This is one of the most informative threads I have seen on Sandy Hook. Here is some recent history. Honoring the veterans, in case anyone has an interest.


Nike veterans reunite on Sandy Hook

Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 2:17 PM

By Rob Spahr / NJ.com

Sandy Hook’s military history dates back to the American Revolution, when the British used the peninsula - ideally located at the mouth of Lower New York Bay - as a base for its massive naval fleet.
As the nation’s military advanced – from the Civil War through the Cold War – so too did Sandy Hook as it eventually served as a military installation for an anti-aircraft missiles, specifically the Nike Ajax and the Nike Hercules.

On Wednesday, dozens of veterans who served at Nike installations during the Cold War era, including Sandy Hook’s Fort Hancock, reunited at the national park to remember their years of service and to honor the sacrifices of others.
“Something that often gets overlooked is how these veterans were truly the first line of defense for our country at that time,” Pete McCarthy, the coordinator of the Sandy Hook unit of the National Park Service, said of the Nike veterans. “This was a chance for us to recognize them.”

The reunion started at Fork Hancock’s Guardian Park with the raising of an American flag and then a wreath-laying ceremony in memory of the 10 people who were killed in the May 1958 missile explosion at the nearby Nike site in Leonardo. That ceremony also honored the 28 Air Force personnel who were killed when an Air Force Texas Tower defense radar station collapsed off of the Jersey Shore in 1961.

Park historian Tom Hoffman gave the veterans a quick recap of Sandy Hook’s rich military history and then invited them to spend the day touring the park together.
“You are part of that big story of the defense of the United States,” Hoffman told the veterans.
The reunion was scheduled to conclude with a banquet in Keyport on Wednesday night.

This was the first-ever East Coast reunion for the Alaska Nike Vets Association, park officials said, but it was open to all Nike veterans regardless of where they were stationed.

So many of the veterans, like Illinois resident Ray Kepka, travelled hundreds of miles to be part of it.
Kepka was stationed at Sandy Hook from 1965 to 1969 as a radar operator for the U.S. Army.
“The area around here has changed a lot since then, but Sandy Hook is exactly the same,” said Kepka, 68.

Like many of the veterans who served at the Nike sites, Kepka was constantly on call. Whenever a suspicious plane or warnings of potential attacks occurred, even in the middle of the night, Kepka would rush to Sandy Hook to help mount a defense.
On many of those nights, Kepka’s wife was the one who drove him there.
“It was very scary, because we would have to drop them off there and then go on with the rest of our day,” Sandy Kepka said of life as an Army wife.

This was only the second time in nearly a half century that Kepka has returned to Sandy Hook, and the first Nike reunion that he ever took part in.
“When I first got out of the Army, it was during the Vietnam era and none of us could ever really wear our uniforms out in public because of how people felt about the military at that time,” he said. “It is terrific to see how much things have changed and to be part of something like this.”

Robert Latsch, Jr. served on Sandy Hook as a member of the Army Reserves for a decade, from 1975 to 1985. His father helped make the Nike missiles at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, Union County.
So the 73-year-old Belford resident said he did not want to miss Wednesday’s reunion because he felt like it was an important part of his history as well as the nation’s.
“This is the kind of thing that people have to know about, especially young people and especially about Sandy Hook,” Latsch said. “This place is a jewel.”


http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf...andy_hook.html