Archive of Newspaper Articles about
Fort Tilden
Page 2 of 3: 1950 - 1979
Updated: December 3, 2000
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1950-1959
Forts Tilden and Totten Set for Sneak Attack
Date: Jan 3, 1951
Newspaper:Long Island Press
Anti-Aircraft Guns Unlimbered
Anti-aircraft gunners and radar operators guarding the nation's largest
city offered 100-to-1 odds today they could knock out any flight of
planes attempting a sneak attack over Long Island.
The 80th Regular Army AAA group unlimbered 32 big guns at Fort Totten,
Bayside, and Fort Tilden, Rockaway Beach, yesterday and took over
responsibility for anti-aircraft protection in the metropolitan area.
The group has two 16-gun battalions, one with 120 millimeter guns and the
other with 90 millimeter guns.
Lt. Col. Oscar Lancaster, commander of the 526th battalion at Fort
Totten, offered $100 to $1 that his gunner could pick off any plane
flying overhead.
"We haven't had any holiday," Lancaster said. "We've been working
steadily. We've been so busy we haven't had time to realize that we're
not still in Texas."
The AAA group arrived here from Fort Bliss at El Paso, Tex. on Sunday,
two days ahead of schedule, to set up part of the ring of guns that will
guard the city.
Lt. Col. Robert Connor said that the two battalions could combine
efforts and offer a good umbrella to the city although other AAA units
would have to be called in to lend aid in the event of raids by more than
100 planes.
The guns and radar equipment were set up at Fort Totten and Fort Tilden.
The guns are power-operated and aim with the aid of automatic computers
so perfect that all the gun crews have to do is "pass the
ammunition."
The sensitive fire control radar equipment can pick up approaching
aircraft at distances up to 40 miles. The 120 millimeter weapons fire 30
pound projectiles up to 20 miles and are effective at altitudes of more
than 40,000 feet.
90 and 120Mm Radar-Aimed Weapons Here
Date: Jan 3, 1951
Newspaper:The NY Herald Tribune
By: Newton H. Fulbright
One Commander Sure They Could Foil Every Sneak Attack Up to 100
Planes
Helmeted and Battle-clad Army veterans of the 80th Regular Army
Anti-aircraft Artillery Group were busy yesterday unlimbering 120 and 90
millimeter anti-aircraft guns at Fort Totten and Fort Tilden, in Queens,
to give New York protection against a possible sneak attack.
Lt. Col. Oscar W. Lancaster, commander of the 526th Battalion of one
group, based at Fort Totten, Bayside, Queens, said that his outfit, armed
with sixteen 120-millimeter guns, can knock out any single flight of
enemy planes that might attempt a sneak attack on the city.
The seventy-ton guns can fire a thirty-pound projectile up to a distance
of twenty miles and can sweep the skies at an altitude of more than
40,000 feet. The radar unit with which each of the battalion's four
batteries is equipped can detect the approach of enemy planes thirty-five
miles away.
The guns are power-operated through connections with an automatic
computer, the "brain" of each battery. In operation, according to Col.
Lancaster, all the gun crews have to do is "pass the ammunition." The
electric "brain" makes aiming almost perfect, he said.
So confident was Col. Lancaster in the accuracy of his guns and men that
he made a bet with reporters, offering to pay $100 for every plane missed
against $1 for every one knocked down. "We can get them", he
said.
The anti-aircraft group, which was activated at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Tex,
in November, 1949, arrived here Sunday, two days ahead of schedule. The
men of both battalions were busy all day Sunday, had their guns set up on
training fields. Sergeants and Lieutenants were barking commands as
crews went through gun drill.
"We haven't had a holiday," said Col. Lancaster. "We haven't had time.
This is the best anti-aircraft outfit in the United States Army and
everybody knows that. Our morale is high."
Lots of Planes "to Sight on"
He looked at the skies. There was a blue haze over Little Neck Bay and
the wooded north shore of Long Island. "This is a great training area",
he said. "No obstructions. Plenty of planes flying over from LaGuardia
and Mitchel Field to sight on. Everything look fine here."
He explained that guns at Fort Totten and Tilden, the latter out on
Rockaway Beach, can very near cover New York City. He said his guns can
be moved then, in case of threatening attack, to give more general
coverage.
It would be impossible, he said, for the two battalions to give
protection against saturation bombing attacks, carried on by any number
of planes above 100. For that, he said, a general coordinated defense
would be necessary, with several battalions of anti-aircraft guns tied
into a protective net.
The battalion at Fort Tilden, the 69th Anti-aircraft Gun Battalion, under
command of Lt. Col. Allen Kerr, is armed with 90-millimeter guns, of the
type used in World War II. They too, are radar-sited (sic) and
power-operated.
Strafing Defense Ready
In addition to the heavy rifles, each battery is protected by
multiple-unit 50-caliber machine guns, for use against strafing attacks.
Col. Lancaster explained that the heavy guns are intended for bombers and
would be at the mercy of low-flying fighter planes. The 50-caliber guns,
with a range of about 5,400 yards, proved effective against this kind of
attack during World War
II.
The heavy anti-aircraft rifles, however, like the famed German 88's which
they resemble, can be depressed and used effectively as an artillery
field piece.
Operation of the anti-aircraft battalion, it was explained, begins with a
weather unit which collects data pertaining to wind velocity and
temperature. This information, with data collected by radar regarding
speed, altitude, and direction of hostile planes is fed into the
automatic computer. An instant electric brain works out the fire problem
and sights the guns through an electric cable.
In the event the "brain" becomes damaged, each battery has its own
tracking machine, operated manually, which performs the same service. If
this should go out, men can sight the guns by eye and operate
them.
One Captain from Brooklyn
One happy member of the group was Capt. Edward N. Kaplan, whose home is
92 Wilson Street, Brooklyn. A member of the group since it was activated
at the Army anti-aircraft and guided missiles training center at Fort
Bliss, he said "There's no place like New York. I'm glad to be back
here."
Capt. Kaplan said it was not permitted to reveal the actual strength of
the two battalions, which, according to tables of organization, should be
1,000 men each. He did say, however, that both battalions are almost
full strength, and that about 80 percent are regular Army veterans. The
rest are recruits received through selective service.
The 80th Anti-aircraft Group is under the command of Col. Robert Connor,
whose headquarters will be at Fort Totten. The group is expected to work
out a co-ordinating plan for civil and military air defense of the city
as a part of its regular training program.
Crashes, Bullets Halt Soldier In Truck Flight From Fort
Tilden
Date: Oct 16, 1952
Newspaper: NY Herald Tribune
A Korean War veteran who, police said, tried to steal a truck from Fort
Tilden in the Rockaways last night created an uproar - that brought out
a dozen or more police cars and several police who turned up in their
personal cars.
The soldier was identified as Carroll Price, twenty, attached to the 69th
Artillery Gun Battalion.
Police said he was seen taking a two-and-a-half-ton diesel truck in time
for word to be flashed to the gate of the post. There a military
policeman, Andrew Jenkins jr., tried to flag him, but was almost run down
as the truck tore through the gate.
Price, police said, drove the car on to the Marine Parkway bridge to
Flatbush Ave. without paying the ten-cent toll, with Jenkins in hot
pursuit in an Army jeep. At Avenue U. in Brooklyn, Jenkins commandeered
a private automobile and continued the chase. By this time, post
authorities has notified police and the chase was taken up not only in
patrol cars but in a number of off-duty
policemen in private cars.
A number of police-operated cars were strung out along Flatbush Ave. The
truck careened into a number of parked cars along the avenue before Price
swerved to the left onto Cortelyou Road, where the truck hit a parked car
and then plunged into the window of Cortelyou Road Cleaners, at 2103
Cortelyou Road.
Patrolman Edward McLean, of the 84th Precinct, who was off duty, had
joined in the chase, and when the truck crashed into the cleaners'
window, he fired three bullets into the truck. One of them hit Price in
the right arm.
Price, however, backed the truck out of the window, crashing it against
McLean's car, before he was overpowered by police. He was booked on
charges of felonious assault, theft of the truck and reckless driving,
although police said he would probably be turned over to the Army for
prosecution.
Police were told that Price had been in the Army eighteen months and had
returned from Korea in April after having suffered shrapnel wounds.
City NIKE Air Defense Unveiled at Fort
Tilden
Date: March 1, 1956
Newspaper: NY Herald Tribune
New York's anti-aircraft defense with NIKE, the one-ton guided missile
was shown to newsmen for the first time yesterday at a preview briefing
and demonstration at the NIKE site at Fort Tilden, Queens, at the end of
the Rockaway peninsula at the Atlantic entrance to New York Bay.
The demonstration was co-sponsored by Brig. Gen. Charles B. Duff, of the
52nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade, in charge of the anti-aircraft
defense of the metropolitan New York and New Jersey area, and by Irwin A.
Shane, chairman of the newly organized Career Training Council.
Technicians Sought
The Career Training Council is a non-profit group of industrialists and
educators that was formed last month to seek a solution to what has been
described as a critical defense problem - the acute shortage of
scientists, engineers, and skilled technicians.
The council is sponsoring a recruiting drive for students in these fields
to get under way with a "1956 Career and Job Show", March 23-24, at the
71st Regimental Armory, Park Ave. and 34th St. Industrial exhibitors,
trade and technical schools and college and government agencies will be
represented at the show.
Although much of the information about NIKE is still classified, newsmen
yesterday were shown the physical installation at Fort Tilden by members
of the 505th A.A.A. Missile Battalion there under the command of Lt. Col.
Mathew E. Chotas.
Missiles Put in Racks
The guided missiles, twenty feet long and twelve inches in diameter, were
raised from underground storage chambers and placed in their firing
racks. Col. Chotas explained that the missiles, which will not be fired
here except in case of enemy attack, are then under the sole control of
automatic radar devices that spot and track hostile aircraft. The NIKE
may also be used against surface vessels, he said.
The number of NIKE sites in this area is still secret.
Photo caption:
Guarding New York Harbor - Army artillerymen standing by twenty-foot
long, radar controlled guided NIKE missiles in their firing racks at Fort
Tilden, pointed out over the Atlantic (visible in the left background) on
the Rockaway Peninsula, Queens. Plane in sky is making an approach to
Floyd Bennett Field.
Nike Hercules Missile Now Operational Here
Date: Sept 26, 1958
Newspaper: NY Herald Tribune
By: Ansel P. Talbert
The Army unveiled it's first operational Nike Hercules surface-to-air
anti-aircraft missile site in the New York area at Fort Tilden, Rockaway
Beach, Queens, as a major addition to the air defenses of the United
States northeastern industrial area.
The Nike Hercules - the Army's largest supersonic and most accurate and
longest ranged anti-aircraft guided missile - can carry either a
conventional or nuclear explosive capable of "atomizing" an entire
formation of enemy aircraft. It is described officially by the Army as
being highly mobile in field operation and as being able to fly higher
and faster than any known operational bomber in the world.
Four Nike Hercules sites are now being installed in Formosa and the Army
confirmed yesterday that the missile and it's nuclear warhead can be used
with accuracy against ground targets "on the order of" seventy-five miles
away as well as against enemy aircraft or cruise-type missiles.
Brig. Gen. Robert A. Hewitt, commanding general of the 52nd Artillery
Brigade (Air Defense) which will constitute the Army's part of the New
York area's air defenses, said at the unveiling ceremony:
"We sincerely believe that this Nike family of guided missiles is
the most reliable yet developed and is the only one which offers great
promises for future development as an anti-missile missile defense
system. Army air defense elements now have built an effective mantle of
missile fire that extends from Boston to our nation's capital and
includes Providence, New York City, Philadelphia and
Baltimore."
Although Nike Ajax, the original Army anti-aircraft missile having a
range of twenty-five miles is no longer manufactured, more than 10,000
missiles of this type have been delivered to various air defense
sites.
The Nike Hercules missile itself is twenty-seven feet long with a
diameter of only thirty-one inches, to which a is added a booster of
fourteen feet five inches. In the future the missile will be integrated
at the following New York area sites: Amityville, L.I., and Brookhaven,
L.I., Orangeburg, N.Y.; Ramsey, Morristown, Crawford Corners and Fort
Hancock in New Jersey.
Photo caption:
NIKE HERCULES PUT ON VIEW - The Nike Hercules, most powerful
American surface-to-air missile, as it was exhibited yesterday at Fort
Tilden, Rockaway Beach, Queens. Older Nike Ajax can be seen in
background.
Herald Tribune photo by Ira Rosenberg.
1960-1969
Tilden to Be Animal Ellis Island
Date: May 24, 1969
Newspaper: NY Daily News, Queens Edition
Washington, May 23 (AP) -- The House Appropriations Committee approved
today $1 million to
begin construction of an Agriculture Department animal quarantine station
at Fort Tilden, N.Y.
The money was included in the department's appropriation bill for the
year, beginning July 1. It
is subject to final approval by the House and Senate.
Federal laws and regulations require the quarantine of all imported wild
and domestic animals,
including poultry.
The committee said the department's present animal quarantine station at
Clifton, N.J., is
obsolete. Congress in 1964, authorized its sale to Clifton and the
establishment of a new
station.
Quo Vadis Fort Tilden?
Researchers of the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a month ago
that 30 of Fort Tilden's
310 acres become the site of a new animal quarantine station. Officials
noted it's nearness to
Kennedy Airport, the entry way for most animals brought to the United
States.
Various uses have been proposed for the old fort on the Rockaway
peninsula. Robert Moses
urged the city in 1961 to acquire it for a park. Since then it has been
recommended as the site
for a medical center and college, for York College and for an
oceanographic research
center.
The Army still maintains an Air Defense Command unit at Tilden. It is
also the base for some
reserve groups.
Photo caption:
The Army still maintains an Air Defense Command unit at
Tilden but it's 16-inch guns were reduced to scrap in 1948.
Note:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture never constructed the planned animal quarantine station at Fort Tilden, but the post did finally become a park as part of the National Park
Service's Gateway National Recreation Area in 1974, after the post was decommisioned by the U.S. Army. This
article does provide a photo (we only have a poor quality copy) of one of the 16-inch gun barrels of Battery Harris lying on the ground after being cut by a torch.
1970-1979
