Yes - here are some images: CL-02 - Bratenahl | The Nike Detroit - Cleveland Defense Area Website
Nike base in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
Dunno if it was there for Chicago, or Milwaukee.
My Dad worked there for years.
You mean the Naperville that’s less than 10 miles from the Argonne National Laboratory, the heavily secured nuclear research facility that engaged in classified research throughout the Cold War? That Naperville?
But yeah. Aurora would have been a useful cover.
Only a short drive from my place:
Decades ago my mom casually mentioned “the old Nike missile site” when we passed it, and I wasn’t sure she knew what she was talking about, but she was exactly right.
Bumped because Cecil’s 2005 column is back on the front page.
Summit, NJ, part of the New York ring, is only a few miles from me. Every five years or so one of the local papers will do a where-are-they-now? piece.
Nike Sports Complex located at the corner of Mill St and Diehl Rd in Naperville is not named for the shoe company. This was the launch area for site C-70. The control area was located at the current BP corporate campus on Warrenville Rd between Washington and Mill Streets.
In Cleveland, silos were dug in Bratenahl; one silo is currently used to house main computer system for DFAS
Bratenahl
one silo houses computer system for DFAS
Ye Olde Wikipedia. I used to play/roam around as a kid at Site NY 93/94 in Ramsey/Mahwah. The site turned into a mega McMansion development in the 1990s though. My county has a really good historical site about them.
At the bottom of the page is a link to work of historian Donald E. Bender, who has other good reads on the Nike Hercules system. Between that, and our former/current nuclear weapons’ stockpile, I am amazed we got of the Cold War alive.
Tripler
Child of that Cold War.
I think I said this in another thread but I remember the one next to Elizabeth Township High School very well. It was one of the popular make-out spots for us kids even though bits of it were still in use in the early 70s.
“Did the world explode for you too, honey?”
We were talking about Summerfest (MKE music fest), and I mentioned to a student that I remember when it was moved to a former Nike missile base. She got scared: “When did Nike make missiles?!?”
From Wikipedia:
*The inaugural Summerfest was held in July 1968 at 35 different locations throughout the city (including Milwaukee County Stadium and Milwaukee Arena), and its events ranged from concerts to a film festival, an air show, and even a pageant…
In 1970, a permanent central location was decided upon, and Summerfest moved to a former Nike missile site on the lakefront, where it continues to be held to this day.*