Originally Posted By: wagga
Salty, just do it.


OK:Chicagowright's unnumbered WITWHH is the last remaining Nike/Hercules missile site, Site Summit at Elmendorf Joint Site (FKA Elmendorf AFB) overlooking Anchorage, Alaska.

Interpretation of the clues:

6288 and 231 referred to Mt Washington, our first (wrong) stab at it, because the Nike site bears a striking resemblance to the Mt Washington Observatory, el 6288 and location of the highest recorded surface wind speed on the planet 231 MPH

I actually didn't notice CWright's "Just do it!" clue until wagga repeated it, but that would be the famous Nike shoe slogan.


My first answer about rallying round the flag refers to Max Shulman's satirical novel (and later movie) "Rally Round The Flag, Boys!" based on the controversy around the siting of a Nike base in Westport, Connecticut, where I grew up, in the 50's.

Wagga's clue about the dewy night and moonrise refers to the Distance Early Warning radar array line, installed a couple thousand miles north of the Summmit site in 1957, designed to detect Soviet bombers coming over the pole, a scary moonrise indeed. No doubt the Nike sites were in communication with the DEW line, but were not part of it.

My mention of the rust on the clamshell radar cowlings was a hint that this site is way out of date and not operating.

The fact that nothing actually happened here is an observation that if this site had actually ever been used for its intended purpose - to fire on Soviet strategic bombers - we would probably not be having this conversation.

The Augean stables is a reference to one of the twelve tasks of Hercules. In 1962 or so, all these sites (there were hundreds of them, 25 or ore in the Bay Area alone) were upgraded to the Hercules missile.

SO: I just did it.



Wherever you go, there you are.
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