My 14 year old son and I went there today. What an amazing adventure! Your video is a great way to show my husband all the cool stuff we saw. I think we found just about all of your landmarks. Thanks for all the thorough information
At 11:44 The missle tracking radar is on the left. On the right is the target acquisition radar if I remember correctly. At 15:58 there were 3 missle sections in the launch area. I was the section chief in section B. We were on "hot" status every third week. Early on, we slept in the pits but our bunks were in the barracks during the rest of the time. The video brings back a lot of memories from 64 years ago.
Great job, you brought back memories as I grew up in Glastonbury and the state forest was a place to explore because of its remoteness and especially the Nike site. Very cool that you were able to film through the openings. In the early 80's, it looked a lot different, the area was vast. Above ground it looked like a long runway. The pits still had steel doors to large rooms underground. Below ground, where the missiles were stored, there were electronics, switch's, etc, pretty sure for elevators to move the missiles . A few years later, it was filled in with dirt and cement to keep us out. Also, not far from here at the top of the Meshomasic mountain trail there was a plane crash in 1959 that is also long forgotten. On its way to Bradley Airport, a C-54 Skymaster crashed on the hillside, there is a small debris pile on the ridge still.
Wow. Awesome Video. Subscribed! I live in a neighboring town, and have hiked through there several times. I've been to each area you showed in this video, but I never went around looking at the pit entrances. Excellent camera work, editing/production.
HA-25 is in Manchester with the launcher site off of the Manchester/Glastonbury line off of Line street. The launcher doors were visible until a few years ago but I believe they had been recently excavated completely. There was also some evidence of launcher site roads and buildings heavily grown over or collapsed. Careful, the Manchester police have a firing range backing up to the launcher site. The radar site is on Hercules drive in Manchester and is mostly intact with buildings repurposed for daycare, ballet school, and an indoor pistol range for residents. The radar platforms are partially intact and some remnants of infrastructure and fencing remain. The town built a rope lift ski area there after the army left and now use the area for baseball under lights. The base housing exists as well but the road that leads to it is cut off now from the former base and you have to get to the former housing from Main Street. The launcher site is right under the high tension power lines (the “line” in “line street”.)
The radar and Barracks is separate from the launching area about a mile... Nike Hercules sets on a launcher horizontally, then hydraulically elevated for launching.
great video!!! , me and a couple of friends went into pit B granted not much to see and we all huddled on the left shore to avoid the water but still a fun time none the less
I'm glad you liked it. I tried to go into pit B, but I was alone and maybe a bit too old for that type of thing. I probably wouldn't have been able to get out again and I would still be there today. Thanks for watching!
Also in the area of this launcher in Glastonbury is the for,wor records vault for the insurance industry continuity of Operations and restart cash / bullion. It was a blast armored vault the scale of NORAD or the Federal reserve bunker in Massachusetts, but is now a business that leases out wine cellar space for wine investors/collectors, high end restaurants and wealthy individuals (perfect for south Glastonbury).
I grew up in Portland in the 70s only a mile away. Never knew much about the site. Thank you so much for sharing. I may need to take a visit. I am trying to figure out where the military neighborhood was that was near there. My friend's dad lived there and I remember a dead end street with a dozen or so Military houses in the early 80s. Also it is my understanding this entire compound would all be in Portland, CT Unless maybe the site spilled into Glastonbury?
I'm not sure where the neighborhood was. However, there is neighborhood visible from the road leading up to the control site. I would guess that may have been the neighborhood. Also, yes, the Control Site is in Portland and the Launch site is in Glastonbury (I think that is correct, it's been a while since I did this video). It's right over the border. Thanks for watching.
I'm glad you liked it. I'll bet the pits are all overgrown right now. I would wait until November and they should be much easier to find. Try not to fall in. Good luck!
Some of these sites the command bunker and the Ajax missile silos along with the ones that had Titan nuclear missiles are still accessible. I live close to the TU (Turner Naval and Robbins Air Force base) sites. The old Albany site is now a luxurious neighborhood with the above ground command center being a drug rehab center now. An Hercules launch platform still exists in a field, but the Ajax platform has been destroyed and the Titan missile silo has been covered with a playground built on top of it. My grandfather who was in the Army in the 50's and 60's took us into it when we where kids. It was nearly completely flooded with ground water. I've been to the Sylvester Georgia site. It's a automobile junkyard now. The Byron Georgia site still has some buildings intact and the command bunker and Ajax launch silo was still accessible. The Jefferson Georgia site, I haven't explored as of yet. I can't even find its general location.
Thanks for watching! Yeah, there are tons of these old missile sites left, or at least parts of them are left. Hopefully I'll get out to see another one some day.
Went there and couldn’t seem to find the bunkers…any chance you remember where they are or what they were near? Found the launch sites but no sign of any bunkers
Thanks for watching. The bunkers are under the launch site. They are probably covered in bushes and leaves this time of the year. If you see the concrete slabs on the ground with the metal plates on top of them, the bunkers are like 10 feet away in the bushes. Be careful not to fall in. Good luck. The coordinates are 41.63170409463354, -72.56277700062998
I went there recently and they are right by the launch pads, but are much harder to pinpoint during the summer apart from a visible trail going in a loop around them. Couldn’t go in the large bunker, however, mosquitoes lined the ceiling of us caught in massive spiderwebs haha…. Probably will try again in the winter when everything is dead
It's kind of hard to tell what direction you are facing when you are there, I think it would be the southern side of the launch site. They are hidden in the trees/bushes next to the long path that heads towards the big open area that's full of broken glass, garbage and firewood. Sorry I couldn't be more specific. Be careful going out there though. You could literally fall into them if you aren't paying attention. Thanks for watching!
![เปิดบ้าน โคตรสวย ป๋องกพล รู้จักตั้งนาน เพิ่งรู้ว่ารวย!!! l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tmgCF_2HfYI/mqdefault.jpg)
My 14 year old son and I went there today. What an amazing adventure! Your video is a great way to show my husband all the cool stuff we saw. I think we found just about all of your landmarks. Thanks for all the thorough information
At 11:44 The missle tracking radar is on the left. On the right is the target acquisition radar if I remember correctly. At 15:58 there were 3 missle sections in the launch area. I was the section chief in section B. We were on "hot" status every third week. Early on, we slept in the pits but our bunks were in the barracks during the rest of the time. The video brings back a lot of memories from 64 years ago.
Wow! I never expected anyone that had been stationed there to see my video! I'm glad you liked it and thanks for watching!
any pictures??!
Great job, you brought back memories as I grew up in Glastonbury and the state forest was a place to explore because of its remoteness and especially the Nike site. Very cool that you were able to film through the openings. In the early 80's, it looked a lot different, the area was vast. Above ground it looked like a long runway. The pits still had steel doors to large rooms underground. Below ground, where the missiles were stored, there were electronics, switch's, etc, pretty sure for elevators to move the missiles . A few years later, it was filled in with dirt and cement to keep us out. Also, not far from here at the top of the Meshomasic mountain trail there was a plane crash in 1959 that is also long forgotten. On its way to Bradley Airport, a C-54 Skymaster crashed on the hillside, there is a small debris pile on the ridge still.
Great video I spent a lot of time at both of these places as a kid 1986 1 have a few pictures of buildings still standing and open pits Great memories
Thanks. Glad you liked it! This was probably one of the more fun videos to make. I love abandoned stuff like this.
Wow. Awesome Video. Subscribed! I live in a neighboring town, and have hiked through there several times. I've been to each area you showed in this video, but I never went around looking at the pit entrances. Excellent camera work, editing/production.
Thanks! I appreciate it!
HA-25 is in Manchester with the launcher site off of the Manchester/Glastonbury line off of Line street. The launcher doors were visible until a few years ago but I believe they had been recently excavated completely. There was also some evidence of launcher site roads and buildings heavily grown over or collapsed. Careful, the Manchester police have a firing range backing up to the launcher site. The radar site is on Hercules drive in Manchester and is mostly intact with buildings repurposed for daycare, ballet school, and an indoor pistol range for residents. The radar platforms are partially intact and some remnants of infrastructure and fencing remain. The town built a rope lift ski area there after the army left and now use the area for baseball under lights. The base housing exists as well but the road that leads to it is cut off now from the former base and you have to get to the former housing from Main Street. The launcher site is right under the high tension power lines (the “line” in “line street”.)
Cool. Thanks for the info!
The radar and Barracks is separate from the launching area about a mile... Nike Hercules sets on a launcher horizontally, then hydraulically elevated for launching.
I passed by it while visiting the deep woods of Portland. Thanks for showing
Thanks for watching!
great video!!! , me and a couple of friends went into pit B granted not much to see and we all huddled on the left shore to avoid the water but still a fun time none the less
I'm glad you liked it. I tried to go into pit B, but I was alone and maybe a bit too old for that type of thing. I probably wouldn't have been able to get out again and I would still be there today. Thanks for watching!
Also in the area of this launcher in Glastonbury is the for,wor records vault for the insurance industry continuity of Operations and restart cash / bullion. It was a blast armored vault the scale of NORAD or the Federal reserve bunker in Massachusetts, but is now a business that leases out wine cellar space for wine investors/collectors, high end restaurants and wealthy individuals (perfect for south Glastonbury).
Interesting! I didn't know that. Thanks for watching!
I grew up in Portland in the 70s only a mile away. Never knew much about the site. Thank you so much for sharing. I may need to take a visit. I am trying to figure out where the military neighborhood was that was near there. My friend's dad lived there and I remember a dead end street with a dozen or so Military houses in the early 80s.
Also it is my understanding this entire compound would all be in Portland, CT Unless maybe the site spilled into Glastonbury?
I'm not sure where the neighborhood was. However, there is neighborhood visible from the road leading up to the control site. I would guess that may have been the neighborhood. Also, yes, the Control Site is in Portland and the Launch site is in Glastonbury (I think that is correct, it's been a while since I did this video). It's right over the border. Thanks for watching.
This is very well done thank you for sharing. I was there 2 days ago looking for the pits but I couldn't find them, will come back after fall!
I'm glad you liked it. I'll bet the pits are all overgrown right now. I would wait until November and they should be much easier to find. Try not to fall in. Good luck!
Excellent job.
Thanks! I hope to have more videos like this after the snow melts!
Excellent video
Thanks!
My head:
"WRITE THAT DOWN, WRITE THAT DOWN"
Check out coldwar-ct.com/Nike_HA-26_Portland.html for most of the info I talked about.
You have a generator room to Supply Power for the launchers.
How did all that dirt get in the underground did the army fill it in? That's terrible
What do you use for camera in the pitts
I strapped a GoPro Hero 8 to a 12 foot boat hook with a flashlight strapped to that. Thanks for watching!
Some of these sites the command bunker and the Ajax missile silos along with the ones that had Titan nuclear missiles are still accessible. I live close to the TU (Turner Naval and Robbins Air Force base) sites. The old Albany site is now a luxurious neighborhood with the above ground command center being a drug rehab center now. An Hercules launch platform still exists in a field, but the Ajax platform has been destroyed and the Titan missile silo has been covered with a playground built on top of it. My grandfather who was in the Army in the 50's and 60's took us into it when we where kids. It was nearly completely flooded with ground water. I've been to the Sylvester Georgia site. It's a automobile junkyard now. The Byron Georgia site still has some buildings intact and the command bunker and Ajax launch silo was still accessible. The Jefferson Georgia site, I haven't explored as of yet. I can't even find its general location.
Thanks for watching! Yeah, there are tons of these old missile sites left, or at least parts of them are left. Hopefully I'll get out to see another one some day.
That doesn't look anything like like a Nike Hercule missile base... the Pitts were used for 50 caliber machine guns.
Went there and couldn’t seem to find the bunkers…any chance you remember where they are or what they were near? Found the launch sites but no sign of any bunkers
Thanks for watching. The bunkers are under the launch site. They are probably covered in bushes and leaves this time of the year. If you see the concrete slabs on the ground with the metal plates on top of them, the bunkers are like 10 feet away in the bushes. Be careful not to fall in. Good luck. The coordinates are 41.63170409463354, -72.56277700062998
I went there recently and they are right by the launch pads, but are much harder to pinpoint during the summer apart from a visible trail going in a loop around them. Couldn’t go in the large bunker, however, mosquitoes lined the ceiling of us caught in massive spiderwebs haha…. Probably will try again in the winter when everything is dead
@@YoKirby706 It's definitely much better to go to this type of place between November and April, when there are no leaves on the trees or bushes.
You have a kettle for the century dogs.
What side of the launch site are the pits on
It's kind of hard to tell what direction you are facing when you are there, I think it would be the southern side of the launch site. They are hidden in the trees/bushes next to the long path that heads towards the big open area that's full of broken glass, garbage and firewood. Sorry I couldn't be more specific. Be careful going out there though. You could literally fall into them if you aren't paying attention. Thanks for watching!
@@fleabittenadventures thx