Bill Jackson

Sandy Hook, Gateway NRA, NPS
Oral History Interview with Bill Jackson 51st Air Defense Artillery, Nike Hercules Missiles1968-1972 Civilian employee 1972-74
Interviewed by Billy Yirce, Monmouth University student intern
September 14, 2003
Transcribed by Mary Rasa 2010

Editor’s notes in parenthesis ( )
Billy Yirce: This is an oral history interview of Bill Jackson taking place at Sandy Hook National Park. Where and when were you born?

Bill Jackson: I was born in Washington, D.C. July 14, 1947.

Billy Yirce: Okay and how did you end up joining the service?

Bill Jackson: (laughter) In 1968, I received a draft notice, which I promptly ignored and then subsequently received a report or else letter go to jail. So, I reported and wound up having a physical and everything else. Was classified 1A and they were coming after me so I went down to my Army recruiter and enlisted to try and get something because I knew they would have my tail stamped Vietnam right away. So, I enlisted for Army Air Defense, Nike Herc (Hercules).

Billy Yirce: And did you know anything about Fort Hancock or this area before you came here?

Bill Jackson: Very, very vaguely. Not really that much. In fact, in my enlistment, part of the enlistment deal was that I could pick my choice of duty site. And my choices were being young, Key West, Florida first choice; Homestead, Florida second choice; third choice was Seattle, Washington. About three or four days before I was about to report for induction, I got a call from the Army recruiter asking me to pick a forth choice because there were no opening at my first three choices. So I promptly said, “Well, Providence, Rhode Island, Hartford, Connecticut group”. He said, “I’m sorry, I was hoping you were going to say Fort Hancock because that’s where you are going to go.”

Billy Yirce: So, you had no choice then.

Bill Jackson: Really had no choice. No. I wound up here, and you know it was just as good because I had just married a young lady from Long Branch. So, it worked out.

Billy Yirce: And what was your job while here?

Bill Jackson: From ’68 to ’72, I was down in the Launcher Area. (I) started as a launcher crewman. By the time I had completed my tour of service I was an E-5 section chief. In fact, I was the only E-5 section chief down there.

Billy Yirce: And what was your specific job? What were you in charge of?

Bill Jackson: Down there in the launcher area is where the actual Nike Hercules missiles were stored and prepared for launch. And our primary responsibility were those birds
(missiles) down there. Daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annual and annual checks on all of the launcher control systems and the missiles themselves. You know, we did periodic tear down and rebuilds of the missiles. Maintenance of the equipment down there; launchers, handling rails, frequency changers, control, launch and control indicators, section control cabinets, frequency changers, full range of equipment down there.

Billy Yirce: Now, did they ever launch a missile while you were at Fort Hancock?

Bill Jackson: Actually we didn’t launch from here. This, Fort Hancock was a unique site. Charlie Battery here was a rather unique site in that it was a dual battery. Normally, it was Hercules sites consisted of three launcher sections and a fire control section. This one was a dual section. You had four launcher sections and two fire control sections. They were divided up Charlie 1 (C-1) and Charlie 2 (C-2). Every, once a year you had to go down to McGregor Range. It’s a Satellite Post of Fort Bliss (Texas) where the Army Air Defense Training Center was located. You went to McGregor Range. It’s actually in New Mexico where you would actually do your launch, your firing of the missiles. You either, when you went down there, you either fired one Herc and one Ajax or you fired two Ajax’s. You still had to do all the work.

Billy Yirce: Now what was that like seeing those things launch off?

Bill Jackson: Being a launcher crewman you didn’t get to see them go. You were underground.

Billy Yirce: Okay. So you just saw the…

Bill Jackson: You might get to see another unit across the desert fire theirs. It was an awe inspiring sight to see one of those things go up. Being, when you were launching and the missile was right above and you were underground, the ground would shake. Dust would be coming down. It was an awesome experience.

Billy Yirce: Now did you guys have any scares while you were here? High alerts or…?

Bill Jackson: Oh, yeah. Numerous. Numerous. Anytime an aircraft, mostly commercial airliners would be making a transatlantic and if their IFF wasn’t working; Identification Friend or Foe. If that wasn’t working we would prepare to launch. And it would be the real deal. Safe plugs would come out of the warheads. Arm plugs would be put in and you would stand up to a condition that was called a twenty minute to a five. 20 to 5 drill. You had twenty minutes to prep the birds and once the birds were all prepped you went into a hold while they tried to identify the target. And if the target was determined to be an unfriendly you had five minutes. And from that, as soon as you got that word, five minutes to launch.

Billy Yirce: So that must have been nerve racking then?

Bill Jackson: It could be. Yes, it could be. Even scarier things we had happen, we had well, it was classified back in the sixties, seventies. The birds here were nuke (nuclear weapons).
We had a few blue bell incidents, a couple of blue bells. We had a fire in one of the magazines.

Billy Yirce: Oh wow.

Bill Jackson: Scared the piss out of me. You always had an emergency disarm team on site twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A team is a two man team. They would rotate every twenty-four hours. Another pair of people would be designated as a disarm team. In the event of an incident, their job was to disarm as many of the missiles as possible. If there were other people in the area they had the luxury of evacuating. I was part of the disarm team in the fire.

Billy Yirce: So you couldn’t leave?

Bill Jackson: Two of us were trying to disarm as many of those missiles in there as the fire department was on their way in there. The fire was caused by an overheated heater in the magazine. Those were underground. Out here in the winter, it is cold. God, it’s cold. No matter which way the wind is blowing it is coming off the water it is damp and it cuts right through you. The missiles had to be kept at a set temperature. They had a heating blanket on the missiles but the magazines, they also heat the magazines. And one of these heaters overheated and melted and went to flames. Now, it went to flames.

Billy Yirce: And you had to go in there and..

Bill Jackson: Had to go in there and disable. What was scary was that one of the components of the solid fuel boosters is ether.

Billy Yirce: That’s highly toxic.

Bill Jackson: And they were always seeping ether. You could go to the back of the booster and stick your head up in there and get in the blaster and (sniff) and get high. We had guys that would do that. That was the scary thing that if the flames hit one of those boosters, set it off and we could have wound up with another incident like what happened in Leonardo, when Leonardo blew.

Billy Yirce: Okay. So now we talked about your job, now what about social activities? What was going on around this area when you were serving here? Where was the place to be?

Bill Jackson: (laughter) (In the years) ’68 to ’72, the height of the War in Vietnam, soldiers were not looked upon with too much favor during the height of the protest period. Most of us it seemed to hang pretty much close to one another. We would have our barbeques out here. We had a bowling alley we could go to, a movie theater, stuff like that. So, anytime anybody went down to the Highlands it inevitably wound up trouble. They’d get into a fight. Pretty much we stayed together. We partied hardy when we went down to McGregor Range. We’d get over into Mexico and have a good time.

Billy Yirce: I can only imagine. And what about the beach? Did you use the beach here a lot? Is there a certain one that you used to go to?

Bill Jackson: During my off duty hours, I came here as an E-3, I was married, I didn’t have housing. I was living on the economy. So, I was living in an apartment down in Long Branch and commuting. So, during my off duty hours, I would utilize more the beaches down in Long Branch. I had, when I got out of the Army and was working here as part of Army Direct Support Contact Team (part of the Ordnance Department’s Maintenance Operations) I would fish quite a bit during my off duty hours along the beach here. And to this day my wife and I love to come out here to Sandy Hook. And we do it regularly.

Billy Yirce: That’s good that you still come back.

Bill Jackson: Oh yes.

Billy Yirce: Do you remember any of the food here when you did eat here what was the food like?

Bill Jackson: The food was not back at all. The mess sergeant did the best he could with the personnel that he had. The cooks, you realize that this being a nuclear site you had to have clearance to work in either one of the areas. We would get soldiers sent to us and it would turn out that they during the process of verifying their clearance that something was amiss and they couldn’t get a clearance so inevitably they wound up being made cooks. They did the best they could. The food wasn’t bad, I don’t think.

Billy Yirce: That’s what everybody says. They said it wasn’t bad.

Bill Jackson: No. It wasn’t bad. You know the mess sergeant took pity on quite a few of the younger enlisted men especially if you worked hard for him when ever you had KP (Kitchen Police) duty or something like that. You worked hard for him, you didn’t give him any lip, did what you were told at the end of your tour of KP he might throw you a couple of steaks. Uncooked, “Here take them home”.

Billy Yirce: That’s not bad.

Bill Jackson: It wasn’t bad. I appreciated the mess sergeant tremendously. Every mess sergeant we had here was great I thought.

Billy Yirce: Now you were pretty close to the city. Did anyone ever go to the city, New York City? Did you ever take any excursions?

Bill Jackson: (laughter) Oh, there was one instance. Yeah, guys would go up to the city. I can remember we as an Army Air Defense unit, we were the only active Army unit that was ready for quote unquote combat on short notice within the continental United States. We were not a show unit for parades and stuff like that. On occasion we had parades alright you know, they’d get us all decked out in our Class A uniforms and we would be issued our weapons and after the parade was over you were supposed to go back down to the arms room and turn in your weapons. We had one guy, a flake, after this incident they pulled him. Pulled his clearance and got rid of him in a hurry. He took off in New York City in his class A’s with his helmet and gear and his weapon to walk the streets of New York. He got picked up by the cops. MPs had to go up and get him and bring him back. Then the shit hit the fan.

Billy Yirce: You guys must have got a kick out of that.

Bill Jackson: Oh yeah. It was funny.

Billy Yirce: What was the easiest way to get to the city back then?

Bill Jackson: I would say probably bus. If you didn’t have your own car, it was bus.

Billy Yirce: Do you still keep in touch with anyone you served with while here?

Bill Jackson: Within the last year I located and spoke on the phone with another NCO. He had been my section chief when I was promoted to E-5. They made a section chief and he was my section chief. (Staff) Sergeant Arthur R. Damboise. He is in El Paso, TX. Near the old ADA School. He retired out there. And a hell of a nice man, sharp soldier. There’s a lot of guys that I wish that I could locate but all attempts so far have come to naught.

Billy Yirce: What did you go into doing after you had done your service? Did any of the skills they taught you help you?

Bill Jackson: I was, like I said, after I ETS, I was hired as an industrial equipment repairman and made a part of the Direct Contact Team right on Fort Hancock, right back here.

Billy Yirce: So you got a job, they helped you out.

Bill Jackson: Well, the base didn’t. Some of the guys that worked as part of the Direct Contact Support Team, knew me and when I was getting ready to ETS I said, “What am I going to do? I got a wife and two kids.” At that time all the major companies were under affirmative action programs and I would get hired (snap fingers) if I was black or a woman or Hispanic like that. But they kind of backed off being a white so I can’t find a job. I had been to JCP&L and New Jersey Bell and numerous other big companies. They told me, “Go down to Philadelphia”. Put in an application down there at the United States Army support element down in Philadelphia. Because this direct support contact team was a satellite of theirs. I went down there, applied was hired. And they sent me right back up here.

Billy Yirce: That’s good for you then.

Bill Jackson: Yeah. It was good for me. And I was here until they closed the place in ’74. And then I was picked up at Fort Monmouth. In fact, I just retired from Fort Monmouth in February of 2001.

Billy Yirce: Congratulations. What stands out in your mind the most about your time here while you were here?

Bill Jackson: The setting here is idyllic. It’s a beautiful place without a doubt. The work was long and hard. Realize that this is the height of the War in Vietnam. Most of the personnel coming into the Army were being channeled over to Vietnam. We were extremely shorthanded. The minimum size for a launcher crew (was) six men. Normally a launcher crew should have eleven to twelve men.

Billy Yirce: And you guys were working five men short?

Bill Jackson: Five, sometimes six men short, seven men short. The, we were working putting in a 90, 80, 90 hours a week.

Billy Yirce: Wow.

Bill Jackson: In fact, it got to the point where they actually were having us record our hours on site because they were trying to figure out how they could…

Billy Yirce: Even it out.

Bill Jackson: ...Get more men. There was one stretch I put in 120 straight hours on site awake without sleep. Totally exhausted.

Billy Yirce: I can only imagine. That’s a long time to be up.

Bill Jackson: Yes. See we had, you would periodically have a higher headquarters come to the Post and conduct a war game. Simulate that we, the United States is under attack. That normally is a three day event. Hardly anybody got any sleep during that. When during that 120 hour straight stretch I am in charge of quarters the war game started so I didn’t sleep I was in charge of quarters. The war game started for three days. When it was over I was in charge of quarters again so I ended up without sleep for five days. And the reason I didn’t get any sleep for three days, the war game was the evaluators came in and said we want to watch your junior section chief.

Billy Yirce: That’s you.

Bill Jackson: I ran every mission. I changed off my crew as much as I could. You know, I could see when they were getting exhausted. You know, I’d call the launcher control officer and ask them for, you know, a replacement for crewman 1, crewman 1 whatever I needed and they would sent them from another section and I would send those two guys to go get some sleep but I ran it. I was there the whole time.

Billy Yirce: What was that like when it was over? You just collapsed.

Bill Jackson: I was exhausted.

Billy Yirce: Slept for days.

Bill Jackson: I was living on adrenaline only. And as bad as that period was still my tour here is nothing but fond memories.

Billy Yirce: That’s good then. Well, I’d like to thank you for doing an interview with me.

Bill Jackson: Okay then.

Billy Yirce: And thank you for coming out.

END OF INTERVIEW

(Editor’s note: Mr. Jackson added some notes to this interview in 2010. They are written below in his own words.)
In the summer of 1970, our unit was called into action from "Cold (Maintenance) Status. This was no drill as the code words for a drill, (Blazing Skies) was not used. Instead we
received "Battle Stations". This meant that we were installing the Arm Plugs on the nuclear warheads and actually preparing the missiles for launch - no simulation steps - actual preparation! We got to the point of being five minutes from a launch when we were instructed to "Hold Fire", and we stayed at that point in launch preparations for about an hour. What had happened was a Soviet Bomber had intruded into what we considered our airspace and we prepared to shoot him down. At the same time that we were preparing our missile for launch, U.S. Air Force Tactical Fighters were scrambled and instructed to intercept the bomber, turn him around, or failing that, shoot him down. The Fighters were successful in turning the bomber, but we remained on alert for almost a hour just in case he/or another bomber returned. Believe me, the atmosphere in both the IFC and Launch Areas was extremely tense that day. This was the scariest day I experienced while at Fort Hancock.
Also, this unit [Charlie Battery, 3rd Battalion, 51st Air Defense Artillery (Nike Hercules)] was the first Regular Army unit to fire a perfect score (100%) at their Short Notice Annual Practice (SNAP) . This feat was accomplished in the fall of 1971 and was never repeated by another Regular Army unit in remaining history of Nike Hercules system. The Battery Commander was so pleased to be able to have this accomplishment on his Officer's Efficiency Report (OER) that he took the entire SNAP Crew over the border into Mexico where he treated everyone to a lobster dinner and drinks. Additional rewards we received included being allowed to wear civilian clothes, instead of uniforms, on our return trip to Fort Hancock and, for married personnel; our wives were bussed to Newark Airport to greet us upon our arrival. This was the proudest accomplishment of my Army service.