Photo of the Fort Slocum Nike Battery courtesy of Michael Bender: Defending Gotham: Nike Missile Defenses of the New York Metro Area, 1954-1974

Part of Nike Ring
ROCKET BASE RISING
ON LONG ISLAND SOUND

By Patrick McGowan

(September 16, 1954) Two Nike rocket-launching stations are being built by the Army on Hart Island, 8,000 feet south of Fort Slocum.

Col. Roland Carlson, Slocum commandant, revealed the site as one of a ring of long range anti-aircraft defenses for the metropolitan area. The Army, desiring to ease public concern over the new, powerful weapon, allowed a reporter to inspect the half-completed installation. Once the station is completed and armed it will be on full-time alert.

The launching platforms for the 20-foot, radar-controlled rocket are underground buildings of concrete and steel, 72 feet long, 62 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Only a folding door, 52 feet by 9 feet, is visible on the surface. Below are an elevator platform and storage bins for about 14 Nikes. Behind two reinforced walls divided by three feet of dirt are the personnel quarters.

The New York Corrections History Society: Hart Island Missle Site

A hundred yards from the launching station, separated by a winding road with earth mounds to deflect an explosion or fire, is an assembly and fueling station. Here the four components of the rockets, the takeoff boost-equipment, explosive warhead, liquid fuel, radar head, will be combined.

Farther away are a generator plant, barracks, an administration building, mess hall and supply building.

Resident Eengineer Frank Varipapa of the Michael Contracting Co., Brooklyn,predicts the work will be finished by Oct. 31. The contract was let for $383,000.

Four concrete platforms for radar vans a control center have been prepared at Port Slocum. After detecting an unidentified aircraft; the radar center will track it and notify the launching station. When the craft, if unwelcome, reaches a certain perimeter, a rocket will be launched by remote control.

Mike Lindenwald's Photos

For the firing, the huge doors of the launching station would fold down and the elevator platform would rise with a Nike in vertical position. Seconds after one Nike is fired, another is brought out on the tracks to the elevator platform and raised.

For the peace of mind of nearby residents, there will be no test firing of a Nike, the Army says. Elaborate safety precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of civilians and the military personnel in the underground chambers. The Army points our that the Nike bears a warhead that explodes only while the missile is in flight.