Nike Missile Site HM-69

History of Nike Missile Site HM-69

Tucked into an old agricultural tract of Everglades National Park, once known as the “Hole-in-the-Donut,” Nike Missile Site HM-69 (also “A Battery, 2nd Missile Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery”) is among the most complete Cold War air-defense installations left in the continental United States. Conceived in the urgent aftermath of the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Nike Missile Site HM-69 embodied the Army’s rapid pivot to defend South Florida against threats not “over the Pole,” but from just 90 miles away.

The National Park Service now preserves the site as an unusually intact time capsule: its three distinctive missile barns, assembly building, former barracks, and the guard-dog kennel still stand, while a restored 41-foot Nike-Hercules missile now sits on display inside one of the shelters.

Establishment of the Homestead-Miami Defense Area

When U.S. reconnaissance confirmed Soviet missiles in Cuba in October 1962, the Army rushed air-defense units to South Florida. By mid-November, the 2nd Battalion, 52nd Artillery had established temporary Nike batteries around the Homestead–Miami area, hasty encampments known as Tent City that operated under near primitive conditions with no running water or electricity.

Unlike typical air defense installations, which were usually set near large cities or suburban areas, these early sites were carved out in far less hospitable terrain, either deep within the Everglades or amid the bean fields and rocky tomato farms of southern Dade County. Soldiers at first lived in tents while contending with swarms of mosquitoes, snakes, rats, and spiders.

Battery A, which would later occupy Nike Missile Site HM-69, was initially stationed in temporary facilities from 1962 to 1965 just outside the park entrance. The site would later be purchased by Aerojet General for the establishment of a space rocket manufacturing facility known as Aerojet-Dade.

Security at this site consisted of six rows of stacked concertina razor wire surrounding the perimeter, reinforced by eight .50-caliber machine-gun emplacements and armed sentries patrolling on foot. With no showers on site, men bathed in nearby canals or improvised by washing with their helmets. Conditions improved only gradually. The Army laid wooden floors inside the tents and built raised walkways to keep paths dry between the battery areas, eventually adding permanent shower facilities that lifted morale.

The location of the sites was dictated by tactical requirements and the needs of the weapons systems, often placing them squarely in flood-prone areas. Residents warned commanders about the risk, but their cautions were not always heeded. The massive Nike Hercules missiles frequently sank into the soft, unstable ground, and the humid subtropical climate wreaked havoc on sensitive electronics. To fight flooding and create stable platforms, soldiers had to drain the land, plowing, scraping, and compacting the rough coral soil until it was dry and firm enough to support ongoing operations.

Battery D was set up further north, about seven miles directly west of Miami, along today’s Krome Avenue, while Battery C operated near Carol City. B Battery, while not in the initial deployments as the battalion was involved in a series of nuclear tests in the Pacific, would join Battery A outside of the Everglades National Park upon their return.

What emerged was the Homestead–Miami Defense Area, a layered network unlike anything elsewhere in the United States. The Army integrated medium-/high-altitude Nike-Hercules units with low-altitude HAWK missile batteries to create an all-altitude umbrella over South Florida’s flat, sprawling landscape. The command architecture was centralized at Homestead Air Force Base and Richmond Air Force Station, where a Missile Master system, and later its successor, BIRDIE, assigned targets to specific batteries across a dozen sites. This deep integration of Nike and HAWK existed nowhere else in the country.

Nike Missile Site HM-69

The National Park Service issued a special-use permit in 1964, allowing the Army to construct the permanent installation within Everglades National Park on land previously cultivated as Iori Farms. The location, remote yet close enough to defend Homestead Air Force Base and the urban corridor, made sense militarily, but it layered a new kind of cultural resource into a protected wilderness. Nike Missile Site HM-69 was the westernmost of the Homestead–Miami batteries and included a launch area (the barns, pads, control bunkers, assembly/warheading building, generator plant, kennel, and security perimeter) and a battery control/administration area (barracks, kitchen, supply, warehouses, radar positions, and utilities).

The Everglades’ high water table made the classic underground magazines of most Nike bases impractical, so engineers instead designed three long, ribbed above-ground shelters referred to as “missile barns,” each with sliding doors and a set of launch rails that extended outside. Twelve missiles could be kept ready under roof and rolled forward to their pads. Earthen berms horseshoed the shelters to localize blast effects in case of an accident, and small multi-chambered concrete bunkers tucked into the berms housed the launch consoles.

The battery’s fire-control complex stood to the north, connected by a paved road. That T-plan administration/barracks building, today the Daniel Beard Research Center, contained the mess hall and quarters as well as the command spaces where, if ordered, the launch sequence would have been initiated. Beyond it rose radar towers and trailers knitted together by an interconnecting corridor building. Nike Missile Site HM-69 was also equipped with a mobile HIPAR (High-Power Acquisition Radar), rare among fixed Nike installations, and employed the Nike system’s anti-tactical ballistic missile (ATBM) configuration, an early U.S. attempt to counter short-range missiles fired from Cuba.

At full strength, roughly 140–150 soldiers and technicians staffed Nike Missile Site HM-69 around the clock, cycling through maintenance, guard, radar, and launch crews. The above-ground configuration meant missiles could be maintained under roof and readied without the elevator choreography of a typical Nike site. Monthly practice tests exercised crews and equipment with regular inspections and evaluations throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Decommissioning and Dismantling

As the 1970s wore on, ARADCOM drew down across the country. By May 1974, Army documents noted only a handful of Nike-Hercules and HAWK batteries remained, and all of them were in the Homestead-Miami and Key West defense areas. The fixed-site air-defense mission had largely ended elsewhere, but South Florida’s proximity to Cuba and its concentration of strategic targets kept the region’s Nike/HAWK grid alive through the decade. The Florida sites finally deactivated in 1979, making them the last operating Nike installations in the continental United States.

Historic Designation

Deactivation might have meant demolition or dispersal, as happened at many other sites, but HM-69’s location inside a national park altered its fate. With missiles and radar towers removed, most buildings and fixtures remained, and National Park Service stewardship ensured the compound wasn’t scavenged or redeveloped. On July 27, 2004, Nike Missile Site HM-69 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A (association with the Cold War defense of South Florida) and C (as a representative of a Nike-Hercules site). The nomination emphasized the Everglades battery’s above-ground architecture, mobile HIPAR, ATBM mission profile, and its status as one of the last active Nike sites in CONUS.

In October 2012, a restored Nike-Hercules missile shell, refurbished by students at George T. Baker Aviation School, returned to Everglades National Park atop a flatbed truck and slid into place inside “Barn C.” The site is open to the public during the winter months and offers guided tours for those interested.

Photo Gallery