Trip Report: Thanksgiving in the Heartland
First published in 1999. Reformatted 2025.Wednesday, 24 November 1999
We drove from Arlington, Texas, to Offutt AFB, Nebraska, on a family Thanksgiving trip. Just a reminder PIN means Permanent Installation Number and ILC means Installation Location Code; I include these for Air Force properties when I know them. Forbes AF Missile Site #9 KS. This Atlas E missile site is now Jackson Heights School, Home of the Cobras. As you drive up the access road to the school, the spray pond to your left is the first clue to an ICBM heritage. Then, as you ease to the left of the first school building a distinctive Atlas E coffin launcher is visible. Farther ahead, in a parking area, is the communications silo. A brick wall with a roll-up garage door and a personnel door has replaced the vertical launcher access door. It appeared as though the command center was underneath the school building. The flame pit has been obliterated, but much of the hardware immediately surrounding the launcher is intact, inside a fence. A pitched roof covers the horizontal launcher door.General view
General view
Communications silo
Missile door
Flame pit location
Launcher area
Launcher area
Launcher area
Launcher area We stayed in billeting on Offutt AFB, my first ever visit to this base. Our suite faced STRATCOM headquarters, so we had a view of the Trident and Minuteman missiles on the front lawn of the HQ building. Nothing against jointness, but I suspect Curtis LeMay would roll over in his grave if he knew a Navy sentry was guarding the gate at Offutt AFB!
Thursday, 25 November 1999
Nike OF-10C IA, 41-13-52, 95-42-34. After feasting on turkey, why watch football on TV when you can look for the local Nike missile site? We headed for highway 92 east of Council Bluffs to see OF-10. The Integrated Fire Control (IFC) site is south of the road, now occupied by the Loess Hills Education Service Unit, it was gated and locked.General view
General view
General view
General view Nike OF-10L IA, 41-13-52, 95-42-14. A short distance to the east, also on the south side of highway 92, sits the launcher site. It also was gated and locked, and due to the terrain not much at all was visible. This was an aboveground launcher site, with 12 Nike Hercules missiles on their launchers in a series of earthen berms. Location is
Gate and sentry box
General view
General view
Friday, 26 November 1999
Offutt AF Missile Site #1 NE. The signs were a bit confusing, and it was hard to tell if the missile complex was Army National Guard or Nebraska University property. As I was pondering the signage, a gentleman drove out of the missile base in a pickup truck. I asked him about the property, and he said it was owned by the university and leased by his company for ranching and storage. He welcomed us to look around, so we did. Making a counterclockwise loop, I first paused at a building with a round ring on the roof--I don't know its purpose. Then we stopped at Launcher #3, my first Atlas D launcher! Continuing along, we passed launcher #2 and launcher #1. Then we passed a couple of small storage buildings and finally the Launch Operations Building.Gate
Building
Building
Launcher #3
Launcher #3
Launcher #3interior
Launcher #3 interior
Launcher #3 interior
Launcher #3 flame pit
Launcher #3 flame pit
Launcher #3 flame pit
Launcher #2
Launcher #1
Building
Building
Launch operations building
Launch operations building Nebraska Ordnance Plant NE. The Atlas site is on the grounds of this former WWII ordnance plant.
Ammunition storage magazines Fort Omaha NE, 41-18-38, 95-57-18. It is now the Fort Omaha Campus of Metropolitan College. It probably looks very much like it did in WWI when it was an Air Service Balloon School, with brick buildings surrounding the parade ground.
Historical marker
Non-historic sign
General view Omaha AFS NE, 41-21-37, 96-01-30. The search radar is still operated by the FAA. Most of the vintage buildings remain, occupied by a variety of organizations and businesses. The family housing units appeared to be occupied.
Search radar
Search radar
Dormitory
General view
General view
General view
General view
General view
Saturday, 27 November 1999
Glenwood Communications Site GWEN 850 IA. Marked only as "U.S. Govt Property," this is a standard USAF Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN) relay node site. It listed as Glenwood/Pacific Junction in the November 1988 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (courtesy of Mark Foster's web site). The site has a 299-foot tower. A shorter tower, a pair of equipment shelters and an eggbeater antenna are in a small fenced compound.General view of 299-foot tower
Shorter tower
Shorter tower
Equipment shelter and eggbeater antenna
Equipment shelters
Sunday, 28 November 1999
Traffic was light as far south as Tulsa, and then it turned ugly. Lots of construction bottlenecks mixed with holiday traffic made it a bit unpleasant, but we made it home in 12 hours. Updated January 26, 2025If you like what you find here, please consider making a monetary contribution. Domain name registration, web hosting, and travel cost plenty. You won't find any ads here to annoy you.