In 1979 I arrived at my first duty station at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska in July fresh out of Adair Force basic training and the Security Police Academy. Just a short time later, the month eludes me, I was on the runway with every available Security Policeman to help secure the runway because the Nukes in the Chugach Mountains over looking Anchorage were being decommishined and being transported out right in front of me.
This is piece of an article I found about this.
With each Alaskan firing battery armed with 14 NIKE HERCULES missiles carrying a nuclear warhead with a yield ranging from 20 kilotons to 40 kilotons, the total nuclear yield of the Alaska air defense missile sites was more than 5 meta-tons of nuclear destruction.
The Anchorage sites were deactivated and closed in 1979, with the missiles, warheads, and equipment transferred to the lower 48. Several buildings at Site Point were converted to a ski chalet facility. Site Bay was used for prisoner housing and later demolished. Site Summit was the last site deactivated and closed in July of 1979. The remnants of Site Summit exist today and restoration of the site began in 2010. The site is being preserved as a National Historic Site and once restored plans include a museum to be established and possibly guided tours to be given.
http://nikemissile.org/ColdWar/AlaskaColdWar/alaska_cold_war.shtml
What a way to start off my Air Force career field-helping to protect the most destructive device ever devised by man.
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