Earl Close (original) (raw)

Earl Close
415 East Glenhurst Drive
Tucson, AZ 85704
(520) 742-3467
eclose1010@aol.com

28 August, 2004

Ed Thelen
821 Neon Terrace
Fremont, CA 94536

Dear Ed;

Here is the "junk" I offered. A little background: Enlisted in an AAA 90mm gun unit New York National Guard at the ripe old age of 16 in 1948. In late 1950 sent to 6 month Master Gunner School in Ft Bliss. Helped lay out the Pittsburgh, PA defense and place 3 90mm Battalions there. Direct commissioned 2nd Lt 1952. Stayed in the Guard and when they started taking over the Nike Sites, went full-time in the Guard Technicial Program in September 1959.

Trained at the Hamburg dual Nike Ajax site BU-52, Niagara-Buffalo Defense. This site had no radar towers - radars were on 5' mound of dirt. The site closed early 1960's and Town of Hamburg took over. IFC was Parks and Recreation, Launcher area was vehicle maint and casemates were filled with trash/garbage. People living nearby entered lawsuits claiming illness from the pollution of water from casemates in the 1980s.

Winter/Spring-1960 - Nike Ajax Package Training at Ft. Bliss (my Btry D, 106th Arty, scored 4th out of 56 units, Regular and Guard that went through Ajax Package, and our Battalion, 106th, ranked 1st of all Battalions).

Returned to Niagara Buffalo and I took command of the dual Ajax site at Orchard Park BU-34 on 7 Aug 1960. Pictures enclosed. This site was closed 23 Oct 1962. A Hospital in Buffalo took over the IFC area as a research site for a few years. In 1989 in the IFC area most of the buildings and radar towers were still up, by 1999 the only thing remaining was the paved road. In 1989 and 1999, the Launching area Barracks/BOQ was a family home with part of the barracks made into a garage. All other buildings were gone, casemates welded shut and covered with a foot of dirt and growing up with brush. Parts of original blue-print and data sheets enclosed. Note that at one time they considered family housing at this site.

14 Feb 1961 At Short Notice Annual Practice (SNAP) we fired Ajax Missile #5808. Enclosed is the Event Recorder tape of that shoot. The Event Recorder was above the switchboard in the BC van and recorded all the key data elements during an engagement. Enclosed is copy of the Nike Missile Firing Report and copies of the horizontal and vertical plotting board traces of that shoot. These documents are typical for each missile firing.

Nov 1962 - April 1963 Back to Ft Bliss for Nike Hercules Package training. I took command of BU-18, Lancaster Nike Hercules site 19 April 1963. Photos enclosed. Note this site also housed a Battalion Headquarters along with the Firing Battery.

Later on a Target Ranging Radar and tower were added, along with another experimental model of long range search radar. In 1966 an above-ground fallout shelter was built in the IFC area. It was all poured concrete 12+ inches thick with an "air-lock" decontamination/entry way. Had double bunk beds and would house about 100 men. The BC and RC vans were moved inside with access to the FUIF room. The launcher area crews were equipped to take cover within the casemates in case of nuclear fallout.

I moved to Bn HQ in May 1964 at BU-18 as Bn S-3 and Maint officer. Retired as Major with 20 years in July 1968 - refused the offer to be CO of a Bn in New York City Defense - burned out and unhappy with people's reaction to Vietnam here at home.

Enclosed are some "news letters" typed up when I was Btry CO at BU-18. Gives you a "picture" of what life was like at unit level - inspections, inspections, inspections!!!

If you have any questions about this stuff, give me a yell and I would be happy to help - (if I can remember)!

[signed]
Earl Close