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The Seattle area was host to eleven Nike missile batteries between 1954 and 1974. The Nikes were surface-to-air missiles(SAMs) operated by the U.S. Army and Army National Guard. Had the Cold War erupted into nuclear conflict, these sites would have provided a last line of defense against enemy (Soviet) bombers if interceptor aircraft failed to stop them.
The Nike sites were divided into the Integrated Fire Control (IFC Areas) and Launcher areas:
The IFC area typically contained radar, trailers with control consols and the computer, generators, barracks, and a mess hall, among other things. The "brain" of the site, as one Army public affairs film put it, the IFC areas had the responsibility of finding and tracking possible targets, differentiating between friend and foe aircraft(IFF Interrogation), ordering the launch of missiles, and guiding the missiles to their targets.
The Launcher area assembled, maintained and launched the missiles. It contained two or three underground concrete magazines, 4 missile launchers per magazine, missiles, a missile assembly building, a warheading building, a liquid fueling structure (Nike Ajax), and a launch control trailer. A motor pool and a recreation court were attached to one of the areas.
The two areas were connected by a set of cables, and were no closer than 1000 yards but within "line of site." Both were protected by a security fense topped with three strands of barbed wire, armed sentries, and sometimes guard dogs. The men of the IFC areas and the men of the launcher areas typically did not mingle much. According to one veteran, the IFC men felt the launcher men were primative sub-human brutes, and the launcher men felt the IFC men were wimpy nerds.
For more information about Nike missiles and sites in general, please see the "Links" section.
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