Veterans
plan reunion at Alvarado missile base
Christopher Amos
The Alvarado Star Sept. 26, 2010
Christopher Amos
The Alvarado Star Sept. 26, 2010
Farm-To-Market
Road 1187/E. Davis Road, used to have a different name as it wound east out of
downtown Alvarado. The view was different, too.
The road, which now meanders past Alvarado Elementary South and Alvarado Intermediate School, was known as Nike Base Road, and less than two miles from downtown one could see as many as 18 two-stage war rockets pointing to the sky 100 yards south of the road.
The road, which now meanders past Alvarado Elementary South and Alvarado Intermediate School, was known as Nike Base Road, and less than two miles from downtown one could see as many as 18 two-stage war rockets pointing to the sky 100 yards south of the road.
Such show of force so close to home was commonplace for residents of Alvarado in the 1960s – the Cold War was at its peak and America and Soviet forces were flexing their military muscles while keeping a watchful eye out for attacks from each other. In retrospect, it is alarming to look back and know that such a military installation probably put the city in the crosshairs of the Soviet military, or at least on hit list.
If so, the list was long. The United States installed 265 Nike Missile bases across the country beginning in 1953. Most had a similar layout as the Alvarado base with barracks, a basketball court, a helicopter pad, a mess hall, a giant domed Target Tracking Radar and a smaller Missile Tracking Radar raising high above hay fields.
In time, development of mobile missiles and airborne radar made the bases absolute. The close of the Cold War also signaled the end of the need to guard major populated areas such as the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex from air strikes, and Alvarado C-Battery 4th Missile Battalion, 562 Army Artillery Division was closed in 1969.
Age and nature have taken their toll on the site after the base was decommissioned and the missiles, radars and machinery have been removed. However, memories of comrades and life on the base came alive for Alvarado veterans Paul DeGrant and Able Sanchez when arrangements were made with the current property owner to visit the base.
The land is now private property were Jim Hughes and his family have lived since 1989, and Hughes is allowing the vets to host a reunion at the site. Degrant said he expects about 30 veterans to attend.
“This brings back old memories. I could actually cry,” Sanchez said as he walked behind what used to be the mess hall and over to the building that was once his barracks. “I haven’t walked this much since I had my stroke two years ago, but I am so excited it gives me energy. It just makes me feel good being back.”
Inside, Sanchez
walked on cracked tile of the empty
and destitute barrack, wrenched the handle of his cane and held back tears as
he recited the names of his comrades who once bunked near him. Outside,
the veteran recited radar commands he used 42 years earlier.“Regain
beacon. Positive pitch. Negative yaw,” he said as he walked past a large cement
slab were a radar was located.
DeGrant swept his hand across the grounds naming missing structures across the vista – a heliport, a hobby shack where some soldiers worked on remote control cars, a field used for football and soccer, and cement pads where numerous radars once stood. A large radar once rested on an octagon pad large enough for a house and a raised metal platform at the south end of the base once held a sweeping radar.
“This is hallowed ground here for these guys,” DeGrant said. “It is hard to explain. We lived here and we had the responsibility of guarding the United States. There are so many memories and feelings here it is hard to explain.”
The Nike Missiles across the country never had to take down an enemy aircraft or seek and destroy an incoming enemy missile, but they came close. The Cuban Missile Crisis of September 1962 had Americans in fear for their lives and the Nike Bases on full alert. An American U-2 spy plane discovered and photographed Soviet intermediate ballistic nuclear missiles being built on Cuban shores and in range of most U.S. major cities. President John F. Kennedy had a political stand-off with the Soviet leaders and the Cuban missile sites were dismantled.
“We came close,” Sanchez recalled. “That lasted nine days. We were under full alert and everything was fully armed. Guard dogs were everywhere night and day and the dogs were the only ones not carrying live ammunition. It was pretty intense.”
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| The Target Tracking Radar at Alvarado Nike Missile Base, 1966 |
DeGrant swept his hand across the grounds naming missing structures across the vista – a heliport, a hobby shack where some soldiers worked on remote control cars, a field used for football and soccer, and cement pads where numerous radars once stood. A large radar once rested on an octagon pad large enough for a house and a raised metal platform at the south end of the base once held a sweeping radar.
“This is hallowed ground here for these guys,” DeGrant said. “It is hard to explain. We lived here and we had the responsibility of guarding the United States. There are so many memories and feelings here it is hard to explain.”
The Nike Missiles across the country never had to take down an enemy aircraft or seek and destroy an incoming enemy missile, but they came close. The Cuban Missile Crisis of September 1962 had Americans in fear for their lives and the Nike Bases on full alert. An American U-2 spy plane discovered and photographed Soviet intermediate ballistic nuclear missiles being built on Cuban shores and in range of most U.S. major cities. President John F. Kennedy had a political stand-off with the Soviet leaders and the Cuban missile sites were dismantled.
“We came close,” Sanchez recalled. “That lasted nine days. We were under full alert and everything was fully armed. Guard dogs were everywhere night and day and the dogs were the only ones not carrying live ammunition. It was pretty intense.”
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