Battery 216 served the New York City area as a coastal defense site from 1943 until its deactivation in 1947. In 1951, when part of Camp Hero became an antiaircraft artillery training station, Battery 216's empty bunker was used to store ammunition. Antiaircraft units in the New York area trained at Camp Hero for a few weeks with 90 millimeter and later 120 millimeter antiaircraft guns. From three permanent firing stations facing the Atlantic Ocean, soldiers fired on OQ-19b radio-controlled planes, tow targets, and barge targets. They also conducted light antiaircraft artillery practice against the OQ-19b radio-controlled planes with .50 caliber machine guns. Both planes could simulate the attack patterns of enemy aircraft. Advances in planes and missile detection made manual antiaircraft defenses obsolete, and in 1957, Operation Changeover closed antiaircraft artillery installations in the New York Metropolitan area.
