarding the depth to which the AD intelligence was being gathered and evaluated. Being a border site, even slow and low-flying tracks caused concern. I could only watch, and I could not ask questions about specifics.
There was a world of difference between Fort Tilden with 90mm guns and Detroit with Nike I missiles (Nike I was the correct name in 1954. It was not until 15 November 1956 that the name Nike Ajax came into being. On that date, Nike I was changed to Nike Ajax, Nike B was changed to Nike Hercules, and Nike II was changed to Nike Zeus.)
Trying to remember some things that happened fifty years ago just makes one want to remember more.
Fort Tilden sure has a long and varied history. Do all you can to keep it alive. That's the way history is most meaningful."
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