NIKE missile battery adventure

[KC77CJ7]

Today myself, ze_beeved and a friend went and checked out the NIKE battery in Pleasant Hill. After looking around for a place to park and be inconspicuous for a few minutes, we climbed the gate and walked up the hill. Once we got up to the missile areas, and looked around a while, we finally found a way in. There was quite a bit in there. An old car, a lot of lumber, a little bit of machinery. In fact there was an old Citroen sitting above ground, how many of those do you see around? Anyway we didn't think there would be any power, but I played around with the breakers for a bit anyway. I was just about done messing with everything when I noticed one breaker in particular that was a little different from the rest. I flipped it and about crapped a brick. All the lights came on, along with the heaters, ventilation, pumps. Everything. And it was making a little bit of noise and making us nervous, so we turned off everything except the lights and continued looking around. There was one room that looked like the old core room. It had blast doors and a few hoods in it along with another little room that looked like it housed the cores themselves. We played with the elevator buttons to no avail and had just about given up when ze_beeved flipped a main panel breaker and told me to try again. I didn't think anything would happen but I pushed the open door button anyway. With a REALLY loud screech the doors came open, slid away from the edge, and sunlight came pouring in. The elevator had a control on it so we got on and rode it to the top and back down. After we were satisfied, the other two guys rode the elevator to the top and stayed there while I lowered the elevator, closed the doors, and turned off all the power. I climbed back up, pull up the ladder, sealed the entrance again, and left. It was awesome to get to actually ride an elevator designed for a nuclear missile. Who can say they've done that? It was a pretty decent trip, probably the most trouble we would have gotten in if we'd been caught though. It was definitely worth effort. I got maybe three pictures, but I did get a couple videos of the doors opening and closing, with a little profanity about how nervous we were to be in there. Best trip yet.

[White Rabbit]

It was awesome to get to actually ride an elevator designed for a nuclear missile. Who can say they've done that?

I can.

It's awesome that you guys got to see it all, too.

[Anne]

Me too.

[ze_beeved]

me three.

Even though it was short, I think I consider this by far the coolest exploration I've done so far. I want in to the other 2 bunkers. Lock picking anyone?

[S1L3N7B0B]

We were too fucking scared.

[KC77CJ7]

We were too fucking scared.

As soon as the power came on, so were we. Going from nothing to lots of noise from the power kicking on can be a little nerve-racking.

[Chris]

It was awesome to get to actually ride an elevator designed for a nuclear missile. Who can say they've done that?

Just FYI, Nike missles weren't nukes.

[gimpface]

Uh, yeah they were. Well Hercules was, at any rate. These fuckers were SAMs with nuclear warheads to take out entire formations of commie bombers. It's scary to think that some dude in a bunker was authorized to fire nukes on our own soil.

http://ed-thelen.org/missiles.html#war_head

[KC77CJ7]

Either way, I rode an elevator made for a missile and it was cool. NIKE sites were for city defense in case of a nuclear attack. They were usually non-nuclear but could be equiped with a 10-kiloton warhead to take out multiple targets. They were also usually in pairs, because NIKE sites had a minimum range that they could fire outside of, anything closer and they couldn't fire. The minimum range was typically two miles. I don't know what being in pairs means, whether that means just a few miles away or 20 - 30 miles away. I do know that there is a base in Olathe, maybe that was it's other half. There's a LOT of info out there on these old bases and it deserves a good look.

[youthsonic]

The base in Olathe used to be NIKE KC-65DC, IIRC

[bluecookies]

Lock picking anyone?

what type of lock?

[ze_beeved]

a simple one - Master Lock. 5 minutes max. Just the ones to the doors heading down. I know cause my bro used to have a lock pick set but it has since been stolen. The only thing I worry about is the locks have been there for so long that they are rusted closed.

[KC77CJ7]

I would have to get a new set, but if the locks are free, master locks take under a minute usually, they are almost the easiest to pick. IF they are free. If not, a little penetrant, a screw driver, and a stiff tensioner spring should do the trick. BTW, see my new post.

[gimpface]

The guy with the Nike website I linked to a couple of posts ago is linking to UO:

http://ed-thelen.org/loc-m.html#Missouri

Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

[ze_beeved]

The Leavenworth site has my wheels turning. As soon as I noticed that there was one in Lawson, one in pleasant hill, one in olathe....I figured there had to be the 4th one somewhere forming a square because the pleasant hill one is 48 miles from kc. The lawson one is 49 miles from kc. I'm willing to bet both the olathe and the leavenworth ones are right around 48 - 50 miles from kc. As far as I can tell, the gardner site would be a pretty good explore because the school is supposedly closed and the leavenworth site would be because nothing is there.

edit:
First off I forgot to mention that I looked through that link to see what site he was talking about. Then I clicked on kansas to see where those sites were. Anyway if you look at the terraserver image he has linked for the leavenworth site, it's wrong. It shows you some gravel area. If you get on google earth and locate the GPS coords then it will take to you to the site which now unfortunately is a parking lot.

edit again: after google earthing the gardner site, I noticed there are cars in the lot....nevermind about that place.
Awhile back after a lot of searching, I came across a site that was supposedly an underground abandoned communications compound at approx 4000sq ft. near polo. Can anyone help me out with finding it?