Fort Hancock is now part of Gateway National Park. The fort is on Sandy Hook in New Jersey. It was the nation's first artillery proving ground. The fort has a 200 year history and closed its doors in 1974. Starting in 1955 Fort Hancock was the headquarters battery for three Nike missile batteries. The batteries were located at Fort Hancock, Homedale and Edison, New Jersey. Visitors are allowed in and the fort has been preserved as a museum. For you fishermen out there, we used to pull up large Stripped Bass off the dock. I was stationed there for about 3 years. We caught so many Bass that the cook swore he would never cook another one. One of the things that made this place so fascinating to us was the fact that some of the buildings were left like buildings in a ghost town. There were old army barracks that had personal possessions scattered around like the soldiers left in a hurry(these are now gone). The place was very old and I remember going into a off limits armory type building (our little secret) and finding a broken light bulb with a tip on top like the original Edison bulbs. There was also danger there because after you walked about 20 feet into this pitch black building the floor disappeared and there was a drop that seemed to go down for at least 20 feet or more. I was sure glad I had a flash light. Old army boots, the brown kind from World War II and earlier were scattered here and there in the old barracks We lived in nice brick buildings that were lined up neatly on one of the streets. There were officer quarters and homes for both married enlisted men and officers and all were nice. There was a large black power cannon from 1869. A U.S. Coast Guard station is at the end of Sandy Hook. Civilians had their own motor pool and machine shops which was better than ours. We all ate very well. We were in a unit called ARADCOM, Army Air Defense Command. We ate great Food, except on Sundays. On Sunday the K rations came out. The commander knew almost everyone would leave the base on weekends except for those pulling duty, so if it was your turn to pull duty you had to eat K rations. We hated K rations. Now I see that people are actually selling reproduced K rations.

I decided to visit Ft. Hancock on September 9, 2003 and thanks to the kindness of the museum curator Mary Rasa and park historian Tom Hoffman, my visit was quite a memorable one. All the pictures you see were taken by me.

Base Historian Tom Hoffman. He kindly showed us all the sights.

Before you get to the gateway of the fort you have to pass an area that was called C Battery 1 and 2. It was one of the very few double missile batteries in the United States. My understanding is that only very important targets got a double battery and there were only eight of them. This battery guarded the New York area. Outside of the entrance gate and across the road to C Battery stands a Nike Ajax Missile. These had already been replaced by the Nike Hercules missiles before I was stationed there.

Nike Ajax missile and launcher outside Battery C

You have to make a right turn from the road by the Nike Ajax missile to enter Battery C. There were 3 different security fences you had to get through. Today many of the buildings are run down but they are being repaired. The following pictures show how the area looks today.

A former guard post

Former HQ Building

Former Missile Assembly Building

*Missile Radar Trailers were made of magnesium to burn quickly and destroy all the equipment before it could fall into enemy hands.
**Two Missile Radar Trailers were connected to each end of a building. The building acted as a break area for the crew.

The Nike Hercules missiles were raised up on launchers by an elevator and blast doors opened. If you look hard at the two pictures below you can see the blast doors for the missile and the elevator. These are not in very good shape anymore.

Generator Building

Painted Radar Unit

When you get to Fort Hancock at the Northern part of Sandy Hook you will see a little park with the Fort Hancock Sign. This is a Nike Hercules Missile in the park along with a memorial stone dedicated to the men who were killed when a Nike Ajax missile blew up as they were refueling it. Nike Ajax was a liquid fuel missile while Nike Hercules was solid fuel and less dangerous to handle.

The tall, white lighthouse at Sandy Hook is the oldest standing light tower in the United States. The lighthouse has been in operation since 1764. It is interesting to note that when built the lighthouse stood about five hundred feet from the northern end of Sandy Hook, now, due to the action of the water, the light is over a mile from the point.

Three different views of the lighthouse.