Bomarc Missile Site: Part 1.5 | Bangor

Bomarcs in New Jersey.

Before I head off to the Bomarc site again to take more pictures, I wanted to reflect a bit on just exactly what it is I'll be visiting. Primarily through explanation of the technical aspects of what used to be there and perhaps a bit of exploration of what could have happened should things not have gone right.

It would really help if you read this, from here on out, in the voice of John Henry Eden

The Bomarc missile! At the time it was one of the many business ends of America's SAGE system. A series of 22, 300-ton, IBM supercomputers that prove as long as something has a screen, someone will find a way to put porn on it.

Would you like to play a game? 

Hailed at the time as a critical part of America's defensive perimeter. The SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Envrironment) computer would take information from gap filler radar sites, texas towers and also airborne platforms, and compare it to mighty handfuls of punch cards full of data from the Federal Aviation Administration. If something showed up on radar that wasn't on record with the FAA, either manned (i.e. an F104) or unmanned (Bomarc) interceptor would be dispatched.

The SAGE system and its network of nuclear-tipped unmanned aircraft was seen as a protective umbrella of sorts, so that children in the 50s could do what children in the 50's did. Which, according to "documentaries" produced by IBM meant rowdily lining up to go inside for recess and being scared shitless while being told to hide under their desks in drills that were supposed to increase their likelihood of not having their skin burned off should the Soviets drop the bomb. That, and putting models together of their great Defenders.

Dear Santa

The USAF held 26 of these (potentially) nuclear tipped, 16,000 pound unmanned aircraft, capable of Mach 2.5 on the outskirts of Bangor from the late 1950's to the early 1960's. At the time, the city had a population of 39,000 people (as opposed to 33,000 as of 2012.)

Why is population important? These things were before solid fuel. Also, they had to have their engines 'jump started' with a mixture of pressurized air and helium. You've got some pretty volatile technology that was supposed to propel a nuclear warhead, only a few miles away from the rest of the city. In 1960, at McGuire AFB in New Jersey, a helium tank exploded in one of the missile launch structures and started a fire that burned uncontrolled for 30 minutes and took a total of 15 hours to completely put out. Fortunately, the warhead didn't detonate. 75 acres are still fenced off due to radiological contamination.

Let me recap this: The sleepy town of Bangor Maine (or Derry, Maine if that's your thing) was one home not only to one of the major air force bases of the Cold War (easternmost in the country) but also to twenty six supersonic unmanned interceptors that were liquid fueled and outfitted to carry W40 nuclear warheads (with a 7-10 megaton yield.) Should a situation requiring them to launch arise, it would have meant that the Soviets were on their way.

...Am I the only person around here who thinks old Bomarc sites are really cool? Not only for the fact that they were essentially nuclear capable, supersonic UAV's, but because of their "the future is now!" vibe? I mean, *this* happened FFS.

Sources:

Bomarc Missile Accident Site
Semi Automatic Ground Environment

Dow AFB: Bomarc Missile Battery site -- Part I of II

This is a three part series. You're currently looking at the first post of three related to Dow AFB's Bomarc missile site.

• Part 1.5, which discusses a bit more about how the site would have fit into the regional defensive scheme.
• Part 2, which is more photos of the launch houses.

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It was last November. Cold, snow was already on the ground under gray Maine skies. I was hanging out with a friend and saw something interesting out the window while standing in front of his john. This fence:

His bathroom wasn't this close, but this is the fence...

At the time, I was familiar with Bangor's role in the WWIII that never happened; but I had no idea my friend lived in such close proximity to Dow AFB's old Bomarc site. Despite his reluctance, I got him to walk with me through the short woods, and onto a paved perimeter pathway that hadn't been used since "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was at the top of the charts.

. 

In the background you can see the site's old diesel storage tank, in the foreground you can see a post more exiting than this one, and in the middle you can see the perimeter walkway.

Perhaps, no more Doctor Who. 

As we walked along bits and pieces of the base came more into view. The checkered structure is a water tower that's apparently still in use by the city, so not really something I care to go near. Things that are still in use and threaten you with unpleasant consequences aren't fun. Looking at how overgrown this once pristine and secured site had become, however, is fun. Not fun like 'roller coasters' or 'motorcycles' fun, but fun like "if I step into a hole in the spacetime continuum and come to occupy the same space but somehow in 1959 I'm going to be riddled with bullet holes before I realize what happened" fun.

I really shouldn't be concerned about microtears in the fabric of time, I should be more concerned with whether or not I'm breaking any laws. There were no "no trespassing" signs, but I still got an eerie feeling of "you guys shouldn't be here." After all, there are now several private businesses in the area and adolescent shitheads with no sense of historical context have apparently been messing with some of the buildings.

Stay Classy, Bangor

If you can't tell, shit like this really annoys me. It tends to make those who own the property nervous about people who just want to visit an installation that used to house supersonic, nuclear-capable surface to air missiles. What's so wrong with that? I mean, why would you want to tag up something that's 'Half-Life' level of cool?

Oh...

We walked up to the back of the missile assembly building. I have no idea what the garage doors were for on the second story, and I can't really tell whether or not the part of the building in the foreground is original -- it definitely looks original. To the left, you can see that some of our youths in the area are immune to paranoia. If you can spark up at an abandoned USAF facility and not want to nope the fuck out of there, you either have balls of steel or brains of bricks.

Through the trees, you can see the site's diesel storage tank. Someone has cut a hole in it and installed a garage door. Inside the "garage" there was a couch that looked like it was used by either kids to sit on and get high, or for homeless men on bath salts and spice and everything vice. Either way, we didn't stick around much.

As we exited, we passed the old guardhouse. I was surprised at the cinder block construction, considering that Bomarc missiles were nuclear capable. The guy sitting in there back then would wave past all sorts of personnel that were more or less just waiting for a computer down in Thomaston to signal that Soviets were about to rain down nuclear hell. And you probably thought your job was depressing.

There was some sort of access hatch in the guard house that was wide open. But it was cold and dark and I really didn't want to go inside since I don't trust a 40 year old ladder to service 250lbs of dork terribly well.

The trip didn't last too long. And I'm aware I missed a lot of stuff. I didn't go near the missile "coffins" at all. And I didn't get any pictures of the semi-underground utility tunnel, or the concrete conduit access 'thing' either. I plan to return and take more photographs.

I've included a map below to give you some impression of the missile base in relation to the air force base.

First Post -- And some nuclear arms storage...

This blog is more or less dedicated to exploration of abandoned places/installations in the state of Maine, or previous military installations that have since been repurposed. There's really not a whole lot to do up here, so playing Fallout and looking around at bits of local history related to prevention of global nuclear apocalypse is pretty much it (once you remove Allen's coffee brandy from the equation.)

For example...the Weapons Storage Area for what used to be Dow AFB in Bangor, Maine. What's accessible to the average person consists of pretty much a water tower, and looking at bunkers from a few hundred feet away. Past a curve, there are more interesting things -- but we're not going to trespass, and during the time of the visit we didn't know who owned the property (I later found out, because everyone apparently knows or works for everyone else in a state this small.) You can see the interesting, and inaccessible part of the installation below.

The place is bristling with security cameras, you have to figure if someone is going to rent storage space that used to HOLD NUCLEAR WEAPONS for interceptor aircraft and Bomarc unmanned interceptors proto-drones, you have some pretty serious shit to store and probably don't want people fucking with your stuff. I'm not going past the white line until I contact the land owner, which I'll likely do shortly.

The big, old, rusty water tower.

The site itself is used as self storage and a logistics company. Driving up to the site, you can see the original water tower, and some outbuildings. A residence appears to be next to the base of the water tower.  Most of them are your standard hum-drum concrete boxes, but some of them are a bit more....

We couldn't get close enough, but according to a post in this yahoo group the bunkers used to store some pretty interesting stuff.

"Of note, on the back wall of the bunker there was still a sign painted

 that tells of the rated storage limits of the bunker - it says, in part:

AIR-2A 3 MAX

 W25 - 3 MAX"

The W25 was an unguided air-to-air missile with a yield of 1.5 kilotons. The Air-2A was a missile with a  W40 warhead with a 10 kiloton yield. Of note, the W40 warhead was also used in Bomarc interceptor missiles that were kept a few miles away. I got curious, so I thought I'd leave you with a graphical representation of what a warhead of that size would have done to the area...

A bit of layman's interpretation. If you were standing in the bright red circle you were on fire or vaporized. If you were standing in the dull red circle you were also on fire, but would likely take longer to die. Fun stuff, eh?

You can see more up close photos from Cold War Relics , whoever he is, he's more intrepid than I.


-T