Jack's Army, Nike Missile experience
• About Jack's days as Battery Control Officer (BCO) for Nike Ajax anti-aircraft and Nike Hercules , nuclear-armed anti-air, anti-missile, ground-ground missiles.

In this record of my tarnished past, I am here responding to my lately found cousin, Ron, about my age, who had been a GE electronics engineer until retired.

To: Ron Haack <
cookierhh@verizon.net >

----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:jbt@truher.net >Jack Truher
To: <mailto:cookierhh@verizon.net >Ron Haack
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: GE toxic coolant and my Nike weekend missile days

Your hazardous materials experience, Ron, reminds me of my days as Battery Control Officer (BCO) for
Nike Ajax anti-aircraft and Nike Hercules , nuclear-armed anti-air, anti-missile, ground-ground missiles. These hundreds of sites were active only from 1954-1963, exactly my time for training and execution. The national effort was ultimately determined as unworkable, too expensive, and more provocative than disarmament. I found a web site today which includes some "alumni" email address for the sites where I serviced: SF-31, Lake Chabot / Castro Valley where I was Executive Officer; and SF-51, Milagra/Pacifica where I was Site Commanding Officer for 6-8 months as a civilian National Guard placeholder without troops while the actual battery personnel were in training in Texas. Expensive it was, and in some ways preposterous. These sites were all in line of sight with local suburban homes. The radar and control centers were exposed in unprotected trailers to coordinated enemy rifle attack that would have crippled the intended ground to air defense response.

I was called to World War III duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and later at a missile firing, training mission in Fort Bliss (El Paso), Texas, during the week that U.S. Pres John Kennedy was killed, November 1963.

Then I was impressed by the Berkeley Free Speech movement a year later. And the rest is history.

When I began my so-called career at SLAC, Stanford, I was immediately impressed again that the so-called management at SLAC was amateurish and incompetent by comparison to the U.S. Army whose officers of my experience, who were by comparison competent, capable, and efficient to a degree that would have made my Prussian ancestors proud.

Ajax fluids include: Missile sustainer motor: JP4 aviation fuel and; hypergolic starter fluid 1.) Aniline/furfuryl alcohol. 2.) Dimethyl-hydrazine. 3.) <http://home.sport.rr.com/nikeajax/35.htm >Red fuming nitric acid. Red fuming nitric acid was the last starter fluid used.

• Ron responds:

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 19:25:04 -0500
From: Ron Haack <
cookierhh@verizon.net >
Subject: Re: GE toxic coolant and my Nike weekend missile days
To: Jack Truher <
jbt@truher.net >
X-ELNK-AV: 0

ah, yes, good old
Dimethyl-hydrazine. I used that in high school as a class demo, mixing it, I believe, with nitric acid, to show how Werner von Brown would power the moon launch. Lucky I and the class are still alive. Could have been worse, my best friend's demo was welding of railroad ties using only a drop chemical mixture - almost set the instructor on fire!! he,he, the good old days, when we thought ourselves indestructible. Thank God now for "inertia".

• some of same links at top of this page (in order)

http://www.nikemissile.org/Ajax.htm

http://ed-thelen.org/l

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-14.html