I was advised that a FAX to the commanding general was the proper method of requesting access to a firing. So I sent a hopefully appealing FAX to "General Papadomanolakis, Commanding Officer - NAMFI - FAX 30 821 66055". I requested "permission to:

First I got an old fashioned room (no phone, water, air conditioner) with a beautiful view of the old harbor of Hania. Then I discovered that it was damn hot, I needed a shower right now - not after the sun warmed up the water tank - and that I desperately needed a phone to try to find out how to get a pass and to contact friends and to receive phone messages. So I moved to a soulless hotel with many conveniences.

I still did not have a pass, only a letter saying that I could get a pass. On Tuesday, the day before the shoot, I got connected up with the correct security office that had a copy of the letter from the general. I went, after some more random searching, to the correct Head Quarters and to the security office. While getting the pass, I was advised that the firing would be on Wednesday between 9:00 and 12:00 A.M., but that I could only stay one hour - I could pick the hour. This was worrisome to say the least!

I drove back down the big hill to the civilian airport bookstore and read of the WW-II battle to keep the Germans off of Crete, and the battles by the Cretans and the British against the German occupation. Brutal!

At exactly 10:45 I was again at the NAMFI viewing area front gate. I acquired a silent escort who could speak English - but did not wish to get drawn into conversation with me.

I drove about 150 meters further, going further up and around a bend. There was a building with a general's car in front (little red flags attached to the front bumper). I parked along side the building. We got out of the car and I put my camera equipment over my shoulder.

WHAT?? No camera allowed?? No document said specifically that I could use a camera - so the camera stayed in the car! Bother!

We went maybe 70 meters further up the road to the visitor's viewing building. A Spartan concrete structure with maybe 150 seats in about 8 steep rows as in a big screen theater - but instead of a big screen there was a set of very large windows with a GREAT view of the launching area maybe 150 meters below and 800 meters away. The window glass seemed very good as checked by moving my head from side to side.

Down there, to the front left, were 3 Nike launchers, erect, each with a Hercules missile, with enough side rail to hold one extra missile. The extra missiles were much closer to the erect missiles than at SF-88 and at the Nike site that I had worked at. Maybe experience has shown that extra missiles can be much closer to the launcher, and not be disturbed much by the booster blast? NAMFI Nike Launchers from Rolf Dieter Görigk 53 K bytes There was other equipment, some of which looked like Hawk illuminator radars.

The "theater" was almost empty. There were about 6 people in uniform (not including my escort who was in fatigues) and 2 others in civilian clothes. Every one was in the back two rows - so I sat there also. It was very quiet - no one talked - after several minutes I figured that I wanted to be low and in the front to see the higher angle part of the Nike flight.

I signed to my escort that I wanted to move further down, and he nodded. Soon I was holding out my arm and sighting along the automobile key to try to guess the distance to the 40 foot high Hercules missile and booster. The silence continued. I was trying to remember how to figure my arm length, key size, and elementary trig - my brain refused to help. Suddenly I heard "Captain, Captain" and felt eyes on the back of my neck. I turned around. One of the people in military uniform was interested in my attempt at my attempt at estimating the distance. We started talking, and soon the other civilians were also talking about many things. I moved back to the back row. We talked in a happy manner for maybe 10 minutes when a radio (limited audio bandwidth sort of thing) burst forth loudly. Apparently there was a computer problem somewhere and things were on hold for a while.

Soon I was trying to sneak a peek at my watch - hoping that my escort had forgotten about time. More talk. It seems that the guy in the military uniform who was talking (the others were dead silent) was our host - a Public Relations (PR) type of person - who definitely was not a technical person (or covered it up well). A quick phone call and cookies and coke arrived. The people in civilian clothes said they were accountants, doing an "audit" on NAMFI. (I presume looking to see that money was being spent in an effective manner.) One worked for the Canadian government and one for the U.S. government. It developed that the U.S. guy was based out of San Francisco, which explained why he knew about that area in detail, and was so curious about the exact location of SF-88 (just north of San Francisco). We even talked software and year 2000 situations.

At about the end of my hour, the radio burst forth again. Apparently all was going well and launch might be in 10 minutes. My escort did not look worried and I babbled on - hoping that he would be distracted. Five minutes to go - there were side doors to the left and right. I signed to my escort that I wanted to go out to the left side. He looked at the PR officer who seemed to approve - and I was out in the sunshine. The others arrived quickly.

I really wanted to time the various stages, and time the length of time the booster was in the air. (As well as see everything else.) I got to tapping my foot on a one second interval as indicated by my watch - hoping that I could sustain the rhythm when things got exciting. The other civilians and some military people got their cameras ready -

The booster flame was a lovely pink - maybe twice as long as the missile/booster combination - and there is no smoke. (Some of the people who "enhance" Nike images think too much of the space shuttle booster and add smoke. The Nike booster uses smokeless material.)
NAMFI Launch from Rolf Dieter Görigk 32 K bytes, same as on home page

At about 4 seconds, booster separation, and of course I find myself following the booster which is now trailing a lot of white "smoke" (scorched paint?), and not following the missile which seems to be delayed in firing its sustainer motor - ah - there it is - must be the delayed option to permit smaller dead zone and lower altitude operation.

After about 40 seconds, the booster seems to be at its peak and on the way down. Soon there is a puff of white way down range (over the sea) and the booster is falling to land in the sea not far (2000 meters?) away.

WOW!!

About 10 minutes later there is another count down.

With about 5 minutes to launch, an airliner comes (from the airport to the south?) over the west part of our ridge, over the radars, heading north towards Greece (right down range). There must have been some interesting words on the radio as the airliner suddenly does a sharp turn and goes back south towards the airport.

Apparently we go back to 10 minutes and count down again. Up the missile goes - WHAM - the sound hits us. Booster separation - and about 1 second later - the missile explodes right over our heads while the booster continues on as before. DAMN!

I notice that there is white smoke on the outside of the smoky area, and not so much smoke in the middle, a bit like a smoke ring. I guessed that was a sphere of smoke with not much smoke in the middle. So the edges are thick with smoke and looking through the middle traverses less smoke. I did not see any fiery stuff. (Oh yes, there has been a breeze from the north to the south all day.)

The civilians ask what might have happened, and I volunteer that the main things that cause this are:

• Missile tracking radar lost the missile and the missile exploded itself (unlikely)
• Missile refused to steer, and the Nike computer noticed it and sent a burst signal itself.
• Range safety did not like something (a plane blundering into a dangerous area?, almost anything) and issued a burst command.

At no time did any of the military men (other than the PR man) say a word.

One more Nike to go -

This launch goes as expected (I still get surprised by the intensity of the sound) even though it does not have the chest shaking intensity of the space shuttle launches. And the booster passes so close to the edge of the cliff between the launcher area and the sea that no splash is seen. The civilians wonder if there is danger. The PR man smiles and says that no boosters have hit the launching area or our area.

I look at my escort and he looks at me - must be time to leave - we have seen more than expected. Back to the car. On the very short drive back to the gate, my escort suddenly talks - there is a fire on the hill to the south maybe 1500 meters away - really? How could that be - I thought the hills looked so dry and barren that there is not enough to sustain a fire. But indeed, there is smoke and little sparkles of red. I figure there must have been a problem at the rock quarry near there.

Down the hill, down through the quarry, down past the little fires, down towards the airport - A fire truck comes up my way. I cannot imagine how the Nike could have caused the fire. I had samples of un-burnt sustainer motor propellant. Surely all of the metal pieces would have cooled to body temperature during the long fall. And the stuff I picked up was from an area about a kilometer to the north. (Still no answer that I am satisfied with.)

Return the clip-on pass. --- Later that evening, people at the hotel who have helped me ask what happened. Did the missile really pass by some people on the beach. Sounds as though the Greek news services can be even as creative as the American news services.

The next day, I get an English language paper published in Athens, and it seems to have a reasonable description of the events. I am about to credit them with good sense - but then realize that it is basically the press release from NAMFI. Well - OK the newspaper did add "punch" to the headline.

That is basically the end of the NAMFI story - except that I did get my souvenirs of metal fragments 77 K bytes and sustainer fuel 63 K bytes back to my home.

Here is a map 113 K bytes map of the Hania part of Crete, showing NAMFI Range in blue, The image of a church is a monastery, the omega above it indicates a cave. No beaches are marked on this map. There is a beach on the north side near Marathi.

I notice in the "US Army Air Defense Digest, 1972" that the T-1 engagement simulator could also be used to simulate a target well enough to shoot at it - and that many training firings were conducted using the T-1 simulator instead of a real aircraft. This was regarded as a real cost saving feature. It is my impression that the T-1 was used to provide the NAMFI targets. I know nothing about the T-1 system and I have no idea how well this target simulation works. (I would guess that if the Target Tracking Radar was badly bore-sighted, that the simulation would look OK anyway.

I went back into town and picked up 5 shoulder patched that resembled this image (50K bytes, sent by Ken Adams) for Bud Halsey's Nike Museum.

I did some more sightseeing in Crete and Athens, talked with a writer and an editor for the Greek magazine "Modern Air Force & Navy" who had been very helpful to me. They are very interested in the missile that burst overhead - they want to get the story straight. They have heard a number of versions. I try to be helpful.