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Remedial Efforts
- or maybe Back to Nature

This page provides information about "Remedial Efforts" or "Restorative Efforts" of old Nike sites.

First an image, a tall radar tower in a creek at site C-44 from Tom Vaughn 50 K bytes FYI for Nike C-44 - the radar tower no longer in the creek. The tower was demolished last fall due to safety concerns. - from Walter D. Perro. "Note the shower, water hose holder and light posts." from Bill Siegfried 2013
Addison, Illinois control site (on the location of a current community park). From Matt Lockman. November, 2006. The ladder well has been sealed off ½ way down with sheet metal plates to deny access. Vandals have attempted to pull open the sheet metal around the base of the tower itself in an effort to gain access to the interior truss work and climb to the top (this damage is on the east side and not visible in this photo). I don’t know if the building behind the tower was part of the original Nike site or was erected after the parcel was turned over to the Village of Addison.

A nice example of after use of this old Nike site YouTube, from C J Elonich

N-36 launching area, July 2007. Kindly sent by Mitchell K. Nichols Sr. "I’m a employee for Parks and Landscape services / Parks Maintenance which works out of the Nike site on Lynnhaven Pkwy. Over the past week the Army Corps of Engineers have been heading the work of draining the water out of the 3 silos and filling them with concrete. We have been documenting this with numerous pictures and a couple of videos and have many pictures of the inside of the silos and would like to share them to this site."
From Mark Foster MATF, Apr 27, 2019
BR-17, Milford, Connecticut
Using Historic Aerials and google earth,

where admin buildings were

generators and fuel area

where the three magazines where
Demolition of Bristol (PR-38) magazines 2.4 MB .pdf

Here is a FUDS report for C-70 stored locally.


The Nike program is over basically over.

The world is very dynamic, weapons and threats change. The 200 plus Nike sites in the United States were mostly de-activated by mid 1974 (Soviet ballistic missiles were the big threat). In 1977, the U.S. turned over its Nike sites in Korea to the Koreans. By the mid 1980's, Nike systems had been removed from Germany and Okinawa. By year 2005, it is estimated that the Greeks, Turks, and Italians will have replaced their Nike Hercules with U.S. Patriot or Russian SA-300 systems. The future status of the Japanese and Korean systems seems hard to determine.


Pulling Out

Nike site de-activation in the U.S. consisted of removing the portable equipment, the radars, the missiles, the vans, the cables, the desks, beds, chairs, stoves, dishes, telephones trucks, refrigerators, launchers, generators, stoves, spare paint, sports equipment, guard dogs and their supplies, the special warheads, the test equipment, the launcher control boxes, the spare hydraulic fluid, etc. - All of the material required to launch and guide Nike missiles to targets, and to make live fairly tolerable for the men involved.

Determination of Surplus (Excess Real Property and Related Personal Property) .pdf 526 KBytes from R. G. Plante July 2010


David Babiarz wrote: (April 2004)
> Now it leads me to ask the question, how did they 
> actually just pull out?
> I do not hear anything about tearing these sites down.  
> In the case of C-84 in Palatine, it sounds as if the 
> military personnel just left with the missiles and equipment.  
> Did they just pack up everything overnight and these 
> huge missiles and radar tracking equipment thrown into 
> the backs of two ton army trucks and driven down 
> public roads in the middle of the night in the 1970s?
I answered

The Nike Ajax and Hercules systems were truck/trailer (and large aircraft) transportable. It wasn't fun, but it was doable. There was a Nike system and military unit at Fort Bliss assigned demonstrate that portability. (That unit and equipment in fact moved to southern Florida in a few days at the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis! Setting up heavy equipment that needs to be very stable (like the Target and Missile Tracking Antennas) in a swamp is yet another matter!)

The transport equipment that brought our equipment to our site Chicago in March 1955 was sent to northwest Chicago for storage after we unloaded it. I "supervised" in some trips to tow the undercarriages of the Radar Control van, Battery Control van and tracking radars to northwest Chicago. (I had never been in the cab of a 6x6 before, with a driver who liked to momentarily kill the ignition to help make the truck "back-fire" (explode) loudly in residential areas - great fun, but he was afraid of blowing the muffler apart and getting into trouble.) We nearly came to grief under a low overpass with one of the towbars that we had stuck up at a 45 degree angle in order to get more units into the towed load. Fortunately the driver had more savvy than I and averted a big mess!

The words "thrown into the backs of two ton army trucks" are not appropriate. The road van equipment was retrieved and used again - likely much of the equipment went to Germany? (I was long gone from the Army by then.)

There are still large (growing smaller) stockpiles of Nike tracking antennas, radar vans, ... at places like China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, CA

The fins of the missiles were removed and placed in their carrying cases, The de-fined missiles were placed back into their cylindrical shipping containers. The launchers placed on their transporters. The tons of rubber covered cables were wound up on the stored large (30 inch diameter) metal spools that they arrived in. and the boosters and the test equipment and the cleaning equipment and the missile handling equipment and the instruction manuals and records and ...

I have no idea about the missile racks between the launchers and racks in the underground magazines. Maybe they were "thrown into the backs of two ton army trucks" but more likely handled more gently as who knew who would have to set them up again - and why mess up something that you might have to set up?

And the generators and frequency converters, and the radomes, and I hate to think of all the work - ...

I am told that the "special weapons" (nuclear warheads) were (generally?/always?) hauled away in large helicopters, escorted by other large helicopters.

- and the guard dogs and supplies -

I presume that the cots, crummy mattresses, crummy blankets, sheets, stoves, desks, safes, mess trays, pots & pans, and tables and chairs and telephones and trash cans and file cabinets and ... all got counted and somehow hauled away to somewhere.

And someone posted a sign, locked the front gate, and signed yet one more form.


The Greeks are currently (spring 2004) dismantling/moving their old Nike equipment to a central place also.

Some things were left, including:

- the non-portable buildings,
- the fences & gates,
- the underground concrete magazines and their doors,
- underground tanks US Army Corps of Engineers Connecticut
- missile elevators and associated hydraulic pumps,
- the roads,
- and the spilled or discarded residues in the earth left from servicing and cleaning missiles.

Reports were generated describing the site, such as this "Excess Report, NIKE Hercules Site D-FW-20, Terrell, Texas, size = 1.2 MegaBytes, courtesy Mark Berhow, co-author of "Rings of Supersonic Steel".

The de-activated sites were then - abandoned, sold, returned to government entities, etc. The locations and last known conditions are listed in Nike site locations.

Here is a well informed, thoughtful newpaper article on the life cycle of Nike. - via R. G. Plante - 2.5 megabytes

Artifacts
"Bill" asked if old buildings and artifacts might have been documented when a location near Milwaukee was converted into a Nike installation. (His grandfather had homesteaded the location.)

Mark Morgan responded

Bill: Unfortunately we didn't have the cultural resource identification and documentation procedures that we do today so I'm not sure anyone took note of the structures which were knocked down for the Nike battery. Having said that, I agree with Ed: start with the Corps of Engineers Chicago District and you might try the local county historical society.
Good luck!
MK

Residues

In April 2001, Steve Maloney wrote
The solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) is a very common contaminant at Nike sites. I have mostly seen it associated with IFCs, but I've heard it's common at launcher areas.
I (Ed Thelen) responded"
I really don't know - I lived in simpler (early Ajax) days, in the IFC, and the only "solvent" that I remember using was gasoline (the leaded kind) that was intended to be used as fuel for the generators or fuel in the van heaters. We did not use "much" - and I presume we "deep-sixed" it onto some out-of-view ground. (That seemed the common thing then - civilian and military world -junk yards, gas stations, some folks tended to dump old crank case oil down the drain.)
and asked for help.

Carl Durling wrote in April 2004

The solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) was used extensively in the IFC area to clean electronic components. Every three months we would take apart certain parts of the electronics in the BCO and Radar vans, and each of the three antenna. This would be done in rotation so that all electronics would be cleaned during a 12 month period. The stuff was very toxic, although not well understood in the 60s. I, and another team member, were cleaning electronics in the Radar Van (I was MTR operator) with the door shut. We didn't realize what effect it was having on us until the Sergeant opened the door. He ordered us out of the Van, and as soon as we hit outside air, we both passed out. What a headache we came down with.
Carl Durling
Ed Thelen says "Hmmmm - interesting - when I was mainenance in the Ajax IFC in 1955/56, electronic equipment, sockets, transformers, wires, etc. were getting really dusty. I wondered if/when things would start to arc over. Maybe something did - and hence the clean-up campaign?"

Terry Kerns wrote:

At all the launching areas I've been in, we used triclor on just about anything - especially to clean the launchers. We would even mix it with hydralic fluid to make the launchers shine. Then we would dump what was left over the hill which was common practice back then.
Terry"
and Robert Foy wrote:
STEVE: The chemical (Trichloroethylene) was never used to clean the outside of the missiles. During warhead mating operations, both trichloroethylene and toulene were used for cleaning cable heads and pins. Trichloroethylene was also used in the firing sections for cleaning cable connections. You could find traces in the launching area around the Assembly and Maintenance buildings and warhead buildings. It was used more frequently in the IFC area. If anything was used to clean the missiles, it was just soap and water.
BOB


In the U.S., one old Nike site (visit) SF-88, that had been left as an abandoned fenced area in a regional park, is being painstakingly resurrected. For a variety of reasons, (location) SF-88 will probably be the most restored site in the U.S. (see FAQ entry).

The Nike Preservation Group is working to designate Nike Missile Launch Site (location) C-47 (near Hobart/Wheeler in northern Indiana) as a memorial to those who served during the Cold War.

The above organizations are looking for help.


Many other sites (especially on public lands) are being obliterated to make room for other human activities. (There is no trace "my" site - C-41 - in Chicago. A park it was before, and a park it is again. I could not even find a little sign.) May of these sites are being "de-contaminated" before obliteration.

Others were purchased by private individuals and are in good to obliterated shape.

Many, such as in rural Washington and Alaska, are obliterated to apparently reduce risk of adventurers getting into mis-adventures (or less obvious reasons).


Remedial Activities

The following is subject to considerable rework. Enhancement, suggestions, comments and information are solicited. :-)

A considerable amount of time (money) is being spent on removing substances labeled harmful to humans from (primarily) the launcher areas of old Nike sites. The Army Corps of Engineers is involved with many areas.

For a view of Army Corps of Engineers documents, see INPR TABLE OF CONTENTS for Former Nike Site LA-14 at Whittier Narrows, CA Spotted by Donald E. Bender.

Every few months, a phone call or e-mail arrives requesting de-contamination type information. What chemicals used? where? and how much? and how disposed? - Being from the IFC rather than from the Launcher Area, I am of limited help. When I remember, I refer the callers to: "Historical Overview of the Nike Missile System" which was written under government contract to help with the problem. Then the caller or e-mailer goes away, never to be heard from again. Also see Acid Neutralization Pit.

In September 1998, Leslie Hill of the Corps of Eng. - Baltimore e-mailed and called. She listened patiently to what information I had, and my comments about swirling emotions - and did not go away. I feel I have a patient ear (one of damn few) in the government. (She also suggests " How about a link to the Corps home page http://www.usace.army.mil? It has links to each of our offices and info on our programs.")

Two e-mails follow:

--- first e-mail ---
My name is Leslie Hill. I am civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. My work is in environmental restoration of Army sites. I am trying to find out more about typical maintenance practices on the radar units at controls sites. We have a lot of info about maintenance on the missiles, but not much on activities at the control area. Any help or a chance to talk with you would be great. Thank you.

Leslie Hill
Civil Engineer
Baltimore District
Ph (410) 962-0157

--- second e-mail ---
I think that the Army has gathered up extensive records on each Nike site as a result of the environmental regulations. We have basically gone back to every site regardless of how long ago we transferred title on the property and done a study of possible contamination. MANY sites have been the subject of remedial efforts. I'll find out the best place to get consolidated information. If you surf the web, try looking for "formerly used defense site" and Nike. I know the Corps of Engineers has placed alot of the info on line. Formerly Used Defense Site is the term used by DOD to describe all the properties that we disposed of and are now the subjective of some investigation. Many are not serious problems, just old underground fuel tanks which we must remove. Some have groundwater contamination from solvents or heavy metals.

The above 2 e-mails seem to me to be very nice civil engineering (double meaning intended). :-)

In April 1999, William W. Harris PE wrote in part
I work for the Washington Department of Ecology, overseeing hazardous waste cleanups at a variety of federal facilities in Washington State, including Fairchild Air Force Base and Four Lake ANGS (formerly Nike F-37). My workgroup also has responsibility for overseeing work done by the Army Corps of Engineers on Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS), a category which includes almost all of the former Nike sites in the state.

I see that you've had contacts with Leslie Hill of the Baltimore Corps District regarding possible contamination at some Nike FUDS on the East Coast. This is a subject of increasing interest to me and to our FUDS coordinator as we work on Four Lakes and on the FUDS Nike sites in Washington. We rarely have much specific information for many types of FUDS about activities which might have resulted in environmental contamination, so it's hard to know what we should expect the Corps to look for and where. Doyle Piland, who runs the Nike Ordnance Support Units website, has also been in contact with Leslie Hill, and has provided some additional information to both of us.


Bill Harris, PE
Toxics Cleanup Program
Washington Department of Ecology
whar461@ecy.wa.gov
(360) 407-7228
	

Ownership and easements For better or worse, the government sometimes "condemned" the land by right of "eminent domain" for the "common good". (Leasing is another option which could-have-been (or ?was?) followed.) If/when the government looses interest-sells/abandons the property, interesting consequences may occur. See following sequence of e-mails:
MIRMAN

Re: Nike Radar site on Montevideo Road, Avon, Connecticut

I am interested in finding information about the Government's acquisition and use of the site on Montevideo Road in Avon, Connecticut, which occurred in 1955, including reasons, intended use, actual use and manning, and means of acquisition and traffic. I believe the site was used during the 1950's and early 1960's. Any information or leads you might have would be appreciated. Please e-mail me, Jeff Mirman, jmirman@ldlaw.com or call (860) 676-3120. Thanks.

I (Ed Thelen) responded in part:

Not very scientific advice on how to find about old things.

Ask an old cop - they are paid to watch for things and to remember. The old ones might not have told the new ones all of the old stuff.

Old taxi cab driver - they may remember things the cop will not admit to knowing.

County recorder's office - some old geezer - :-)

Old real-estate person -

Some things the young get-e-up whippersnappers just don't know. :-)

Some of the above is in fun. But some sorta serious.


Followed by more information from "Rings of Supersonic Steel" than is on my web site, and a suggestion to talk with Donald E. Bender.

And I received the following added details:

MIRMAN

Thanks for getting back to me. I have been in contact with Don Bender and have essentially asked him the same questions.

Let me try and briefly explain my interest in the site. I am an attorney and I represent the current owner of land next to the site, including the roadway known as Montevideo Road. In 1955 the United States condemned an easement over Montevideo Road to gain access to 6 acres which the government acquired for use as a Nike Radar facility.

In 1967 the United States sold the 6 acres, and the easement, to the Town of Avon for educational purposes, which then conveyed the land to the Talcott Mountain Science Center. In 1980 the Science Center acquired an additional 13 acres, surrounding the site, from the State of Connecticut. The issue we face is whether the Science Center has a right to use Montevideo Road to gain access to the 13 acre piece.

The Court here has said it is interested in knowing what use the United States contemplated making of the 6 acre site in 1955, and what actual use was made of the site thereafter, including the masking area surrounding the 6 acres. It would also be helpful to know the number of military personnel assigned to this particular site, the kinds of vehicles using Montevideo Road, the levels of traffic on a regular basis (daily/weekly), and, ideally, the identify of any personnel who actually served at the site.

I appreciate whatever help you can give or direction you might suggest.

Thanks again,

Jeff.



Environmental tirade # 3 - I won't cooperate any more.




----- Original Message - some changes made to protect the
   presumed innocent ----- 
From: xxx@xxx.usace.army.mil 
To: ed@ed-thelen.org 
Sent:  September nn, 2003 
Subject: Nike web site: Potential Environmental Contamination- Perchlorate


> Dear Sir:

> I have been tasked with completing an environmental 
> assessment of Nike XX-nn, located near yyy.

> EPA and the State of [Other People's Money] have suggested 
> that we may have a potential issue related to perchorate releases.  

> It is my understanding that this is a constituent 
> of the solid rocket fuel.  From your experience and 
> knowledge of these missile systems were their routine 
> operations that release the solid fuel?  Was the material 
> accessible and easily damaged?  Were there ever times 
> that "chunks"  or residue from the fuel could have been 
> released during assembly, transport, or storage?

> Any information, references, or contacts that will assist 
> in assessing the potential for release would be appreciated.  
> (or any information that you think would present an 
> environmental hazard)

> Sincerely, 

> xxx, XXX

> US Army Corps of Engineers- yyy District

> postal information
> phone #
> fax #

My response I'm sorry for being so uncooperative and pessimistic, and probably uncivil. [Nike site] XX-nnn went out of service in 1968 - about 35 years ago. At the rate we are going I figure that 25% of the U.S. will be digging up California trying to remediate the government mandated MTBE gasoline additive mess 25% of the U.S. will be digging up the rest of the nation looking for other less dangerous materials - long decomposed or at 0.001 parts/billion - 50% of the U.S. will be administering and suing the above Then the Chinese and Japanese will use the dollars they have accumulated from our trade deficit - in 2003, some 12 billion dollars per month - to buy the U.S. and stop this silly exercise. I figure any damn fool can request an environmental re-assessment and dig-up "one more time" - to cover one's butt - - for one more improbable thing - as long as it keeps her office "busy" until retirement. It isn't that this material hasn't been prepared for the U.S. Government almost 20 years ago "Historical Overview of the Nike Missile System" by B.N. McMaster, J.B. Sonbee, W.G. Fraser, K.C. Govro, C.F. Jones, S.A. Brainger, and K.A. Civitarese ENVIRONAMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, INC. P.O. BOX ESE, GAINWSVILLE, FLA December 1984 Prepared for: U.S. ARMY TOXIC AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS AGENCY Assessment Division, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21010 A full copy of the above report may be purchased from: Fort MacArthur Military Press, Fort MacArthur Museum Association Fort MacArthur Station Box 2777, San Pedro, California 90731 http://www.ftmac.org/Fmmpre.htm item # 202, $10.00 If the above report is not adequate - do something about it - you are likely in a better position to do it than I - And I presume that several hundred similar, if more local, reports have been generated. And I suppose that several tons of similar reports will be generated in the future. And we complain that ENRON was a racket !! So - with some reluctance - - and sadness and embarrassment - I refuse to cooperate any more. Grumpily Ed Thelen ed@ed-thelen.org
I was so excited about the above that I ignored the "potential issue related to perchlorate releases" in the original message. Dear Friends and Others - The Nike systems (Ajax and Hercules) did not use any perchlorate for oxidizers or any other purpose. A review of almost any government issued document will state what was used. (And Nike Ajax did indeed use some interesting stuff - but not perchlorates.) Cheers Ed Thelen


Is It Safe? What is "Safe"? Is anything "Safe"?

Is it safe?

> Ah - I found this warning page on a Hercules manual dated 1960.

I believe it represents then current and now current information on radar frequency radiation hazards.

Similar were on our books (AJAX) - we ignored these completely. One guy tried to use our tracking radar as birth control - stood next to the front of the radiating TTR for at least 15 minutes/day - it didn't work. Nine months later he had another (normal) kid.

Yes, here it is - indeed, concentrated radar can really heat things up, not just in your microwave (radar ;-) oven. When I was in high school ( ?1947? ) I used to sneak into the physics department at the University of Minnesota, and enjoy. Some folks were playing with a magnetron. They would place some steel wool near the output horn, and the steel wool would get hot and ignite. Similar to this :--))

"Hi Ed. I know someone that started a storage company in the Nike Missile site in [ location name deleted to protect the probably guilty ]. Is this legal or safe to do in your opinion? Please post in your forum for others to answer as well. Thanks. "

The stairway down to the launcher magazine is relatively unsafe. It is steep, made for limber young people. Not so comfortable for stiffer old folks in their 70s and 80s. And definitely not fun for folks with old knees (me). Probably illegal without wheelchair access?

In my increasing less humble opinion - lots of things are relatively safe - and relatively unsafe - like being too heavy!! (OK - I'm on a diet, again.)

(And we want to sue/regulate folks that provide fast hearty food well suited to those folks growing or working ;-)

We [the people] (especially of the U.S.?) are strange critters. We

  • are rather lax about auto safety and intoxication - "Each year, about 40 percent of all fatal traffic accidents in the U.S. involve someone who was drinking alcohol, and drunk driving accounts for nearly 20,000 deaths a year." https://www.geautoinsurance.com/safety/safe4.asp

    In contrast, some folks are going to great pains and expense to try to find *anyone* with traceable long term injury from Nike operations. (I guess those few folks who whiffed UDMH have long since recovered. :-))

  • go to great risk and cost to inject/inhale/ingest/... strange materials (called "un-regulated") that are made in strange ways in strange lands, and "cut" (reduced in purity) by strangers, and sold by strangers - into our bodies

  • puff on known, labeled, carcinogens (cigarettes)

  • pay extra to expose as much of our skin as barely legal to the cancer producing rays of the sun

  • require and pay about $0.05/gallon extra that MTBE (a known - rather serious, long lasting - carcinogen) be inserted into our gasoline for highway fuel to reduce the emission of carbon monoxide. (carbon monoxide is quickly converted to carbon dioxide by natural processes).
    http://www.ucop.edu/news/archives/1998/mtbe.html
    Since leaking underground fuel tanks are an historical hazard, and spilled fuel, and unburned MTBE ..., it doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even an attorney/politician to figure that there will be plenty of future trouble. - for what use? -
  • ,,,
and then we
  • block a major highway for hours during commute traffic when a bottle of household bleach falls off a truck onto the road. (the stuff you pour into swimming pools by the gallon.)
  • destroy Dow Chemical with no demonstration of breast implant harm to a variety of women other than the usual complaints of growing older, and a little larceny with the aid of attorneys.
  • (and in California in 2002) decrease the budget for education, and increase the welfare spending.


Dear Xxxxx

I hate to be unsympathetic - but
I am so tired of the current hysteria over everything -

  1. asbestos - I played in the pile of asbestos our plumber left for several weeks when I was a kid.
    I grant you that working in an old-fashion asbestos grinding mill, especially smoking on the job, caused a lot of trouble -

    (I've read seemingly reliable statistics that chain smoking increased the danger to workers in heavy asbestos dust by a factor of about 80. Not 80 percent, but 80 times the individual hazard.

  2. silicon breast implants - What a boom time for the American Trial Lawyers Association - no scientific evidence, yet tens of millions in fees - ... hog heaven -

  3. coal tar - When I was in Junior High, we tended to hang out at the old abandoned coal gas works - and we chewed coal tar like gum until the flavor got boring and the novelty wore off.

  4. as a boy chemist, I played in my room with some seriously dangerous chemicals - (anybody would agree!!). I could easily have killed/maimed my self - (avoided making nitroglycerin because I read in books the difficulty of cooling the reaction adequately) (I would have been seriously concerned if my kids had played with them) but surviving, I considered and I think I learned a little wisdom

The current chemical tests can detect stuff like

1 part in 100,000,000,000
and the tests to "cause cancer in lab animals" are basically stuffing their bodies with the stuff.

I would worry about something much much more likely to cause you and I inconvenience - like that drunk driver weaving down the road yet again.

In our conceit, we call ourselves "Homo sapiens" (wise),

I propose we deserve the name "homo-hystericus" (hysterical).

And we seem to be hysterical about all the wrong things.

Sorry about blowing off steam.

Cheers

Ed Thelen

Science in Court? are you kidding? - by Ed Thelen, April 2004

Yet another tirade?
Late 2003, several people wrote impassioned letters to me asking that I help publicize court cases involving suing Nike contractors for not providing enough warning signs or some such thing. The signs placed on equipment are subject to government specifications, but it is really tough to successfully sue the government so the attorneys are going after the next deepest pockets they can find - any surviving contractors.

And they want to prove their case with no apparent proof of Nike related injury - but with tearful plaintiffs and a suitably selected jury, the attorneys can make up their own "evidence". ( Witness the breast implant hog feast. )

I like science, and the scientific method, and regard conning a jury which was selected on the basis of ignorance and hysteria as damn poor science and am ashamed of the whole process. I won't cooperate. Thank you.


A partial response to someone who didn't like the above tirade - April 27

...
> You could look them in the eye and tell them that their
> husband's and Fathers died from something unrelated to their Nike
> service.
> Are YOU kidding?

I am not God, I need evidence.

The big question is evidence  !!
As best I can tell, there is no evidence that anyone was 
exposed to ionizing radiation from Nike equipment.

Do you know something different?

Cheers
  Ed Thelen

P.S. According to an over simplified statement of tort theory, 
    the causer of an injury (broadly interpreted) should pay.

As best I can tell, 
    neither the Nike manufacturers nor their products caused injury.
    No injury, no pay under tort.

If you want manufacturers to pay for sadness just because
they have deep pockets 
    - you should have gotten breast implants, gotten older,  
      and gotten on the gravy train.

I am getting older and not feeling as frisky 
  as when I was in the Army 50 years ago.  
I can't even party all night 
  and feel almost reasonable the next day!!    
If you can find some one to give me a million or so
  dollars because I am getting older - just fine.   

But I don't want some U.S. business to fail 
  and the folks to be unemployed 
  just because we can't feel like teenagers forever.

This is a perfect example of driving business "off-shore", 
Everyone within reach of the attorneys gets cleaned out.
(It isn't just the $0.50/hr labor rate in China that is 
   attractive - just try to sue a Chinese firm.)

In theory and practice, I can sue the school district 
    whose buildings I was in as a kid 
    for something related to my decline with advancing age. 
I don't think the school district 
   should not have to pay for my decline 
  (and have to short change the current students)

And I will likely die of something - lets say cancer - 
My aunt, who was never near a Nike site, died of cancer at 92.
    Just who should we, her survivors sue?
If I should get and die of cancer, 
    should my survivors sue Nike manufactures, or just who?

I am open to your suggestions -

Yet Another Tirade Dec 2006


----- Original Message ----- 
...


> My name is [x] .  I am the [x] of [x] 
>  in [x], Texas.  We are performing an environmental 
> site assessment on 750 acres of land located immediately south of Nike BG-40 
> near Elroy, Texas.  I have done what research I can to learn about this 
> facility but have come to a circle and I'm in need of any additional 
> information you may have to offer.

I am an electronics (and programming) techie ("enjineer") -
    now a loose cannon rolling around the deck of a ship in a storm  ;-))

> I have learned that this was a Missle Defense installation designed to 
> protect Berstrom AFB during the Cold War.  That it was operated from the 
> late 1950's to the mid 1960's.  Data from the FUDS properties show that this 
> site was contaminated and that the status is "complete".

In my prime, IBM was accused of spreading
    FUD   - Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
  about its competitors.

Now a government agency has taken over the acronym,
   and maybe the function -
  especially those who have not taken high school science
    who fear contamination by the dihydride of oxygen ;-))
  and of course their attorneys and juries.

My knowledge of bureaucratic jargon is nil -

"Complete" could well mean:
     We are done milking the federal cleanup system for this year -
       next year may present other opportunities :-))
     Maybe we can restate the allowable tolerance of (stuff)
          from one part in 10^9 to one part in 10^12
              and start all over again   :-))
I am told that "my" Nike site, C-41 in Chicago,
   has been dug up twice, 
   and is under consideration for yet another churning.
   - ain't free money nice :-))

> I would appreciate any information you could offer on the site itself and 
> any data on potential contamination at this site that could affect the 
> adjoining property.

I would cheerfully live and have my grandkids raised on any old Nike site
   - assuming the weather and advantages of the Bay Area, California  ;-))
  but would not recommend the same for others due to the legal climate here. 

Cheers
   Ed Thelen
  

Innocent Contractors Nov 2014
>> They are environmental consultants doing work for the Army Corps of Engineers and are at the beginning of the learning curve.

Oh dear -
     poor lads/lasses - how innocent -
         go out and find out something -
(Been there, done that, on non-Nike topics :-((

Must be several hundred (? or thousand?) Nike site contamination reports,
     paid for by the Corps of Engineers
     and ?SuperFund? and others -

Also see acid_neut.html

At the risk of being overly cynical -
     lets make up a story - say of Corps of Engineers, Superfund, ah, so many
"Ah, new fiscal year, and we have new money :-))

Here is the budget from last year,
    lets save work and re-use as much as we can.

"Ah, de-contamination, better than motherhood and apple pie.
Lets get some new contractors to write contamination reports,
    but don't tell 'em of last years reports -
    They might cheat and just copy them,
    like the contractors last year copied the year before :-((
"

Maybe I should do a service to new contractors,
    and start a list of old reports.
Here is an early one (1984) Nike - U.S. Army Toxic and Hazardous ... for the "U.S. Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency Assessments Division" (same as listed in the Table of Contents.

End of cynicism -
    I live in Crazyfornia,
    and we have our own problems :-((

-Ed Thelen

PS Apparently "my" site - C-41 - in Chicago
    has been dug up twice to remove contaminants.
    Popular rumor (a few years ago) was that the
    IFC area was to be churned up a third time,
    looking for a rumored buried gasoline tank.
I think I have reason to be cynical !!!


-------- Original Message --------
via Richard Levine < levine1945@gmail.com >
Richard,

Two men knocked on the Museum door today and said they were looking for history related to the Nike Base.
They are environmental consultants doing work for the Army Corps of Engineers and are at the beginning of the learning curve.
I referred them to you. If, after you talk to them you want me to find anything that is in our archives to assist, please let me know.

Regards,

Tom [ Dunn < dunn62@optonline.net > ]


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