A Battery: The R-28 Nike Missile Base in Jeffersonville, GA
21 AUG 08 revision. Ten Years and Counting! Thanks to all who made this possible.
WMAZ-TV's Controlled Explosion story
Photo courtesy WMAZ-TV
R-88, along with R-28 near Jeffersonville, defended Robins Air Force Base from enemy attack until it was decided to simplify force structure, divert assets to Vietnam, and because ballistic missiles were the predominant threat to SAC bases (Robins had B-52 bombers stationed up until 1983)
The Nike Hercules was a more reliable version of the older Nike Ajax. It resembled a cone with four cylinders shoved up its behind.
The Nike Hercules had a 75 mile range according to the Redstone Arsenal. Thus at the Byron base it could defend an area from Athens to Albany to Vidalia GA. Targets as high as 25 miles could be downed. Its altitude was 150,000 feet. The speed was Mach 3.65. The Improved Hercules added measures against jamming. An anti-missile variant, Nike Zeus, was tested but not fielded. Fortunately the only firings of the Nike Hercules were practice rounds against remotely controlled drones at SNAP (Short Notice Annual Practice) sessions in Texas.
The missile was powered by solid propellants. It was manufactured by Douglas (now Boeing) Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, CA. Booster propulsion came from Hercules Powder Company and the sustainer was from Thiokol Chemical Company. Guidance came from Western Electric Company.
Either conventional fragmentation or nuclear warheads were carried. Nuclear warheads were designed to obliterate entire formations of bombers. 33 missiles were stockpiled on the site with 12 readied to launch
Dimensions were 41 feet in length and 31.5 inches in diameter. Wingspan was 6 feet, 2 inches. Guidance was command-based; that is, the radars tracked the missile and the target and by using computers arranged a bumpy relationship with missile and target by vectoring in the missile.
The R-88 base (R is the military designation for the area missiles were protecting) was where Nike Hercules air defense missiles were stationed along with 160 or so Army personnel from 1960-1966. It was the first above-ground Nike Hercules base constructed by ARADCOM (Army Air Defense Command) in the United States.
B-Battery, 4th Battalion, 61st Artillery (now Air Defense Artillery) Regiment, operated the base under command of battalion commander Colonel Thorpe C. Grice and Captain John Poston. R-88 was protected by armed guards, a ten foot fence, and security dogs. It stood up for operations on December 16, 1960. It was constructed by the Savannah District Army Corps of Engineers and Five Boro Construction Company of New York. Cost of constructing it and the Jeffersonville battery was 1.5 million dollars (1959 dollars) according to
news articles. The base closed in spring 1966.
Then R-88 became home to a metal plating firm, a tree farm for Armstrong World Industries, a propane tank farm, and Pyrotechnics, Inc. (who makes explosive devices for the military).
The base can be seen just outside Byron on Boy Scout Road . Visitors can take the Hartley Bridge Road exit off 1-75, go west , and keep going until a mile from the Crawford County line. Once past the gas station, they can go up Boy Scout Road and will approach Juniper Creek Road a mile before coming to the rundown neighborhood near Byron's city limits.
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Building 11 on the site map. This is the guard shack on the north side of the gate. . . |
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Building 2. This was the enlisted men's quarters. |
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The basketball court housed an LP gas tank until summer 2002. |
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Right Rear Side of IFC |
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Southwest corner of the IFC area |
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The picture below shows the TTR and MTR towers and a faint image of the TRR tower.
Turning onto Juniper Creek Road you will come to a forested area that reveals three towers. One squatty, big tower is the target ranging radar (10) and the other two slender concrete towers are missile tracking and target tracking radar towers. A mile down the road reveals Pyrotechnics, Inc, where various mounds are seen.
This was for the protection of the surrounding area in case the missiles blew up. 1.5 foot-thick concrete pads nestled between the mounds housed the missiles.
Byron is located near the Robins Air Force Base Museum of Aviation and Macon. There is an outlet mall near Byron as well as motels and restaurants.
Its sister site, R-28, housed Battery A. It was likewise closed in spring 1966 and was recently used by the Twiggs County Rescue Squad, who inherited it from the Twiggs County Board of Education. It is in more pristine shape than R-88. It can be reached off the Georgia 96 exit off Interstate 16. Today ) the IFC is almost overgrown with small trees. It is being demolished for an industrial park.
The buildings and radar towers surrounded by framework point it out to passers-by. From left to right are the MTR tower, TRR tower, the HIPAR tower site, and the TTR tower.
Click here for an article on the site with an enhanced photo of the entire base.
Enhanced version of construction aerial picture from 1961. Courtesy Gates Scoville, who was a 1LT at the base.
He notes on 07 June 01 in an email:
As to the MTR and TTR towers, what determined their height was the lay of
the
land. If the launchers were visible from the IFC at close to ground
level,
the towers were short, squatty foundations. If not, then they
went up as
high as needed to get line of sight, so there was no set
configuration. Most
were rather short.
The building on the forward left inside the front gate was the Administrative building. To the right was a barracks. Behind the Admin building was a barracks with bachelor officers' quarters. The mess hall was across from this building. The Battery Control trailers lay behind these near the generator building.
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A close up of the Administrative building. Twiggs County School Board offices were here. |
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The front gate of the IFC area. ARADCOM attempted to make the bases acceptable to residents with landscaping |
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This is the rear side of the enlisted barracks building. |
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The bachelor officers lived in this building to the right. The MTR tower is to the left. |
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These are the TTR, (barely seen) TRR and MTR towers. |
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Here is the generator building and the water tank. |
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The TRR tower and MTR tower from side of fence. |
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Here is the basketball court. The rims are gone but all else is still left. At the back corner is a small marker from USACE Savannah with a "jail or fine" message on it. |
The launch area is reached by going down the frontage road to the command center, going two miles and making two rights. A private resident lived in the building near the guard shack with his doggie.
Right side of front gate. The guard shack is gone but the enlisted barracks remain.
Left side of front gate. The day room and orderly rooms were in this building. The rear building was the IFC Crew Barracks.
Left side of front gate
Distance shot of front gate
West side
Rear of IFC
West corner
A road can be seen going back into the woods. Incidentally, a Gap Filler
military radar site is listed for Jeffersonville.
Here is the Gap Filler Site as of February 19, 2003
This is a front view of the control center. For more see Radomes.org. These Gap Filler sites, well, filled in the gaps of conventional warning radars. The base functioned from 1962-1967. It is off GA 96 on Walters Road between US 23 and Interstate 16.
This is a side view of the facility
" Nike Bases Going Up" The Macon Telegraph, 2/22/59
" Byron Nike Missile Base Designated As Operational" The Macon Telegraph, 12/17/60
"Missile Pads Recall Era of Cold War" The Macon Telegraph 2/26/84, p. 1B and 2B
Thanks to SP4 James Earnhardt of R-88, Gates Scoville (1LT at R-28 when it opened), Charles Carter (also of R-28), Mr. Dick Sanders, COL George Finley, and "THE MAN"- Ed Thelen and "The Professor" -Don Bender for their valuable contributions.
Ed Thelen's Nike Hercules Page
(Don Bender and Mr. Thelen have been very helpful.)Nike
Missiles and
Missile Sites Don
Bender has done much research into the Nike programs, especially in New Jersey.
George's Cold War History Page. George has tons of links to air defense, BOMARC, NORAD, the Pinetree Line , the DEW line, and SAGE. Don't know what those are? Click on the link. George is now deployed with the 48 BCT, Georgia Army National Guard, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Donations are needed for our fighting people; visit Anysoldier.com!
The ABM Page. Has info on what came (or is to come) after Nike Hercules. From Zeus to "Star Wars"
Radomes.Org for all relating to radar early warning history.
Turner Field (now a Miller brewery) in Albany, GA had two Nike sites.
Here are some pictures from January 2004 of Turner Air Force Base
.
The intown area and Sylvester areas had Nike Hercules missile sites. I took some pictures of the IFC and launcher area in Sylvester. The IFC is now a nursing facility and the launchers now house a junkyard
