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Nike Site Support

Although this web site is mostly about Nike technical information, the little Nike site "island" of about 120 people and much complex equipment requires considerable support from "outside". Even such mundane matters as food, water, and "sanitary" sewer require attention.

The list of "outside" services is long and complex. The following is an informal grouping and listing:

  1. Technical
    1. Technical supply (normal priority, high priority "Blue Streak" )
      - Last four paragraphs in this
    2. Technical expertise (Army Ordnance, Western Electric as designer/manufacturer)
      - Doyle Piland's Nike Ordnance web site
      - Here is a little of Kenneth Bahr's Ordnance and Western Electric memorabilia
  2. "Civil Engineering"
    1. Water, "sanitary" sewer,
      - "Local" water when available, else wells dug or water trucked in
      - "Local" sewers when available, else "potta-potties" or old fashioned "out-house".
      - - Our Chicago IFC had an "out-house", Emptied by contractor maybe twice a year.
      - - - COLD in winter. You learn a new way to avoid contacting the seat.
    2. Electric power
      - Usually "local" electric power when available
      - During alerts, on site generators powered the weapons systems and communication
    3. "City gas", Petroleum,
      - "City gas" when available for heating and cooking
      - Local suppliers (when available) for gasoline and diesel products
    4. Interarea roads
      - We used Chicago city streets between IFC and Launcher/Administrative areas
  3. Administrative
    1. Security, judicial,
    2. Medical
      - We used Public Health Service for sick call and dental, a military hospital
  4. "Other"
    1. Food - trucked in - we ate lots of rabbit - not bad.
    2. Haircuts - "Whale Tail" of the Launcher Area set up shop on weekends. Cut the hair of most enlisted men and some officers.
    3. Medical
      we used the U.S. Public Health Service for sick call and dental, a military hospital for missile fueling accidents.
  5. Training
    1. Initial training (Ft. Bliss), continuing training (annual refire "SNAP")
    2. Some operators and missile handlers trained at Ft. Bliss, others OJT (On the Job Training)
    3. Non-job related further education from "Armed Forces Educational Service" by correspondence (U.S. Mail). I started but didn't complete a calculus course. (The grader really tried to keep my interest up.)
      - Now on-line education seems available :-))
  6. "Command and Control"
    1. Communication with HQ and Air Force ( in 1957 commercial telephone only - known to probably collapse by overload at the first howl of an air raid siren.)
    2. Between Nike batteries - in 1957, commercial telephone. We were issued a little hand held "walkie-talkie" type thing. Never was able talk to anyone with it or verify that it worked.

I recently (May 2012) attended a lecture about the Air Force radar site near Almaden, south of San Jose, CA.
Those Air Force people, about the same number of troops as in a Nike site, lived First Class, typical Air Force. A barber drove up every week. A little Air Force Commissary. Family housing. Swimming pool, also used as a resevour for fire fighting water. Chapel, suitable for weddings.