Around Austin-Cold-War Era Nike Hercules Missile is captured in its setting at the 71st Troop Command of the Texas Military Forces-Army National Guard at 408 St. Stephens School Road.
See below for a story that ran in the Austin American Statesman originally November 3rd 2017 and updated September 22nd 2018.
"LOCAL
Cold War missile sites in the Austin area
Michael Barnes
Reader Gary Hamilton wrote directly to us regarding our Austin Answeredproject: “I just finished the latest Harlan Coben book, ‘Don’t Let Go.’ Missile sites from the Cold War era play a central role. I googled Nike ‘Missile Sites’ and, if Wikipedia is to be believed, there are several former sites around Austin.”
Indeed, there were.
We uncovered several references to the area missile sites, including two stories in the American-Statesman archives.
We share this thoroughly illuminating 2001 article by Denise Gamino in full here.
“ Rodney Patterson grew up with strange neighbors.
They lived behind intimidating fences. They had big warning signs to keep people away. And they dozed day and night.
No one saw the weird neighbors. Until Sunday afternoons.
Then, they screamed like sirens, an otherworldly wail that jolted the hills of Austin. Sometimes, the racket went on for 10 minutes.
If Patterson climbed a hill across the road, he could watch the neighbors come out of hiding on those long-ago days. Steel locks groaned open and the neighbors rose to their feet. They stood tall, pushing their noses to the sky.
It was a Cold War salute to Russia.
Patterson’s next-door neighbors were Nike Hercules missiles, designed to shoot down Russian bombers if they headed for Austin.
In the 1960s, Austin was considered a target for the Communists. The bull’s-eye was Bergstrom Air Force Base, home to huge B-52 bombers of the Strategic Air Command. Twelve Nike missiles were based southeast of Bergstrom. Another dozen were nestled in the hills west of Austin off BeeCave Road. The 40-foot Nikes kept a low profile except when the occasional drills kicked them into launch position.
Patterson’s father had to cede part of his BeeCave Road land to the government for the Nike base.
“I saw the glistening white missiles often, and believed in them, ” said Patterson, now a Fort Worth malpractice defense lawyer.
“They were beautiful and they were terrible, ” he said. “I accepted that we would use them one day to shoot the godless Russians out of the sky. Everybody did back then. People accepted the missiles as a fact of life.”"
Comentarios