#throwbackthursday
Trigger Warning! This series of posts has nothing to do with self-defense, hand guns, or Personal Protection.
My memories in Chicargo
The Missile Batteries
Another of my memories is the Nike-Hercules batteries that ringed the City of Chicargo during the Cold War. There were a lot of them. Probably the ones I remember seeing were in Jackson Park on the South Side because I loved going to the Museum of Science and Industry nearby.
In the early days, the batteries were equipped with Nike-Ajax, a relatively short ranged missile equipped with a conventional warhead to shoot down individual bombers. Later on, they were upgraded to the Nike-Hercules, which was nuclear capable.
Nike-Hercules was intended to shoot down whole fleets of Soviet bombers by using a nuclear explosion. Although which batteries in the US were actually equipped with nuclear warheads wasn’t publicly released, the general consensus was that at least some of the Chicargo batteries were. The warheads were switchable from 2 kilotons, a tac nuke, to 40 kilotons, larger than the bombs dropped on Japan.
Here’s an Army informational film about Nike Hercules.
Next week: The effects on the City in the event of a successful Soviet thermonuclear attack.
tacticalprofessor 
Nike-Hercules was intended to shoot down whole fleets of Soviet bombers by using a nuclear explosion. Never even thought about this capability and I think a lot.
Thanks!! Paul N WI Oh also, I watched one of your older videos where you had brown hair. Anyway, I think I heard you tell students to count numbers as they pulled the trigger to achieve that super accurate surprise break on the trigger. I used to sing a note and hold it but your way is better for me. Good stuff Claude. I’m going to teach my family this technique this month. Paul Compernollezenlifter@yahoo.com
Anchorage, AK had 3 batteries, Fairbanks 4. Was just rereading about them the other day. Found a new fact, they had surface to surface capability, and for awhile were the most accurate such artillery in our armed forces.
I suspect that’s one reason they had the 2KT tac nuke capability.
I had the opportunity to hike an old Nike installation north of Anchorage. It’s on government property but it’s not advertised but it’s not posted ‘off limits’ either. Two coworkers and I drove up. It’s fenced but the gate is open. Pretty darn cool.
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Site Summit. They are trying to get it protected and restored so guided tours can be made. Some of the bunkers at Site Point are still used for Kincaid Park, which occupies the land.