Old Cold War Missile Base | interesting place

USA / Florida / Leisure City /
 interesting place  Add category
 Upload a photo

This location is now a day care for the Turkey Point employees, but during the Cuban Missile Crisis this was a missile site. (Likely HAWK missiles)
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   25°26'46"N   80°21'11"W

Comments

  • It now belongs to the FPL and is houses such things as a daycare for children of the employees working at Turkey Point.
  • This was a site for Nike Hercules Anti-Ballistic Missiles. It was established in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The site was decommissioned in 1969 and fell into disuse until the early 1980's when FPL acquired the site as a recreation and day care center for its employees.
  • Nike Hercules were designed and deployed to counter manned bombers, NOT ballistic missiles. Lighten up, spell-cop!
  • I am dubious that this is an old Nike missle site. Nike sites were always split into 2 areas, a launcher area that contained the missle magazines and launch rails, and a command and control area that contained the radars, launch and guidance controls, and admin buildings. These 2 areas were always separated by at least a mile so that the slew rate of the radars could keep up with the missle as it came off the launcher. If this was a nike site, I would expect to see *another* abandoned site within a radius of a mile or so from here and I see none. On the other hand, there are 3 abandoned HAWK missle sites down around the NAS Key West base. The roads in this base also display the fan shaped arrangement that is commonly seen on HAWK sites, so I think it's more likely this is an old HAWK missle site.
  • It was an I-Hawk site, A Battery 3rd Battalion 68th Air Defense Artillery, spent close to 22 months there back in 1977-1979.
  • Correction, This was B Battery 3 Battalion 68th, A Battery is north of Black Point.
  • For complete and accurate information on the exact location, mission, and current status of the former Nike sites in south Florida, go to www.Nike252.org
  • Hawk TCA corrected himself and is correct. I was B battery, I was there in the 65, the battalion was different then. I later went to D battery which was closer to everglades park.
  • 24E77-B Btry,3rd BN, 68 th ADA. HAWK>> IHAWK; I recall the canal and a failed Ray Ban commercial filmed there in "77. The radars (PAR,CWAR,ROR,HiPAR were on 25-30 ' towers.
  • Check that: In ROK all of "77, There Jan of '78 - Aug (ETS)
  • I used to ride by that site on my bicycle as a kid. You could see the guys in uniform out there at the gate. I think they called it a HAWK missile site. Might have been HIRK. Whatever that all meant. We used to see the F-4 Phantoms out of Homestead all of the time as well.
  • It was B Battery Hawk missiles near the Turkey Point power plant. I was one of the tactical control officers there from 1968-1969. The road going into Florida City was 2 lanes wide and when the power plant employees got off in the afternoon, it was like the Indianapolis Speedway, where you would get blown off the road if you were going slower than 80 mph.
  • Mr crider,do you recall Lt Montgomery. I was with B btry from May 68 to Dec 68 before being sent to schwienfurt Germany.I was a hawk msl lnchr mech. Skip mcCutcheon....
  • Taking a trip down memory lane for sure! Stationed the B Battery @ Turkey Point from 1973 - 1975. Spent 7 years of my 14 total in HAWK. Yep, remember the canal (netted some shrimp at times), as well as kicking a few land crabs. During my time in HAWK, the Homestead duty was our most enjoyable. Things change but glad to see the old TAC Site is being used for some good. --- Rick Crane
  • Show all comments
This article was last modified 12 years ago