ARADCOM Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Slandgsmith: This one is indeed missing....the general area has really overgrown since I placed this one here.....gonna open up this area for future caches...

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Hidden : 5/29/2007
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Tucked away off of Curtis Boulevard lies some interesting history!

This is one of the former NIKE-Ajax missile defense sites. This launch area is now used by the Willoughby-Eastlake School District for the maintenance and parking of it's school buses. Talk about turning swords into plowshares!

History of project NIKE:

During World War II the United States military began to experiment with rockets and missiles. While anti-aircraft guns had been reasonably effective against air attacks on London, it was evident to the United States Army officials that the speeds and rates of maneuver of jet-propelled aircraft would quickly surpass the capabilities of ground fired shells. In 1944, Jake Schaefer, an ordinance officer in the United States Army formerly employed by Bell Laboratories, advocated the development of a surface-to-air missile. Schaefer’s ideas were presented in a paper he wrote for the Army in which he conceptualized a command guidance system composed of radar that would track the defending missile from it’s point of launch. The computer would calculate the place of impact and command the missile by radio to intercept the target. The Army called the system anti-aircraft Guided Missile (AAGM) until Colonel Trichel, director of advanced research for the Army, renamed the project NIKE for the Greek goddess of victory.

Air Defense of the United States in 1950 consisted of radar-directed 90mm and 120mm anti-aircraft guns placed in cities during World War II under the control of the National Guard. These guns were deployed around and in major cities and ports of the United States. New York and Washington had four battalions; Chicago had three battalions; Philadelphia, Detroit and San Francisco had Two; Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles had One. While little was done to actively provide strategic defense for the United States from 1945 to 1950, the invasion in 1950 of South Korea by North Korea with the aid of Soviet tanks and artillery spurred new concern for anti-aircraft research. In addition to the Korean War, the ability of the Soviet Union to attack the Continental United States over the North Pole or over the seas against either coast coupled with their demonstrated testing of the hydrogen bomb in 1949 spurred the United States Army to establish a nationwide defense system to protect against Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. The adversarial relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States became known as the Cold War and spurred the development and deployment of the NIKE system.

Beginning in 1953, NIKE was deployed first on the East and West Coast and then in the interior of the United States. More than 4000 missiles were installed. Many went into old anti-aircraft gun sites, however, the 25 mile range of the NIKE missiles allowed the batteries to be placed further from the potential targets. This allowed more time to shoot at the incoming bombers. America’s suburbs became sites of the NIKE Ajax, the first technological advance in the conversion of the United States air defense from artillery to guided missiles. Due to the extensive nature of the NIKE Ajax, the next generation missile, the Hercules, was designed to fit into the existing system. A bigger, more powerful missile with a longer range, the Hercules system was capable of being fitted with nuclear as well as conventional warheads. The Hercules system was first deployed in 1959 and by 1960, most Ajax missiles had been replaced by Hercules. Development of yet another NIKE missile system, the Zeus, began in 1958. Equipped with a more efficient radar system than either the Ajax or Hercules, the Zeus was never activated; however, many of the systems developed in its research were used in later anti-tactical ballistic missile systems. After 1960, technology developed relating to ballistic-missile defense (BDM) made the NIKE system obsolete, although it was not entirely decommissioned until 1974.

More information can be found here: (visit link)

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