Story from John J Federico, Jr.

Missile Launch accident prevention

You guys may already have this, but it appears our South Korean brothers-in-arms purposely or accidently launched a Herc from their Inchon fire unit! I picked up this AP release from the 12-4-98 Huntsville Times:

"Missile Wreckage... Southern Korean soldiers cover the wreckage of an anti-aircraft missile at a park in Inchon today. Officials say the missile exploded 500 feet above the ground after it accidently launched. It was unclear whether a soldier fired the missile or a malfunction caused the launch. Three people were injured by debris from the exploding Nike-Hercules missile."

The picture shows seven armed ROK soldiers placing camouflage netting over the four crushed JATO units of what was once a M42 Rocket Motor Cluster.

While serving in Europe during the mid-80s', the nuclear operations folks in the Pentagon directed a study that focused on "Deliberate Unauthorized Launch" or DUL of a Nike missile. They were not too concerned about the nuclear side of the system, but they wanted to understand what it would take for a disgruntled soldier to fire a round with an HE warhead mated to it. The section chief would wear the "crew safety" keys around his neck and insert them somewhere on the Section Control Indicator (SCI) at a certain point during the crew drill to complete the SCI board with green ready-to-fire lights. Besides performing a stray voltage check, connecting the booster squib cable and elevating the missile, the crew safety keys were all that was needed for a lone individual to launch an HE-tipped missile. (An if you were mad because you've been pulling more than your share of guard duty and KP, you might skip the stray voltage check!)

Well, you better believe that after that study was completed those keys were put under serious lock and key. There also was a time during the early 60s' when CONUS fire units kept the Arm Plugs for the W31 in an unlocked glass case mounted on the wall of underground magazine. To the best of my knowledge, the European units always had the Arm Plugs locked up. Even though there was a "Two-Man Rule" in place, the "insider threat" was also a concern because you could very easily have two perfectly authorized but disgruntled soldiers. So besides having the plugs under positive control, the Permissive Action Link or PAL system was employed, which was either electrical, electro-mechanical or mechanical. Herc used a mechanical PAL device which was another lock that secured the connector the Arm Plug mated to.

Tell that Colonel whose is your resident nuke expert that there is nothing even remotely sensitive about the above in this day and time.

Story from Bill Shaw

ladder warmers

Yeh, they had ladder warmers ok.... When we first had the HIPAR installed the ladder went straight up ('bout 90 feet to the catwalk if I remember right) with nothing, no heaters... After the first winter with the fog that was always on the coast in Rhode Island freezing on the rungs of the ladder, we were lucky never to have anybody hurt. Altho there were some close ones, thank God for the safety harness. Finally, after much complaining (which always seem to fall on deaf ears) they installed heat tape which helped the situation.

The biggest danger of going up that ladder was right at the top. The trap door that opened up into the antenna area had 2 interlock switches at the top. One to stop the antenna from rotating and the other to shut down the xmtr if it was transmitting. I can't remember what the switching arrangement was right there but they had the MALE part of the switch plug all exposed when the door was opened.. We had quite a number of guys lay their hands on the edges of the door to kinda boost themselves up into the antenna area and get knocked silly, the switch plugs being right there exposed. After submitting a few requests for a work order to have the female part and male part switched the problem was solved.

Hope this helps with your "ladder warmer". That was ours anyway... That particular ladder brings back a memory of a BIG brass going up to see the view from 90 ft up out the small windows of the bubble and we had to carry him down. Poor guy got skiddish about coming down. (grin) bill.....

Story from John J Federico, Jr. -

Life in the Launcher Area

... I was one of the on-site E6s and during in-processing to Bliss, found out I was selected for appointment to Warrant Officer. I put in my application in mid 71 and some how the Army lost track of me (go figure!). My orders to the 51st were revoked because it already had a detachment warrant. I was appointed a 221B (Nike Missile Assy Tech) on 23 Jul 73, and on my way to Korea the beginning of the next month. I was still not believing the Army made me a warrant officer, but excited none the less about my upcoming assignment. I could totally immerse myself in work because it was a unaccompanied tour, and my family was settled in back home, plus I couldn't financially afford to take a mid-tour leave so I would be there for 12 continuous months.

I was assigned to 2nd Bn 44th Arty (Herc) with further duty at D Btry in Yeoju. CW4 Everett Harmon, the Bn WO, would be checking on me not only because I was young and newly appointed, but because I would be the sole warrant officer in the Launching Area for awhile. I would replace a much older, really bitter CW3 who almost died on the table in the Btry Aid station due to an allergic reaction to penicillin. For obvious reasons, he shall remain nameless! He left Delta Btry the day after I arrived, and all he told me was which the direction was downrange and to watch out for the IFC warrants.

I came to find out that this WO didn't spend too much time downrange because he had so many additional admin duties i.e. Btry Fire Marshall, Btry Safety Officer, Mess Officer, Motor Officer, VD Control Officer (that's another story unto itself), and Postal Officer. Now I always noticed a bit of friction between the IFC and launcher folks, but sort of stayed out of the fray, so "watch out for the IFC warrants" didn't have any significance to me - until later on!!!. We were told in school that IFC people looked upon the downrange folks as a sub-human species who had trouble marching in formation because their knuckles dragged the ground. I was new, untested, alone and needed to get along with everybody, more so because we lived together in one hooch.

My first day downrange was horrific. No one in the A&S section knew how "Chief" kept track of scheduled maint and by the looks of the equipment it was clear that a lot of "paper maint" was being performed. My E6 Assy Sgt and E7 Elec Maint Chief had also just reported in from Bliss. Now these two soldiers were suppose to be the enlisted technical strength in the launching area and A&S section, however, the E6 had been in charge of the post auto hobby shop during most of his 4 years at Bliss and the E7 had been writing SAM-D (later Patriot) tech manuals for the last 30 months. Fortunately they were super NCOs and got up to speed by the time their mid-tour leave requests came across my desk. We ended our tour together with a "zero point" loss in the launching area during our ASP firing down at Sea Range (B Btry) and routinely passed all our inspections. The rest of my crew and some firing section personnel were married to Korean gals and had been in the unit for years.

The only launchers that would elevate were in Charlie section which was the Nuke" section. The launching set was a semi-mobile emplacement and most of the outrigger jacks were sunk in the mud and out of level. Equip in the HE sections were awaiting parts for the longest time with no recent follow up. My SP4 PLL clerk said the priority was Vietnam, Europe, and what was left over (if any) came to Korea. That was new to me because we got everything we needed and a lot of things we didn't need during my time on site in Conus but never the less that was the reality in Korea. Looking through the missile log books, however, I noticed that many of the missiles were past due their biennial and quadrennial services.

I called the DS/GS Msl shop in Pyongtek and arranged a site visit for them to change out missile actuators. In the mean time, I told the downrange section and A&S folks that we were gonna dejoin a missile first thing in the morning. The troops gave me a thousand yard stare that I can still see today. I was told that the old "Chief" said that if the missiles "pitched and yawed" during weeklys there was no reason to take them apart. This would be the longest 12 months of my life! It turned out we had to remove part of the berm in Alfa section because the nose of the forward body section hit it before it cleared the booster to allow us to set it on the missile dolly. It was apparent to me that missiles were not demated in quite awhile at that site.

However, my initial "interface" with my IFC brothers was over AGs! One of the magical things that happened over the inter-area cable was the transmission of AGs, which the IFC sent to the launching area during weekly checks or maybe it was during monthly checks. CW3 Dick Asbell, the senior IFC warrant called our new West Point 2LT Launcher Platoon Leader and told him to report to the IFC area and bring back down a bucket of AGs". So he got the red fire bucket from the warhead bldg and with jeep and driver heads off to the IFC or "OZ" as my Platoon Sgt called it!. We all had a good laugh at breakfast the next morning, but really had AG checks scheduled for that day. I believe that AGs when sent from the IFC had to be received and read at the Section Control Indicator (SCI) within 100 mils of what they send.

The dial on the SCI was way off and could not be brought into tolerance. Manual AGs were OK, but to assume status, you had to be able to do automatic AGs. (Now I may be mistaken and if so I would be glad to get the right poop from whom ever might read this.) Concurrent with the automatic AG problem, we found that when the IFC brought us to Yellow status, the Launching Control Trailer (LCT) and section panels received a Blue status light. If they brought us to Red, we got White lights, and White saw the launching area in continuous Yellow status whenever we powered up. The 2LT was still reeling from the bucket of AGs and thought this was another IFC "test", so he proceeded to tear into Chief Asbell. I'm sure that Asbell probably had underwear older than our West Pointer, so it was immediately obvious that locking horns with the Chief was the wrong thing to do. It also caused "Blazing Skies" at the BOQ that evening at Officers Call.

At the end of each day, the battery officers would gather in the BOQ and over a cold beer report to the Battery Commander on the status of their respective areas of responsibility. Asbell shared with the group that there's a serious tech problem in the Launching Area that will prevent Delta from assuming hot battery in a few days. The BC figured out real quickly how that would reflect on him and he was very clear as to how it would reflect on me if I didn't get it fixed ASAP. Asbell also passed on that his maint folks checked over their equip and the problem was definitely not in the IFC. I would spend the rest of that evening and the next two days downrange eating from mermite cans and drinking kool aid while troubleshooting the problem.

I had a good relationship with my civilian DS/GS Missile shop folks out of Ft. Devens during my tour at D-3-5. A WECO-trained tech named Paul Parrot would bring us fruit and vegetables from his garden, but what I coveted most was his "M1 Pocket Missile", which was a set of wire leads that consisted of some alligator clips and a set of pins like the launcher P1X/P72A quick disconnects. He did most if not all of his troubleshooting with his M1. He would apply external grounds with the M1 and get relays to chattering and launchers to elevating, and lights to flashing. I followed him around like a puppy whenever he came to my site and I learned more from him than from anyone else I would come across in the Nike field. But no matter how many time I asked, he wouldn't make me my own M1 and I never got close enough to it to see exactly how it was made. Anyhow, my duty at D-3-5 had come to an end and I was clearing my quarters getting ready to report to Bliss, when Mr. Parrot stopped by to drop off some apples from his orchard. He wished me luck and then left. When I opened the bag of apples I saw a small box and upon opening it found my very own M1 Pocket Rocket, although this one was the newly modified M1A1 model.

I'm the first to admit that electrical expertise is somewhat narrow in scope although heavy in theory in the launching area because all we really had to work with was the TS-352/U multimeter and a set of schematics. Now the IFC - they had "stuff" and the techs would tell you in a NY minute that they were the real electrical wizards of Nike and I would agree. But they didn't have the M1A1 Pocket Missile. The first thing I did at the LCT was to drop the inter-area cables. Mr. Parrot use to tell me that the telephone company designed the Nike system and the principle was all components always had a "hot" present on one side and just sat there waiting for a ground to show up. The "big TM" (as my E6 called it) showed which pins brought the ground to each side of the status lights on the LCT console. I used the M1A1 to apply ground the appropriate grounds and the lights lit like they were supposed to and the troops acted as though I parted the Hahn River! I called Asbell and told him that the problem was either in the inter-area cable or in his equipment. Well, as a new WO1, I committed blasphemy telling HIM, the all knowing, all seeing wizard (now I know why the Plt Sgt called IFC "OZ") first what I thought and second that the problem could be in his area. The BC wanted us down to the BOQ ASAP. We reviewed the bidding and I'm back downrange troubleshooting while Asbell is in the BOQ drinking a cold one and listening to AFN radio!.

I dug more into the LCT and found a lot of scary things. Behind the door that allows access to crab locks and other electrical components, I found indications that there might have been a small electrical fire or a lightning strike. (This also was the battery that accidently fired a round into the Hahn River in the early 60s. The report I found in the files stated "After standing down to white status at the conclusion of a crew drill, missiles were in the process of being lowered when premature red status was received in the firing section and one missile was vertically launched.) But everything checked out. Being careful how I approached Chief Asbell, I told him what I had done and was confident that the problem was not in the Launching Area. He admitted that all he knew about my area was that it was on the other side of the Admin area, but if I didn't mind, he wanted to come down and see what I had done. I showed him the checks I had made and he had a fit over my pocket missile saying it was unauthorized and I would eventually burn something up (which I did). He brought a huge "O" scope with him and we confirmed that "total trash" - his words - was coming down on the inter-area cable.

He convinced the BC, based on the scope check, that the inter-area cable was bad. I arranged for our supporting signal company to come out and "meg" the entire cable run. They even replaced reels of cable that were marginal but still serviceable. After 4 days on the poles and changing out cables rushed from stateside depots, which took an act of congress, the problem still persisted. I was sent back downrange to again look at my equipment. By this time I'm at the end of my rope. I called Chief Harmon at battalion and he came out and watched us troubleshoot. He met with the CO of the signal company who said it would take at least a Colonel or above to tell him to put his linemen back up on the poles. Then Harmon suggested we call the two civilian tech reps from Osan AB. I didn't even know such people were in country. The arrived the next morning and observed what I've been doing pretty routinely for all the visitors that have showed up to "help" me. They smiled when they saw the pocket missile. One tech took a piece of equip out of the van and the other tech headed to the IFC area. After making some checks they pronounced the inter-area cable serviceable, which is what the signal folks have been telling us for days! Now the other tech heads for the IFC area and a few hours later they leave. The IFC maint sgt passed to my E6 three defective components that were nearly burned in two that the tech reps found in one of the fire control van computer coffins. My E6 placed them on the bar in the BOQ for discussion during the next Officers Call".

Question from Bill Shaw

For the life of me, I can't remember what the Dicke-Fix receiver did. I do remember the DF antenna mounted on the Lopar, but can't remember if it had something to do with getting around ECM or what. Can you help me out?

Robert Dicke was a radio-astronom and worried about the background noise in space. One day he was really pissed off about all that noise covering the beloved signals from outer space. He said to himself, "I`m thrue with it man...by all means! I must build myself a special receiver." Well, he did...

One day a guy from Western Electric called him up and said, "Hi Robie we need a special receiver for some reduction of noise generated by the bad guys from Russia." Robie said, "Hey man, no problem, I`ve got one already."

And the Army said,"Thank you, awfully nice. (Instead of paying a lot of money.) We will name the circuitry -Dicke Fix Receiver-". Robert D. was delighted. The receiver was made CONFIDENTIAL (for better selling) and build into the LOPAR.

The DF receiver was military standard in every US military radar for a long,long time....

Nice story.....hahahahaha. Some is true... ;-))

"Another CFAR technique is the hard limiter, sometimes called the Dicke Fix. This consists of a broadband IF filter followed by a hard limiter and a narrow-band matched filter. The hard limiter is set low enough to insure that receiver noise is limited. Thus the output is uneffected by the level of noise. A signal,however, causes the output of the matched filter to increase by a factor of M, equal to the ratio of the bandwidth of the broadband filter to the bandwidth of the narrow-band (matched) filter.

This form of CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) may not be desirable with MTI since hard limiting reduces the improvement factor or the clutter attenuation. Hard limiting also introduces an additional loss."

I had a discussion with the GE people about this facts in 1975 because the performance of the DF was really p. poor in the HIPAR. But DF was US military standard....

"Impulsive noise, that can shock-excite the "narrow-band" radar receiver cause it to ring, can be reduced with the Lamp noise-silencing circuit, or Dicke fix."

I/we used the DF at the LOPAR against noise ECM. Some times it helped a bit.

Aux-Antenna had a sensitivity like (almost) the main antenna side lobes. So, the JS circuit compared signals from the main- and aux-channel. If the (jam) signal from the main channel was stronger a Jam Strobe (JS) was generated and presented on the PPI.

A stronger signal in the main channel ment that the main antenna was pointing at the jammer or jamming source.

Up to a certain power level of the jamming signal the circuit worked quite well.

Best Regards Rolf Dieter

From R. H. Bridgman

One thing I can tell you, having served at SF 59, is that the site was considered to be operational only when TV Channel 2 was not broadcasting. The IFC Area was on Mt. San Bruno about a half mile from Channel 2's transmitter. Several modifications were made to the TTR and MTR to reduce TVI, but they were only marginally effective. We were "Night Owls" on that site, as we had to do all of our daily, weekly, and monthly checks and maintenance in the wee hours of the morning when Channel 2 was off the air.

Channel 2 is 54 to 60 MHz, 60 MHz is the IF (Intermediate Frequency) of the tracking radars, (TTR, TRR, MTR) and apparently was strong enough to leak in and cause interference - Ed Thelen

During their night firing, C Btry, 739th AAA Msl Bn, TDY to RCRC for ASP, had a very close call. Strong winds blew their booster back over the IFC area, and it struck the guy wires supporting the collimator mast, tearing it down!

> Ed - You know, those electronics were amazing. I remember replacing the vacuum tubes in a couple of TVs twenty or thirty years ago, and they no longer worked after that. I've never figured out my poor TV results!

I've had the same experience - Being a techie, I kept volunteering to "fix" the various neighbors flaky TV sets. I finally went to changing only 3 or 4 at a time. {I always made a chart, and marked it, because the tube types were often not marked on the chassis. Then verify that things did not get worse before proceeding.)

> During my time at C/4/562 there was a program that came around where every vacuum tube in the Hipar was replaced. And the radar still worked.

My best guess - tighter specks, quality control, burn-in, and final inspection of military tubes worked. We had a similar episode with our Nike analog computer. One day the "COMPUTER-SETTLED" light would not stop blinking. (It normally blinked for a few seconds after turn-on and after selection of a new target.) There was a good method of localizing the trouble to a few chassis - and we found most of the high gain twin triodes (8???, the military "equivalent" of the 12AT7) sub marginal or worse. At first we assumed we had set up the tube tester incorrectly, but new tubes tested way up in the green "GOOD" of the tester. (?15?) were so bad they were about 1/2 way up the red "BAD" in the tube tester. We only had about 5 spares of that particular tube.

We informed the officers, who phoned ??GROUP??, and the site was set "down" for repairs. We quickly phone ordered about 50 of those tubes "BLUE STREAK" and started a massive tube testing campaign through the IFC and Launching area. A few of the other tubes were yellow "MARGINAL" and ordered regular speed.

(But really, the vacuum tubes were much more reliable than those in service in the customer TVs, maybe more conservative circuit design and ratings. The mercury thyratrons in the power supplies were a different matter. In cold weather, they frequently failed to start functioning correctly. We would watch the power supplies start, and replace those thyratons that started slowly [flickered longer than average].)

After about 7 days, the 50 "BLUE STREAK" tubes arrived from the local depot (?Great Lakes?). (We could drive there in two hours.)

We tested all of the new tubes (all tested good!) replaced all of the marginal tubes in the computer. We turned the computer on and it settled quickly (worked correctly) on all the tests. The down side of this is that we had to go back to work - "HOT STATUS".

A disadvantage was that antenna pointing errors were observed more often and precise. A good example was the daily MSL {Missile Tracking Radar} acquire procedure. Because of the usually low grazing angle of the antenna beam, multipath effects were monitored in elevation. By using NIKE amplitude monopulse there was no cure. The MSL was rated non-operational. Just imagine, looking thru the mounted telescope seeing some cows instead of the auto tracked missile!

But the view-point or directing point was not the reflection point, instead it was the sum of the direct and indirect RF energy from the MSL. The "reflection point" was changing with season and daytime and sometimes gone at all. It was a really interesting case and I learned a lot. I was engaged (again) in that "secret" story. That case was really hot and sensitive. This matter is discussed in some radar books.

The wartime solution! Moving trucks between the MTR and MSL, it worked!

If you have comments or suggestions, Send e-mail to Ed Thelen

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Updated April, 2022