This is the site of the old East Hanover, NJ Nike Missile Base. It is now gone, covered by condominiums. The streets in the center of the map are where there used to be a bunch of missile silos. If you look off Nike Drive, toward Hornung Road, these now-abandoned homes were once soldier’s homes.
The Nike Missiles at this base had small nuclear warheads and were intended to prevent Soviet bomber squadrons from hitting NYC.
When I was in my teens, we used to pry open the doors to the silos and walk down a long flight of steps, right into the elevator room. Off to the left was the control room, which was soundproofed.
Andrew Smith
Monday 14th of March 2022
My late father, East Hanover veterinarian Dr. Harold M.S. Smith was a town elected official in the '60's - early '70's. In the late 1960's, a group of municipal officials from NJ (and possibly NY) towns "hosting" NIKE facilities were offered a tour of the Army Missile Command at Ft Bliss, TX. There were flown down there on a charter airliner. As I recall this 2 or 3 day show and tell / wine and dine outing included watching a getting to witness a drone at the test range (an ancient F-86?) knocked out by a NIKE missile. Sadly, a 16mm clip of this trip and was lost decades ago. We lived barely 1 mile west of the base. At a glance, the base looked like just another small suburban housing tract. Not much attention was paid to it. Oddly, the East Hanover site is not listed on some of the online compendiums of the NIKE facilities.
marsha martinez`[email protected]
Sunday 12th of December 2021
still wish i livethere worlds stinks now yhoses were the days
marsha martinez`[email protected]
Sunday 12th of December 2021
i lived there to 21 horng ct we loved it marshamartinez my husband was master sergent ha d alot of friends
Lisa
Friday 24th of January 2020
I grew up in East Hanover in housing for the soldiers. We use to see the missiles aimed in different directions on the base. We moved from there in 1974. There were 32 houses on the base we lived at 31 Hornung Court it was a cool place to grow up.