By 1945, the age of aerial warfare had fully arrived, and the U.S. Army sought a weapon that could intercept enemy aircraft. In 1951, after years of research and development, it developed the supersonic Nike missile, controlled by ground-based electronic equipment and named for the Greek goddess of victory. The first Nike weapons, Ajax missiles loaded with shrapnel and explosives, could destroy an airplane 37 miles offshore. As Cold War tensions and fears of a nuclear attack on the American mainland grew, the program added the Nike Hercules missile, armed with a nuclear warhead, able to travel 75 miles, destroy everything within a 20-mile radius of its strike, and eliminate an entire formation of planes. Constructed in the 1950s, SF88 was one of eleven Bay Area Nike sites and the final generation of coastal defenses installed in the Marin Headlands, remaining active until 1974. Its integrated fire control was located high on the ridge north of Rodeo Valley and directed the launch site at Fort Cronkhite through acquisition, missile tracking, target tracing, and ranging radars. In 1959, with the arrival of the Nike Hercules and nuclear capability, security at SF88 was tightened with doubled fencing and sentry dogs guarding the site around the clock. None of the Bay Area Nike sites ever fired a missile at a hostile target; all practice exercises took place at missile ranges in New Mexico and Texas.

Photo: Nikemissile.org

Photo: Barry Swackhamer

Photo: Barry Swackhamer

Photo: Barry Swackhamer