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[smbc] ON NORTONS TO NIKES, (with oysters)

*_ON NORTONS TO NIKES, (with oysters)_*

*A RIDE REPORT*
August 5, 2008
By Jerry Grainger

NCNOC

 The sound of the blast from this rocket is loud enough to kill you from 
a quarter of a mile away, if you are not protected.  When taking off it 
breaks the speed of sound within its own length, screaming to 4,000 feet 
in less than four seconds.  Then the first stage booster rockets drop 
off, leaving a white hot chunk of burning debris to fall to earth and 
destroy anything close to it.

But then, if this Nike anti-aircraft missile, with its nuclear tipped 
warhead, is being fired in defense of the homeland, it means that World 
War III is underway, and a few casualties back on the ground are not 
considered that important.   All of this was explained to us by a 
red-capped volunteer, delivered in a staccato monologue, while touring 
the restored Ft. Cronkhite Nike Missile base, just a little ways north 
of the Golden Gate Bridge, out on the Marin Headlands, on a gorgeous 
Saturday afternoon, a quick million miles from our starting point.

 That starting point was on the first Saturday in August, where at least 
a dozen Nortons and other, lesser bikes convened in San Francisco, at 
the Gough Street home of Terry & Donna Morrison.  There we were treated 
to wonderful fresh melon, delicious breads and rolls, fresh coffee and 
juice, and their ever-wonderful hospitality in sharing their lovely old 
Victorian with our Northern California Norton Owners Club.

We departed there before noon for the Marin Headlands, winding through 
the historic Presidio, across the Golden Gate and into Fort Cronkhite, 
and from there to the Nike Missile site.  This place has been carefully 
restored as a legacy site, and is staffed by volunteers on the first 
Saturday of the month, and available for an amazing tour.  Afterwards, 
we rode up the coast for a late lunch at Tony's Oyster Bar, a colorful 
old dive perched out over Tomales Bay.

We were greeted by Park Ranger Roberts, a friendly motorcyclist himself, 
who let us in and provided us with an overview, showing us a campy civil 
defense video from about 1958 to start.  He then invited us to wander 
around this facility and meet the several red-capped volunteers, who 
would introduce us to the various workings of this incredible and 
historically fascinating facility.  Along the way, we learned some very 
sobering facts about the Cold War, and the Strangelove strategies which 
dominated domestic realpolitik and geopolitics in the wake of World War II.

Numerous technical details came fast and furious, and there are some 
excellent links below for more.  The volunteer narrators are all fellows 
who worked at these sites many years ago, when they were operational, 
which was from about 1954 until the SALT talks ended around 1977, when 
the superpowers agreed to stand down their nuclear arsenals.  Hearing 
about the not-too-distant past from these vets, who were youngsters 
working here at the time, is pretty sobering. 

This is a piece of modern history that many of us will remember from 
grade school in the 1950s, when the imminent threat of a nuclear attack 
was to be countered by diving under our desks ("Duck and cover").  In 
San Francisco, the air raid sirens would go off every Tuesday at noon, 
as a test, as well as a reminder.

The bunkers where a battery of six Nike-Hercules missiles are racked is 
a large underground area, accessed by the large elevator platform on 
which the missile is brought up, and then raised into the 87-1/2 degree 
firing position.  When this is demonstrated, it is an awesome sight to 
behold, as the sleek, finned, pinpoint nose climbs ominously and quickly 
up to a height of nearly 50 feet on its launch rail, to dominate the 
immediate horizon, pointing out towards the nearby Pacific Ocean. 

When operational, this whole area was surrounded by multiple-man teams 
with automatic weapons and attack dogs, trained to kill anyone not 
authorized to be there, and no one individual was allowed within the 
perimeter unaccompanied.  Should anyone be caught in the bunker by 
themselves, the dogs would have been loosed on them, as the discharge of 
firearms in this bunker was not encouraged.

Nearby protected radar vans contain the guidance systems, radar screens 
and related equipment for communications with off-site facilities and 
commanding authorities.  The complex and minutely coordinated decision 
to fire was predicated upon the detection of a fleet of Soviet bombers 
coming within 100 miles of our coast, presumably intent on delivering 
nuclear payloads of their own, to rain destruction upon our American Way 
of Life.

These Nike missiles would climb to a maximum altitude of 140,000  feet, 
then be guided down to the level of the attacking forces, intercepting 
them with a high degree of accuracy, and exploding their payload to 
destroy the invaders.  While some payloads were non-nuclear, most were 
equipped with enough fire power to destroy large cities.

 There are also shops and other facilities here for the arming and 
equipping of these weapons, with nearby housing barracks.  
Interestingly, the guard shack protecting the blast area contained two 
life-sized soldier dummies, one of whom had the name tag: "Norton."

 The very most sophisticated gear of thirty to fifty years ago is still 
here, dominated by huge racks and closets of vacuum tubes, in the shadow 
of revolving radar dishes.  Several of our members recalled the use of 
such heavy duty pre-digital equipment in earlier civilian and other 
military applications.

 Tearing ourselves away reluctantly, we made our way up the Coast for 
lunch, encountering a lot of traffic, in order to make our planned meal 
at Tony's.  After oysters, we bade Lorin Guy and Ian Reddy bon voyage on 
their week-long ride further up the coast.  We all made our ways home 
from this point, after greeting Jerry Kaplan from Davis, along with 
Terry & Donna, Liz and Tom, Harry and Isabel, Katherine Guy, Margie 
Siegel, George and Satchi, Len Iosti, Paul Zell, John, Eric and myself, 
and a couple of fellows on Ducs who were along, as was Philippe, early 
on, and don't forget Mike Sullivan at the start, and my apologies to 
anyone whose name I missed.

 If you want to take this highly recommended tour, check the links 
below.  This facility is probably the only one of the two dozen which 
ringed the Bay Area, and a couple hundred which encircled larger 
American cities not so long ago, which has been so thoroughly restored 
and manned by docent volunteers.  It's truly an awesome experience to see.

JPG

 

 

WIKI NIKES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nike

 

NIKE SITES IN S. F. BAY AREA

http://www.acme.com/jef/nike/

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/N-view.html 
<http://alpha.fdu.edu/%7Ebender/N-view.html>

 

VIDEO NJ SITE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOFfdq5m5V0

 

TAKE A TOUR

http://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm