He was ready to launch nukes from Byron

Residence: Warner Robins

Occupation: Retired, U.S. Army, civil service

Q: Is it true you had your “finger on the button” of nuclear missiles during the Cold War in the 1960s?

A: You could say that.

Q: And where were you?

A: Byron.

Q: Not everyone’s aware there were nuclear missiles in Byron. Was it a secret?

A: It wasn’t secret we were there but the site was classified as to how the missiles and radars worked. My clearance was top secret. But the site wasn’t common knowledge. When I came in 1962, I stopped at a barber shop on Main Street to ask directions to the missile base and they told me, “There aren’t any missiles around here.” I said, “Yes sir, there are, that’s where I’m going.” So he said, “We’ll you must mean that place up the road — there’s a lot of soldiers around there.” So I guess they did a good job of being there but keeping what was going on low key.

Q: Where was “up the road?”

A: Just north of Byron on Boy Scout Road. The site was there from 1960 to 1966.

Q: If they were keeping it quiet then, you and others are trying to make it more well-known now. How so?

A: We put a monument at the Byron Municipal Complex. It’s there at the flagpoles near the road. It has a seal on the front and a little about the site on the top.

Q: What’s something you included?

A: Mainly it being an Army missile site, Battery B, 4th Missile Battalion, Nike-Hercules, 61st Air Defense Artillery. The monument also has Byron, Ga., 1960-1966 and Blazing Skies.

Q: What’s Blazing Skies? A nickname?

A: Missile guys used it a lot. It’s significant because at the end of a launch sequence if it was the real thing you would say “blast off.” If it was a drill, you would say “blazing skies” instead. You didn’t want to be saying blast off unless it was the real thing.

Q: Did you ever get to “blast off” versus “blazing skies” at Byron? Or elsewhere in your career?

A: No, fortunately not. The only ones we fired were when we’d travel to White Sands, New Mexico, once a year and go through the routine for practice.

Q: What missiles would you have launched if needed? And why were missiles located in Byron?

A: We were in Byron for general defense but our big role was to protect Robins Air Force Base and the Strategic Air Command wing stationed there in those days. It was mostly to protect them from Soviet bombers. With its strategic planes and big bombs, SAC was instrumental and the most powerful defense we had in the Cold War. We were in Byron and had a sister site on the other side of Robins over in Twiggs County. They were Battery A and we were Battery B. We had the base well covered.

Q: And the missiles?

A: Nike-Hercules nuclear warhead missiles. They were really, really fast, accurate and powerful missiles.

Q: The need was probably never clearer than in late 1962 during the face off between President John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev over missiles in Cuba. You got to Byron in ’62. Were you there at that time so close to war?

A: Yes. I got to Byron in January 1962.

Q: What were those days like? Those moments of greatest tension?

A: They were sure the hottest we had. The one other time I can remember like that was when North Korea took the USS Pueblo in 1968. I was stationed in Korea then. But the old Nike missiles are no longer in service. Our defense strategy changed when the Soviet Union’s strategy shifted from bombers to intercontinental ballistic missiles. But our Nike-Hercules could take out a squadron versus a single aircraft or missile. They were so accurate if you held your hand up we could hit it from 150, 200 miles away. Radar systems tracked the target and our computers guided the missile to where to strike.

Q: What was your actual role?

A: I became a chief warrant officer while there. My job involved maintaining the radar and computer systems. There were two areas: the control site where I was that launched the missiles and the nearby missile site where the missiles actually sat. When we weren’t at “battle stations” ready to fire we were constantly maintaining and checking equipment to make sure we were ready if needed.

Q: What’s at the site now?

A: Several places have owned the property. Pyrotechnic Specialties is out there now and berms we used to hide our missiles they use in their operations now.

Q: You retired to Warner Robins, are you originally from here?

A: No, but I’m from Georgia — from Vidalia. I joined the Army when I was 17. I tried to at 16 but got caught. I’m 84 now. When I retired from the Army after 20 years — 17 with missiles — I went to work at Robins in electronics. I quickly became a supervisor, partially because I’d been a chief warrant officer. I was at the Byron site from ’62 until it closed, probably the longest of anybody. Most of the guys there were enlisted and didn’t stay more than three years. There were typically about 120 stationed there.

Q: They’d have to be a pretty dedicated, focused group, wouldn’t they?

A: And a proud bunch. Proud of their service and the role they played in those days. We didn’t want to start a war but it was a good feeling to know we could have protected the U.S. if necessary. And really good to know we helped prevent war, as it turned out. Ernest Cooling who lives here has been instrumental in keeping the memory alive and in our first reunion four or five years ago. About 80 came from all over. A lot of them are gone now so I guess the idea for the monument came about because we didn’t want the memory of the site and our service to just go into oblivion.

This story was originally published April 8, 2017 at 5:19 PM with the headline "He was ready to launch nukes from Byron."