Nike Hercules or HAWK Missiles Germany

[MBDiagMan]

I saw a thread started asking if anyone else had served on the same ship, so I thought I’d try the same thing for us Army Missile Geeks.

I trained for maintenance of the Nike Hercules missile, launcher and nuclear warhead at Fort Bliss in 1968 & 1969. Went to Germany in May 1969. After a year I was sent to a HAWK unit in Germany where I cross trained to the pulse radar and fire control maintenance side.

Any fellow Army air defense missile geeks on here?

[Transom]

Not me but I have worked with more than a few veterans that used to be Hawk techs. Most of them served in Germany.

[MBDiagMan]

So do you live near Huntsville?

[illinifish]

There is a old Nike missile base Near my clubhouse. They converted a section of it into a vocational center. The Launch site sits on a hill and Still has fence around it.

[MBDiagMan]

Yes in the sixties into the seventies, all metropolitan areas in the US were protected by the Nike system. Too bad there was no missile defense on 9/11.

[Bamazona]

I was Pershing 1a and II. The Nike Herc and Hawk schools were still going strong at Redstone when I was a kid. Hawk was still being taught when I went active duty, but the Nike system has phased out by then. Hawk was practically next door to our schoolhouse.

[Warhawk]

Where were you in Germany? I was at Bitburg from ‘86-‘88. We had a hawk missile battery there, my downstairs neighbor was in the missile unit, I was USAF.

[MBDiagMan]

My Herc assignment was at Pforzheim near Stuttgart. My HAWK was at Hanau on a historic Nazi kaserme called Fliegerhorst. I think our battalion had a Battery at Bitburg, but I’m not sure.

[Don333]

I was in the 5/30th FA in Vicenza Italy from 1970 to 1975. It was a Sergeant Missile Unit. Fell under SETAF. Southern European Task Force. But we called it Something Even The Army Forgot. Went to the Island of Crete to fire missile live. Went out 75 miles and hit target dead on. The good ole days.

[Jeffth]

Didn't work on the missiles, but my USAF mobile radar unit was based on an old NIKE site, 1989 to 1991, before we were closed down during the "peace dividend" after the wall came down. We were located just outside of Zweibrucken, Germany and used to do training deployments to another abandoned site at Eisenhut.

[MBDiagMan]

I went to Crete three times while in Herc. Went there twice to fire at a drone and went TDY to do maintenance.

[ameneddie]

My son is a Patriot Missle operator in the Army now.

[BASS2277]

For the life of me I can not remember the post but I played golf were a hawk site was on the course three holes wrapped around it hope someone else did too and can remember where

[MBDiagMan]

The Patriot is a modern system that replaced HAWK and several others. Herc was obsoleted early because others figured out how to defeat it. HAWK stands for Homing All the Way Killer. It homes on jam so it was more difficult to defeat with ECM’s.

[rdoubledog]

My HAWK was at Hanau on a historic Nazi kaserme called Fliegerhorst.

I know those posts very well and was a part of the shut down crew for most of them.

[mactlman]

my son was in Europe for a year recently for a ADA stint assigned to nato--he isn't on here though. he has been ADA since he commissioned 4-17

[Booster]

I was ADA. Short range forward air defense. '76-'80. I had SP Vulcans, Redeyes (1st Cav) then Chaparrals (2nd ID). Ft Bliss, Ft Hood, Wildflecken Germany, and Camp Stanley Korea.

[HalBrown]

Ahh, the old Nike. I was in package 20 at Ft Bliss trained on the Nike Ajax. After training we went to Detroit to convert the 504th 90mm sky sweep battalion to Nike Ajax. I was in Battery B and we set up on the deserted Naval Air Station in Flat Rock, MI while our new underground site in Pontiac, MI was being built. Let's see. that was in December, 1954.

[jschapp2]

Hi Was at Blankenhiem Ahr supporting Belgian site Nike 71-72. Use to go to Biturg for medical and PX shopping. We were about 7 klicks from Belgian border. Love it only about 25 of us in a resort town John

[D.O.C. 989]

I spent 90 days at a Nike Herc site in Grosssaschsinheim Germany near Stuttgart in 1974 as a Military Policeman. I reenlisted to leave that chit hole. The men were nasty drug addicts and the leadership was awful.