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Locations of Former NIKE MISSILE SITES (text)

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Hawaii

For locations and views, fly in using Google Earth thanks to NikeSiteSearchers
OA-17 Kauka/ Kahuku
OA-32 BellowsAFS/ Waimanalo
OA-63 Ewa/ Makakilo
OA-84 Waialua /Dillingham
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Nike Target Practice in Mokuleia, Hawaii (newspaper from Thomas Page, June 2019)
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"Hawaii Army National Guard Guided Missile Program" - (great map) - by John Bennett - 1.3 MB
"Hawaii Army National Guard Guided Missile Program-draft" - (more meat) -by John Bennett - 7.8 MB
OA-84 "Defense Environmental Restoration Program For Formerly-Used Sites - Inventory Project Report - NIKE SITE No. 1 - (Dillingham Military Reservation) Mokuleia, Waialua, Oahu - Project No. H09HI039110" February 1990 - from {Tamburello, J} Mar 2014 - 17 MByte
Q & A - Oct 2017
Designation General Location Detailed Location (Current Status)
OA-17 Kauka/
Kahuku
C - 2.6 WNW Kahuku, Kawela Camp Rd (US Army; range control facility)
[NikeSiteSearchers Probable (?): GoogleMap (appears to be no longer extant) ]

L - 2.5 NNW Kahuku (US ARMY; Kahuku Army Training Area)
[NikeSiteSearchers Probable (?): GoogleMap (buildings are seen to the NW of launch battery) ]

OA-32
(double)
BellowsAFS/
Waimanalo
[{Page, T} A Bellows Field web site with a Nike site oriented picture ]
C - [{Turner, D}Kamehame] Ridge (US ARMY; abandoned) Hike ]

L - SE corner Bellows AFS ((P) Bellows AFS; PACAF communications facility, DOD recreation facility)
[{Murdock, S} (Nov '99) ... clearly shown on the Comprehensive Plan Base Layout of Bellows Air Force Station, dated 30 Sep 1981 and revised through 30 Oct 1991. It is just inside the main gate, south of the closed airfield and right on the beach. I scanned part of this layout plan and it is attached (note that north is to the left). The launcher is a double (2 rows of 12 launchers), aboveground bermed style. Location is 21-20-52N, 157-42-28W. A separate fenced area west of the launcher compound has four rectangular buildings; two plain and two with a stubby T shape. I believe these are part of the Nike complex; the plain ones are administrative buildings and the T shape are barracks/mess hall buildings (note similar arrangement at OA-63, below).]

OA-63
(double)
Ewa/
Makakilo
C - 2.3 NNW Ewa, Palehua Rd (US Army; abandoned)
[{Page, T}, GoogleMap IFC Site, OA-63C-1: , GoogleMap IFC Site, OA-63C-2: ]

L - 2.3 NW Ewa (US Army; abandoned)
[{Page, T} GoogleMap (Launch Site, OA-63L:) ]
[{Powell, N} A detachment of the 55th Space Weather Squadron (my old unit) is using part of the site for a solar observatory. If you look in a Honolulu phone directory under US Air Force, you will see a listing for Palehua solar observatory - that's the site. Its above Makakilo at the end of Palehua road. There's another site down the hill which appears abandoned. I think the observatory occupies an administrative area. Three of the original buildings are in use: An administration/ops building, this is used by the radio telescope operators (they operate radio telescopes which monitor the sun at 8 discrete frequencies from 200 MHz to 15 GHz), command & administration sections, and main computer software development center, another building appears to be an old mess hall and is used by maintenance, the last building is used for facilities maintenance and is houses the emergency generator. There are some old circular concrete pads around the site which probably had some sort of tracking radar on them at one time. The optical telescope occupies a new building built for that purpose. Its my understanding the site will be shutdown and abandoned some time in the 2002-3 time frame.] Sorry about the length - I'm a sucker for telescopes- Ed Thelen

[{Murdock, S} (Nov '99) Control Site 5: 21-23-11N, 158-06-17W. Buildings shown are a Sentry Box, EM Barracks & Messhall, Administration Building, Flag Pole, Generator Building, HIPAR Building and Antenna, TTR Tower, MTR Tower, ACR Tower, TRR Tower, and Inter-Connecting Corridor.

Control Site 6: 21-22-39N, 158-06-42W, 4.23 acres. Buildings shown are an 18 Man Barracks & Messhall, Administration Building, Sentry Box, Flag Pole, Engine Generator & Frequency Charger Bldg, Inter-Connecting Corridor, and Concrete Pads for TTR, MTR, ACR, and RCT. A separate small parcel (.86 acre) north of this site has a concrete base for Bore Sight Mast.

Administrative Area Launcher Sites 5 & 6: 21-22-06N, 158-06-31W. Buildings shown are two Administration Buildings, two 22 Men Bks & Messhall buildings (similar to OA-32L mentioned above), Sentry Shed, and Flagpole.

Launcher Site 5 & 6: 21-21-50N, 158-06-44W. Buildings include two Sentry Sheds, two Towers [security watch towers], Missile Assembly and Test Bldg, Warhead Bldg, Generator Bldg, and the same launcher layout as OA-32L.

OA-84 Waialua
/Dillingham
C - 5 SW Waialua, Peacock Flat Access Road (USAF training site)
[{Tamburello, J} Mar 2014 - Coordinates are 21°32'45.60"N, 158°11'42.54"W ]

L - 3 WSW Waialua, Dillingham Field ( Dillingham Airport; site abandoned)
[{Tamburello, J} Mar 2014 - Former Nike Administration Site (Pahole Rare Plant Facility) Mokuleia ]
[{Doubleman, P} Sept 2005 - To get to the site (OA-84), go to the airstrip and drive down the access road that is on the mountain side of the runway. A short way down, you will cross a taxiway that goes toward the mountain. Follow the taxiway to a gate. From there, you'll have to walk past the gate and turn almost immediately to your right into the underbrush. You'll go into the exclusion area. No fences. It is totally overgrown with brush. The stream that used to run through the launching area is filled with debris and now floods it. Darn... I used to catch some fine tilapia from that stream. The water is only ankle deep at it's deepest though. The berms are still there as well as some guard rails that used to define the stream. The panel rooms are still in the berms. You could open the doors. Couldn't see any buildings, but didn't spend too much time because it was raining. I used to spend a lot of time at that gate where the picture is taken. ]
[{Page, T} found this web page. (last image) The web master (Stephen) says "It's on Oahu just south of Dillingham Airfield. ... If you look REAL close in the center of the picture you can see the airfield along the beach. ... The site is now being used by a bunch of folks to try to repopulate Hawaiian native plant species. Most of the buildings have been converted into greenhouses or mist rooms or some such things..." ]

A -
[{Tamburello, J} Mar 2014 - Former Nike Administration Site (Pahole Rare Plant Facility) Mokuleia ]

Q & A - Oct 2017
Mark Morgan to JAMES COX
Mr Cox - Ed copied me on your email and his response:

Were the Nikes in Hawaii always the Hercules variant or were there other variants before Hercules?

As Ed indicated, the Nike Ajax preceded Hercules, going into operational service at a tactical site at Fort Meade, MD, in December 1953. The Oahu sites were part of the second round of deployment (which included the addition of several defenses around SAC bases in ConUS) and were Hercules-only.

Were the Nikes in Hawaii ever tipped with nukes or were they all HE frag? (Or was there a mix?) (or were they HE-tipped, with warheads somewhere on Oahu for the eventuality?

The Army never discussed or released information on the mix of HE and nuke warheads in the defense areas, but you can assume the four Oahu sites were nuke-capable.

Were there ever any spares/reloads kept around, either on-site or at an ammo dump (magazine) elsewhere on Oahu?

Each battery had additional missiles ready for reloading and firing. As of yet I haven't run across documentation where/how the missiles on Oahu were stored. Additional missiles may have been stored elsewhere on the island.

If there were Nike ordnance kept elsewhere, was it the Lualualei Naval Magazine, the Iroquois Point naval magazine, or the Waikakalaua Ammo Tunnels vicinity Kunia road? (Or, the Waikele magazine; I know for a fact there was nukes - but don't know what kind and for which service - stored for much of the cold war at Waikele, but not sure if other sites at Oahu had nukes).

Similar answer; as of yet I haven't seen any documentation indicating where the warheads were stored and maintained. The logical site would've been a nuclear-certified facility, such as one of the naval magazines.

Hope this information helps.

Mark Morgan
Rings of Supersonic Steel

Gordon Lunn to James Cox
Ed, some partial answers...

  1. Yes, the Oahu missiles were always Herc. They were not brought up until 1961. And note-they were always National Guard...

  2. Don't know about the warheads, but I would ASSUME mix of Nuke and conventional. Storing Nuke warheads somewhere else makes no sense if you want to be ready to fire...

  3. The "reload" is an interesting question. Since the launcher areas were all above ground, there was no storage available in the sections. Storing reloads on the launcher rails in between launchers doesn't sound safe to me-but again I don't know. I would assume that spare missiles (in the can) and booster fins and warhead sections (in addition to the can) were either stored on each site or in a central storage point for the whole island.
We should ask Howard Crist, who served there before coming to California, but he died a couple of months ago. Let me see if I can find out

Gordon

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Updated June, 2019