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85-588: For a short time when it opened, Birmingham General Hospital was called Van Nuys General Hospital , but was renamed Birmingham General Hospital after Brigadier General Henry Patrick Birmingham (1854–1932), of the U.S. Army Medical Corps. The War Department approved the construction of the hospital on August 24, 1943. The land was farm land of the Encino Rancho and the Petit Ranch. The 80 single-story buildings were made of brick and some stucco. The hospital also had

170-473: A chapel , rehabilitation pool , gymnasium , fire station, bomb shelter, kitchen, movie theater, racquetball/handball court, Pacific Electric street car station (possibly Van Nuys station ) and a Prisoners of War (POW) wing. An Italian Service Unit with 40 Italian POWs from the North African campaign volunteered at the hospital. The Army hospital worked on general medicine of returning Veterans . There

255-584: A fiberglass casing that was destroyed by small explosives, but this proved overweight and did not boost the Ajax to the required speed. Redstone Arsenal then presented the T48E3 which was somewhat larger and longer to reach reasonable performance, but only at the cost of having to modify all of the Ajax launcher rails. The Army eventually decided not to proceed with any Ajax modifications as Hercules would be arriving shortly anyway. Similar experiments for Hercules boosters led to

340-566: A Birmingham General Hospital nurse. Desi Arnaz was stationed at Birmingham General Hospital during the war to entertain the troops there with the United Service Organizations (USO). Arnaz had a bad knee and so was transferred to the US Army Medical Corps. Arnaz also coordinated with the stars that visited the hospital. Arnaz was discharged on November 16, 1945. The TV show This Is Your Life came about as an idea for

425-470: A battery was a significant operation and required considerable construction at the firing sites. Over its lifetime, significant effort was put into the development of solid state replacements for the vacuum tube -based electronics inherited from the early-1950s Ajax, and a variety of mobile options. None of these were adopted, in favor of much more mobile systems like the MIM-23 Hawk . Another development for

510-558: A cluster known as the XM-42, with the only modification to the original M5 engine design being the addition of new holes to bolt them together, creating the M5E. During this period, some effort was put into a frangible booster for the Ajax. Ajax's boosters were housed in steel tubes that fell near the base, presenting a serious range safety concern. Martin produced the T48E1 and E2 designs for Ajax used

595-569: A common complaint by the Air Force, who noted that bombers had the ability to attack from as much as 50 miles (80 km) while the Nike was only comfortable launching at about 25 miles (40 km). This could be increased even further using stand-off missiles , like those currently under development by all of the nuclear-armed forces for just this reason. A larger Nike with greatly improved range would not only help address this sort of attack, but also allow

680-515: A computer, and sent commands to the missile to fly to a point in the sky to intercept the target. To increase range, the missile was normally boosted above the target into the thinner air and then descended on it in a gliding dive. Nike was initially deployed at military bases starting in 1953, especially Strategic Air Command bomber airfields, and general deployment then followed at US cities, important industrial sites, and then overseas bases. Similar systems quickly emerged from other nations, including

765-499: A consideration, but these were being addressed by the Nike Zeus concept, leaving only short-range weapons as an issue Hercules might need to address. To address this whole range of issues, Bell proposed a series of changes: The addition of the TRR solved a problem with early pulse radar units. It is relatively easy to jam a conventional radar by sending out additional pulses of radio signal on

850-440: A federal facility used primarily to hold illegal aliens awaiting immigration hearings. In Anchorage, Alaska, Site Point (A Battery) was converted into a ski chalet for Kincaid Park . Site Summit (B Battery) still sits above Eagle River, its IFC buildings and clamshell towers easily visible when driving towards Anchorage. Site Bay (C Battery), across Cook Inlet from the others, has been mostly demolished, with only burned out shells of

935-488: A nuclear warhead in order to defeat entire formations of high-altitude supersonic targets. It evolved into a much larger missile with two solid fuel stages that provided three times the range of the Ajax. Deployment began in 1958, initially at new bases, but it eventually took over many Ajax bases as well. At its peak, it was deployed at over 130 bases in the US alone. Hercules was officially referred to as "transportable", but moving

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1020-552: A paper project when news of large deployments of short-range missiles in the Warsaw Bloc became a clear threat. Plato was cancelled in February 1959, replaced in the short term by further upgrades to Hercules, and in the longer term by the FABMDS program. FABMDS would have performance against any credible "theatre" ranged missile or rocket system, as well as offer anti-aircraft capabilities,

1105-666: A policy of denigrating Hercules and the Army using policy by press release . In a famous event, the Air Force interviewed for an article that appeared in the New York Times entitled "Air Force Calls Army Nike Unfit To Guard Nation". This was answered most forcibly not by the Army, but the Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson , who wrote in Newsweek that "one hard solid fact remerges above them all: no matter what

1190-405: A radio show for a veteran at the hospital. The show was created by Ralph Edwards in 1948. The US Army asked Edwards to "do something" for paraplegic soldiers at the hospital. In This Is Your Life the host would surprise one person by bringing on guests from that person's life in front of an audience. The people from the person's life could be colleagues, friends, and family. A Vet down on his luck

1275-481: A separate ranging system on another frequency. By making the signal wide-frequency, the jammer has to likewise broadcast across a similar bandwidth, limiting the energy in any one frequency and allowing the operator to tune the receiver to find an unjammed band. Combining range from the TRR and direction from the TTR provided complete information on the target. The changes were designed to be upgradable without major changes to

1360-451: A serious concern. Nevertheless, when the Army first released information about Ajax to the press in 1953, the Air Force quickly responded by leaking information about BOMARC to Aviation Week , and continued to denigrate Nike in the press over the next few years. Things changed dramatically with the development of Hercules. By the early 1950s, the Air Force was still struggling with their own long-range weapon systems, originally started in

1445-518: A single base to defend a much larger area, lowering the overall costs of deploying a widespread defensive system. As the larger Hercules would be easier to adapt to a longer-range form, the Army selected it as the winning design. Bell began working on the new design in concert with the Nike partners, Western Electric and Douglas Aircraft Company . Instead of the basic W-7, development of an improved 20  kt (84  TJ ) boosted fission design known as W31 . This used much less fissile material and

1530-445: A slant range of 79 miles (69 nmi; 127 km). The first SNODGRASS round was launched on 14 July with its warhead replaced by an instrument package and launched against a 350-knot (400 mph; 650 km/h) Q2A Ryan Firebee I drone. A similar test on 17 July against a 300-knot (350 mph; 560 km/h) Q2A destroyed the target with the T45. A dual-launch followed on 24 July, with

1615-414: A strict limit on the range of Army systems. In his 26 November 1956 memorandum, he limited the Army to weapons with 200-mile (320 km) range, and those involved in ground-to-air defense to only 100 miles (160 km). This forced the Army to turn its Jupiter IRBM systems to the Air Force, and to limit the range of their ABM developments. This did not do much to stop the squabbling, nor did it solve

1700-523: A unit to modify cars for those that lost the use of their legs, to drive with hands only. Actress Susan Peters also received a modified Birmingham car after a hunting accident. After the war on 31 March 1946, the hospital was turned over to the Veterans Administration and renamed Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital . The veterans' organization Paralyzed Veterans of America was started at this hospital. The VA Hospital closed in 1950,

1785-513: A wing for women vets , women that served in WAVES ( Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service ), Women's Army Corps and Army nurses. For returning Vets, 800 beds were used for debarkation medical work. The first commander of the hospital was Col. Alvin C. Miller, from the US Army's Pearl Harbor Army hospital . Chief of the medical rehabilitation was Jack W. Gregory. Birmingham General Hospital also had

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1870-403: Is still used in care centers. At Birmingham General Hospital, Bors treated up to 220 Vets. From around the world, other military doctors visited Birmingham General Hospital so as to learn about these new medical techniques. The hospital was located 13 miles north of Hollywood ; as such, many Hollywood actors and actress came to visit the servicemen. Hollywood Radio personalities also visited

1955-422: Is used for the current Mulholland Junior High - William Mulholland Middle School. Part of the land was retained by the US Army and used for Cold War air defense missile battalion headquarters of the 551st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Missile Battalion, and later the 4th Battalion, 65th Artillery , up until November 1968. This headquarters facility was responsible for the management of Nike Missile Control Sites in

2040-594: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that BOMARC and SAGE had been the "most costly waste of funds in the history of the Defense Department." Plans had been made to test the Hercules's W-7 warhead in a live-fire exercise in 1959 as part of "Operation SNODGRASS". However, as rumours of a ban on atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons spread, SNODGRASS became a crash project to be completed before 1 September 1958 at any available site –

2125-529: The Billy Mitchell court-martial in the 1920s. It did, however, allow development of Hercules to continue, and the system was soon preparing to deploy. In 1958 an article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times in which various Air Force officials complained that the Hercules was ineffective. Chicago was slated to shortly begin receiving its Hercules upgrades. Similar articles began appearing in papers around

2210-619: The S-75 Dvina (SA-2) from the USSR , and the English Electric Thunderbird in the UK. Even as the Nike was undergoing testing, planners grew concerned about the missile's ability to attack formations of aircraft. Given the low resolution of the tracking radars available at the time, a formation of aircraft would appear on the radars as a single larger return. Launched against such a formation,

2295-573: The US Air Force when that branch was formed in 1947. In 1946, the USAAF also started two early research projects into anti-missile systems in Project Thumper (MX-795) and Project Wizard (MX-794). In 1953, Project Nike delivered the world's first operational anti-aircraft missile system, known simply as Nike . Nike tracked both the target and the missile using separate radars, compared the locations in

2380-802: The University of Michigan in 1876, and on February 18, 1881 he entered the army as an assistant surgeon of the Medical Corps . Birmingham's first tours of duty were with the Fourth Cavalry in actions against the Apaches in the southwest. He was promoted to assistant surgeon on February 18, 1886. During the Spanish–American War , he served in Puerto Rico and then in the Philippines . On June 4, 1898, he

2465-413: The anti-ballistic missile role later emerged as the much larger LIM-49 Nike Zeus design. Hercules would prove to be the last operational missile from Bell's Nike team; Zeus was never deployed, and Hercules's replacements were developed by different teams. Hercules remained the US's primary heavy SAM until it began to be replaced by the higher performance and considerably more mobile MIM-104 Patriot in

2550-512: The 1940s in the GAPA project. The project had moved several times, and was now in late development as the BOMARC . BOMARC proved extremely expensive, difficult to maintain in operational readiness, had questionable performance, and was displaying a continued inability to reach operational status. Instead of de-emphasizing BOMARC in favor of Hercules, inter-service rivalry became rampant, and the Air Force began

2635-590: The 1980s. Patriot's much higher accuracy allowed it to dispense with the nuclear warhead, and Hercules was the last US SAM to use this option. The last Hercules missiles were deactivated in Europe in 1988, without ever being fired in a military conflict. During World War II , the US Army Air Force (USAAF) concluded that existing anti-aircraft guns , only marginally effective against existing generations of propeller-driven aircraft, would not be effective at all against

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2720-632: The Air Force scrambled to bring BOMARC to operational status, and on 1 September 1959 declared the 46th Air Defense Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base operational. It was later revealed that only one of the 60 missiles at the site was actually functional at that time. Engineers continued work on getting a second missile operational at McGuire, but the Air Force went ahead with plans to open the Suffolk County Missile Annex by 1 January 1960. In January, only four missiles were operational at Suffolk, and during House appropriation hearings that month,

2805-605: The DoD proved rather subdued when Congress attacked the design, especially in light of several failed tests of the BOMARC B missile. In February, Air Force Chief of Staff Thomas D. White shocked everyone when he requested that BOMARC deployments be reduced to eight US and two Canadian sites, essentially killing the program. In the aftermath of the Hercules/BOMARC debates, retired Army Brigadier General Thomas R. Phillips wrote an article for

2890-513: The GOER-based Hercules would not be used operationally. Efforts to mount the HIPAR on the same platform between March and December 1962 were not nearly as successful, and on 18 December 1962 the concept was abandoned in favor of an "airmobile" solution using conventional M52 trucks and modified trailers. The resulting system used six semi-trailers: four to carry HIPAR electronic gear, one to carry

2975-409: The Hercules's capabilities, able to defend against such a target over a relatively limited range. Increasing performance against these longer-range "theatre" weapons would require more extensive upgrades that would have pushed the time-frame out to the range when FABMDS was expected. The primary change to create the resulting "Improved EFS/ATBM Hercules" was a modified version of the HIPAR. The antenna

3060-490: The Los Angeles area which operated Nike Ajax missiles and Nike Hercules missiles . In 1945 the US Army opened the first Spinal Cord Injury Center at Birmingham General Army Hospital. The Center used the work of Doctor Ernest Bors (1900–1990), who was one of the foremost experts on neurourology in traumatic spinal cord injury. Bors had developed a holistic multidisciplinary approach for treating spinal cord injury which

3145-670: The Nevada Test Site was fully booked with the existing Project AMMO testing series. Part of the rush was due to the newly evolving understanding of the effects of nuclear weapons on radar systems, which led to serious concerns about various weapon's systems ability to operate after nearby nuclear explosions. Testing of the W-7 was put into AMMO, while the SNODGRASS series was moved to an Army-Air Force test at Eglin Air Force Base with tests of both

3230-415: The Nike is or isn't, it's the only land-based operational anti-aircraft missile that the U.S. has." By the time early Hercules deployments were starting in 1958, BOMARC was still nowhere near operational. All of this was part of a larger fight going on over the Army's Jupiter missile , which the Air Force stated should be their mission. Wilson attempted to address the inter-service rivalries by enforcing

3315-405: The Nike would fly towards the center of the composite return. Given the Nike warhead's relatively small lethal radius, if the missile flew into the middle of the formation and exploded, it would be highly unlikely to destroy any of the aircraft. Improving performance against such targets would require either much higher resolution radars or much larger warheads. Of the two, the warhead seemed like

3400-674: The Vets at Birmingham were moved to the Veterans Administration Long Beach Hospital. In 1952 the hospital was sold to the Los Angeles City Schools for $ 1.00. Los Angeles City School opened Birmingham High School - Birmingham Community Charter High School (BCCHS) on 1953, it served grades seven to 12. Mrs. Albert Zoraster, a member of the Havenhurst Elementary School P.T.A, was credited with having

3485-532: The XM-61 single-chamber booster, but when the XM-42 cluster proved to be even less expensive than expected, this effort was also dropped. As part of the upgrade project, the original missile became known as Nike I . On 15 November 1956, the new missile was officially renamed as the Nike Hercules, as part of DA Circular 700-22, while the Nike I becoming Nike Ajax. The new design ultimately provided effective ranges on

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3570-411: The ability to attack four targets at once, and be relatively mobile. The Hercules system was compared to threats ranging from the relatively short-range Little John , Honest John and Lacrosse through medium-range systems like Corporal, Sergeant and Lance , and finally the long-range (for battlefield concerns) 200 miles (320 km) Redstone . Of these threats, Redstone was considered just within

3655-469: The antenna, and one to carry the generators. General Electric demonstrated a prototype on 11 February 1964. The AN/MPQ-43 Mobile HIPAR was made part of Hercules Standard A in August 1966 and began operational deployment in Europe on 12 April 1967. Soviet development of ICBMs and the de-emphasis of their bomber force decreased the value of the Hercules system. Beginning around 1965, the number of Nike batteries

3740-620: The batteries remaining, as well as a few storage bunkers. The large airstrip remains, and is often used by locals for flight instruction and practice. Hercules remained a major front-line weapon in Europe into the 1980s. Over the years, the vacuum-tube guidance system, as well as the complex fire control systems' radars, suffered from diminishing manufacturing source (DMS) issues. In part because of less parts supportability, Western European ( Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (4 ATAF) and Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF) sites essentially became fixed sites and were no longer considered capable of

3825-655: The budget would mean neither force would be funded to the level required to fulfill the defence mission. In 1959 both the House and Senate debated the systems, with the Senate recommending cutting funding for Hercules and the House stating the opposite. The House eventually came to support the Defense Secretary's position as stated in the Master Air Defense Plan, retaining Hercules while reducing BOMARC and SAGE. Meanwhile,

3910-531: The conventional T45 and nuclear W-7 warheads. A variety of problems, including one found in the W-7 warhead, caused delays in the testing programs, so a single launch of the T45-equipped Hercules was also added to the AMMO project. The AMMO shot took place on 1 July 1958, successfully intercepting a simulated 650-knot (750 mph; 1,200 km/h) target flying at an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,000 m) and

3995-636: The country, invariably just before that city was to begin receiving their missiles. This prompted ARAACOM commander Charles E. Hart to petition the Secretary of Defense to order the Air Force to stop the well organized campaign against Hercules. The Army then began its own series of press releases under what they called "Project Truth". Eventually, in November the new Secretary of Defense, Neil H. McElroy announced both systems would be purchased. Both forces, and their congressional supporters, realized that splitting

4080-460: The deployed system – the TTR/MTR could be replaced at any time, the HIPAR used its own displays and therefore required no changes in the missile launch equipment, the TRR was slaved to the TTR and simply updated range readings, and the new seeker could be retrofitted at any time. The original Ajax detection radar retroactively became known as LOPAR, and remained in use as the main target selection radar in

4165-519: The earlier system required manual switching that took about 30 seconds. The first EFS sets arrived at White Sands late in 1962 and started testing in April 1963. In testing the system was successful against all manner of short-range rockets and missiles, and successfully tracked the Redstone on 23 September and 5 October 1963, but failed to achieve a "kill" in either test due to unrelated problems. A test against

4250-629: The emerging jet-powered designs. Like the Germans and British before them, they concluded the only successful defence would be to use guided weapons. As early as 1944 the US Army started exploring anti-aircraft missiles, examining a variety of concepts. They split development between the Army Air Force or the Ordnance Department based on whether or not the design "depend[ed] for sustenance primarily on

4335-543: The existing fuselage. In spite of the greatly increased explosive power, the WX-7 was only slightly heavier than the WX-9, about 950 lb (430 kg) for common XW-7 versions, as opposed to 850 lb (390 kg) for the XW-9. At the same time, there were increasing concerns that higher speed aircraft would be able to launch their warheads at the extreme range of the Nike bases. This was

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4420-412: The first round destroying its target with the T45, and the second with the instrument package flying one second behind. A similar test on 29 July launched two missiles against three F-80 Shooting Star drones flying in formation, the first missile destroyed the lead aircraft while the second passed within lethal range of a second. Testing was unexpectedly cancelled before the W-7 could be fired. Hercules

4505-488: The hospital. During late 1944, the Jack Benny Christmas program was broadcast from the hospital. Among these regular visitors were: Ronald Reagan , Anne Jeffreys , Basil Rathbone , Mary Pickford , Linda Darnell , Al Pearce , Charles Laughton , June Haver , Jimmy Stewart , Bagelman Sisters , Clarence Nash , The Charioteers and Bob Hope . The hospital was used for the 1950 Hollywood movie The Men which

4590-622: The last Army National Guard unit in May 1964. Nuclear-armed Nike Hercules missiles were deployed in the United States, Greece, Italy, Korea and Turkey, and with Belgian, Dutch, and U.S. forces in West Germany. Conventionally armed Nike Hercules missiles also served in the United States, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Norway, and Taiwan. The first deployments in Europe began in 1959. Even before deployment of Hercules began, studies on improvements to

4675-528: The lift of aerodynamic forces" or "primary on the momentum of the missile". That is, whether the missile operated more like an aircraft (Air Force) or a rocket (Ordnance). Official requirements were published in 1945; Bell Laboratories won the Ordnance contract for a short-range line-of-sight weapon under Project Nike, while a team of players led by Boeing won the contract for a long-range design known as Ground-to-Air Pilotless Aircraft , or GAPA. GAPA moved to

4760-483: The missile control van. HIPAR would detect targets separately and "hand off" to the LOPAR and TTR so those systems could remain largely unchanged and able to launch either Hercules or Ajax. These changes were presented on 24 August 1956, and accepted by both CONARC and ARADCOM. The active seeker system was later dropped to lower costs. Engineering was complete in 1958 and entered low-rate production in May 1959. The first HIPAR

4845-406: The missile systems. They saw this as an extension of the Army's existing "point defence" role, and as a valuable backup to their own manned interceptors. There were concerns about the possibility of Air Force fighters being attacked by Army missiles, but the two forces improved co-ordination between the Army's ARAACOM and the Air Force's Air Defense Command (ADC) to the point where it was no longer

4930-562: The much higher performance Pershing was carried out on 16 October 1963, and while the HIPAR was able to detect the missile, the tracking system was unable to track it. The first deployment of the EFS/ATBM HIPAR was carried out between February and 20 April 1963, but during this time the Army decided not to deploy these systems in the United States. Further deployments to allied units and US units in Alaska were carried out between November 1963 and

5015-554: The nature of these fuels, extreme caution had to be used whenever the missiles were moved or unloaded for maintenance. This was carried out in a protected area behind a large berm, in order to protect the rest of the site from an accidental explosion during fueling. This complexity added enormously to the cost and time required to maintain the missiles. Solid fuel rockets can remain stored for years and are generally very difficult to ignite without an extended period of applied flame. This means they can be manhandled safely and maintained with

5100-524: The need to attack formations without nuclear warheads, operations against low-altitude targets, and better traffic-handling capabilities to handle larger raids. In early 1956, Bell began studies of the Improved Nike Hercules (INH) concept by considering the predicted threat for the 1960-65 period. This was aircraft with speeds up to Mach 3, a wide range of radar cross sections , and powerful electronic countermeasures . IRBMs and ICBMs were also

5185-401: The order of 75 miles (65 nmi; 121 km) and altitudes ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 feet (6,100 to 30,500 m). Minimum range had a ground radius of approximately 10,000 yards (30,000 ft; 9,100 m) and an altitude of approximately 20,000 feet (6,100 m) 20,000 ft. Throughout the early Nike evolution, the then-new Air Force had been encouraged by the deployment of

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5270-405: The original vacuum tube systems being replaced with transistorized ones. Although Hercules had demonstrated its ability to successfully engage short-range missiles, the capability was not considered very important. During development the Air Force continued its Project Wizard while the Army started its Project Plato studies for dedicated anti-missile systems. By 1959, Plato was still very much

5355-457: The problems that led to the issues in the first place – the fight over Hercules and BOMARC and related anti-missile developments. Nor did it stop the fighting in the press. Army Colonel John C. Nickerson Jr. publicly denounced Wilson, while leaking details of their latest missile design, the Pershing missile . The resulting flap led to calls for Nickerson to be court-martialed and was compared to

5440-432: The rocket motor installed. However, the lower specific impulse of these engines, combined with the requirement for longer range, demanded a much larger fuselage to store the required fuel. Hercules, still known officially as Nike B at this point, grew to become a much larger design. This, in turn, required a much larger booster to loft it, but this was solved by strapping together four of the existing Nike boosters to form

5525-443: The same frequency. Unless the transmitter has encoded some additional form of information in the signal, the receiver cannot determine which pulse it sent out and which is from the jammer. Note that this has no effect on the determination of the direction to the target, which is the same for both the original and jammer pulses. However, it makes the determination of range difficult or impossible. The TRR solves this problem by providing

5610-510: The simplest problem to address. Like almost any thorny military problem of the 1950s, the solution was the application of nuclear bombs . In May 1952, Bell was asked to explore such an adaptation to the Nike. They returned two design concepts. "Nike Ajax" used a slightly modified Nike missile, largely a re-arrangement of the internal components, making room for the 15  kt (63  TJ ) WX-9 "gun-type" warhead also being developed as an artillery round. The WX-9, like all gun-type designs,

5695-766: The spring of 1979. Dismantling of the sites in Florida – Alpha Battery in Everglades National Park , Bravo Battery in Key Largo, Charlie Battery in Carol City and Delta Battery, located on Krome Avenue on the outskirts of Miami – started in June 1979 and was completed by early autumn of that year. The buildings that once housed Delta Battery became the original structures used for the Krome Avenue Detention Facility,

5780-471: The summer of 1965. As Hercules had evolved from the fixed-base Ajax system, early deployments offered no mobility. However, both Ajax and Hercules systems in Europe had to be able to move as US forces shifted. This led to the use of semi-trailer systems for the fire control systems, which could be easily moved and re-positioned as required. LOPAR was relatively small, and the TTR/MTR were always trailer based, so these systems were also fairly mobile. The problem

5865-414: The system had been identified. A 23 October 1954 report stated that "Concurrent with the prosecution of the NIKE I and NIKE B programs, studies and research and development must be conducted to insure that the NIKE equipment is modernized to the maximum extent within the limits of current technology and economics of improvement as compared to investment in a new system ...". Three key elements were identified;

5950-620: The target Hercules flying in a semi-ballistic trajectory. Deployment of the INH upgrade kits began on 10 June 1961 at the BA-30 site in the Washington–Baltimore defense area, and continued into September 1967. HIPAR was a large system and generally deployed under a dome on top of a concrete platform that raised it above any local obstructions. To provide the same range of view, the tracking radars were also often placed on concrete platforms of their own, although these were much smaller. The Hercules missile systems sold to Japan ( Nike J ) were subsequently fitted with upgraded internal guidance systems,

6035-402: The vision of using the former hospital as a school. Congressman Joseph F. Holt helped make her vision a reality. The school's principal, Dr. John I. Abbott, quickly transformed the shuttered hospital grounds into a school facility. For example, the chapel was converted into a drama classroom. Some original VA buildings, along with the old pools, are still on the high school campus. The land also

6120-466: Was Marlon Brando 's first film; in it, he plays the part of an injured-in-combat World War II veteran. Brando lived as a wheelchair-user for several weeks among the patients in preparation for the role. Birmingham General Hospital was used along with its actual name in the 1950 movie Backfire . The movie was inspired by the work carried out at Birmingham General Hospital's Spinal Cord Injury Center. The main actor plays an injured Vet who falls in love with

6205-499: Was designed from the start to operate from Ajax bases. However, as it protected a much greater area, not as many sites were needed to provide coverage of potential targets. Early deployments starting in 1958 were on new sites, but Ajax units started converting as well. Conversions were largely complete by 1960, leaving only a few Ajax sites in use. The last active Nike Ajax batteries were relieved of their mission in December 1961, followed by

6290-595: Was in charge of the ambulance service of the army and the gas defense service of the medical department. In 1918, he retired as a colonel, then went right back to active duty. In 1930, he retired by operation of law as a brigadier general. Birmingham died at age 78 on May 4, 1932. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery . A World War II US Army Hospital called the Birmingham General Hospital from August 24, 1943 till March 31, 1946 in Van Nuys, California

6375-521: Was long and thin, originally designed to be fired from an 11 in (280 mm) artillery piece, and easily fit within the Nike fuselage. The competing implosion-type design is considerably more efficient and uses much less nuclear fuel to reach any given explosive power. Bell proposed a much more modified design known as "Nike Hercules" with an enlarged upper fuselage able to carry the XW-7 warhead of up to 40  kt (170  TJ ) that wouldn't fit in

6460-480: Was modified to give it the ability to see higher angles, while the Battery Control Console was upgraded with dual PPI displays for short- and long-range work, and the data link to the missile van was upgraded. Additionally the radar was given the "Electronic Frequency Selection" (EFS) system which allowed operators to quickly switch between a selection of operating frequencies at about 20 microseconds, while

6545-653: Was named after him. The Hospital serviced troop returning home from the war. From 1946 to 1950 the Hospital was named the Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1952, the Hospital was sold to the Los Angeles City Schools where it eventually became Birmingham High School . Nike Hercules The Nike Hercules , initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14 , was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense . It

6630-448: Was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead , but could also be fitted with a conventional warhead for export use. Its warhead also allowed it to be used in a secondary surface-to-surface role, and the system also demonstrated its ability to hit other short-range missiles in flight. Hercules was originally developed as a simple upgrade to the earlier MIM-3 Nike Ajax , allowing it to carry

6715-449: Was picked as the first person on the show Truth or Consequences . The show was a hit and This Is Your Life was started as its own show. Henry Patrick Birmingham Henry Patrick Birmingham (March 15, 1854 – May 4, 1932) was a surgeon and an American brigadier general active during World War I . Birmingham was born in Brooklyn, New York . He received his medical degree from

6800-532: Was promoted to major, brigade surgeon of volunteers, and on April 23, 1908 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, Medical Corps. In 1914, he was the chief surgeon of the Vera Cruz Expedition under General Frederick Funston . On October 2, 1917, Birmingham was promoted to brigadier general and the same year he received an honorary master's degree from the University of Michigan. During World War I, Birmingham

6885-526: Was reduced. Thule's air defense was reduced during 1965, and SAC air base defense during 1966, reducing the number of batteries to 112. Budgetary cuts reduced that number to 87 in 1968, and 82 in 1969. Nike Hercules was included in SALT I discussions as an ABM. All CONUS Hercules batteries, with the exception of the ones in Florida and Alaska , were deactivated by April 1974. The remaining units were deactivated during

6970-483: Was special care for Vets with central nervous system syphilis , rheumatic fever , quadriplegic and paraplegic and shell shock . Due to the war efforts Penicillin was being mass-produced by 1944. The Hospital made use of this new wonder drug in helping Vets. The hospital was also one of the first to use an antibiotic ointment on patients. Maj. Joseph Weinberg used the new antibiotic ointment to help patients with infected compound fractures . The hospital also had

7055-449: Was tested at White Sands between 14 April 1960 and 13 April 1961, starting with two Ajax launches that passed 14 yards and 18 yards from the drone targets, and a further 17 Hercules launches that were generally successful. Among the various test targets were a Mach 3 Lockheed AQM-60 , a drone, and a Corporal missile . Also conducted were tests to evaluate ECM performance, two surface-to-surface tests, and two Hercules-on-Hercules attacks with

7140-546: Was the missile launcher itself, and especially the large HIPAR radar, which presented a formidable mobility problem. Starting in April 1960, considerable effort was put into a fully mobile "Cross-Country Hercules" launcher based on the M520 Goer vehicle, an articulated prime mover that saw considerable service during the Vietnam War . This system was successfully tested at White Sands on 1 October 1961. In spite of this success,

7225-581: Was thus considerably less expensive. Developed by Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque and at Los Alamos , it was given 1A priority by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in March 1953. Soon after design work started, the Army requested that the existing liquid fuel engine be replaced with a solid fuel design, for a variety of reasons. Primary among these was that the Ajax fuels were hypergolic , igniting on contact. Due to

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