Charles Carter invited Parks and Susan Masterson and me to accompany him on this VIP tour for former Nike missilemen, tour guide trainees and Bay of Pigs pilot veterans of the former U. S. Army HM-69 Nike Hercules missile base in Everglades National Park, one of four Nike Hercules bases in South Florida to protect the USA from missile and aircraft attacks from Cuba during the Cold War of the 1960's and 70's. Charles served early on at the missile bases when the crews were in tents and he has been instrumental in helping the National Park Service start the tours of the former missile facilities. Charles also procured an old Nike missile and trailer to display at the former missile site and I helped him get them restored by the George T. Baker Aviation School through Lonny Craven, Manager of Airside Operations at Miami International Airport.

Charles also organized the reunion of former Army missilemen at Miami just before they were given the tour of the ENP missile site toward the end of their reunion.

Public tours started on December 23, 2011 and will run only during the winter seasons. See http://www.nps.gov/ever/historyculture/hm69.htm to view an aerial photo of the former missile base and more information about the base and the tours. I also have a gallery of photos of the missile bases on this site at http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/memories_missile_bases .

We started at the former battalion headquarters building which was adjacent to the former Integrated Fire Control facilities and then drove to the actual former missile launching site about a mile away. This site is almost identical to the Nike Hercules site in Broward County (now Miramar) just south of the Snake Creek Canal.