BYRON, Ga. – The remnants of a former U.S. Army missile site where soldiers once waited for an order they prayed would never come still stand along a rural road in central Georgia. And now some veterans are planning a reunion to commemorate their secretive mission at those crumbling buildings.
The ruins are all that’s left of the former Nike site, which in the 1960s stood ready to fire nuclear missiles at incoming bombers, the Telegraph of Macon reports (http://bit.ly/uB92cT) in its Sunday editions. Another site in nearby Twiggs County is now home to an Academy Sports distribution center.
Each site was staffed by 250 to 300 soldiers who kept watch for a Soviet attack. And each missile was capable of taking out an entire bomb group with a single strike.
“Thank the Lord we never had to do that,” said Twiggs County Commission Chairman Ray Bennett, who worked at the Twiggs site in the early 1960s as a tracking supervisor.
Ernest Cooling, who worked at both sites, is now organizing the first reunion of local Nike veterans. The event will be held on Dec. 3 at the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base.