Niagara Falls Air Force Missile Site Explained

Niagara Falls Air Force Missile Site
Location:	Location E of Tuscarora Rd, W of drainage ditch along Niagara Falls Air Force Base, 5.1miles ENE of Niagara Falls, New York
Type:	surface-to-air missile base
Controlledby:	Air Defense Command 1961-8 Aerospace Defense Command 1968-9
Garrison:	35th Air Defense Missile Squadron

The Niagara Falls Air Force Missile Site was a Cold War USAF launch complex for Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc surface-to-air missiles. It was operated by the 35th Air Defense Missile Squadron. Equipped only IM-99Bs (46 missiles: solid-state, solid-fuel booster), the site had 48 Model IV "coffin" shelters,^[1] after an initial design with a secure area of ~20acres to have 28 shelters (the planned site had additional area for 84 "future shelters").^[2]

Notes and References

1. Web site: BOMARC at Niagara Falls Air Force Base.
2. Web site: Archived copy . 2013-09-04 . 2013-03-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130309224241/http://www.niagara.afrc.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120530-020.pdf . dead .
3. http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201962%20%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201962%20%20Grayscale%20-%201000.pdf
4. News: September 20, 1962 . Capt. Frezza Is Awarded AF Medal . Google news archive . Beaver County Times . 2013-09-02.
5. Web site: BOMARC in California.
6. Book: Clearwater, John. Canadian Nuclear Weapons: The Untold Story of Canada's Cold War Arsenal. 1 February 1998. Dundurn. 9781459713185. Google Books.
7. News: October 28, 1969 . Niagara Falls Air Force Units Are Phased Out . Google news archive . Observer-Reporter . 2013-09-03.
8. compiled by Book: Johnson . Mildred W. . 31 December 1980 . February 1973: Cornett, Lloyd H. Jr. . A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980 . . . 2012-03-26 . 2016-02-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160213173347/http://www.usafpatches.com/pubs/handbookofadcorg.pdf . dead .
9. Web site: Former BOMARC Missile Site - Wikimapia.
10. Boeing Airplane Company . Special Facitily [sic] FY '59: Niagara Falls, New York General Plan |url=http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/02/16/83/38_full.jpg |date=n.d.}} Launch control for the site's missiles was by central NY's "Hancock Field combined direction-combat center" (CC-01/DC-03) at Syracuse, New York. DC-03 was operational on December 1, 1958; (CC-01 was the "first SAGE regional battle post", beginning operations "in early 1959".)

    Construction began in 1959.^[2] The missile site and squadron were activated on 1 June 1960, and missiles were operational on 1 December 1961. In January 1962 the RF-62E gap filler radar site at Brookfield Air Force Station in Ohio became a "major off-base…installation" of the Niagara Falls site, transferred from Wright-Patterson AFB. In 1962, command of the BOMARC base transferred from Col. John A. Sarosy^[3] to Col James L. Livingston.^[4]

    The site was the first BOMARC B launch complex to close, on 31 December 1969.^{[5] [6]} The closure was part of a realignment of "307 military bases".^[7] The missile site was vacant until turned over to the Niagara Falls Municipal Airport.^[8] The 1959 "Access Road" is now Johnson Street of the "Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (NFARS) Fuel Depot", built over the area of the BOMARC shelters, which are still visible. The former northwest corner of the missile site is the current Tuscarora Road military gate.^[9] The 35th Air Defense Missile Squadron (BOMARC) was constituted on 17 December 1959 and activated on 1 June 1960 in the Syracuse Air Defense Sector. It was transferred to the Detroit Air Defense Sector on 4 September 1963, the 34th Air Division on 1 April 1966, the 35th Air Division on 15 September 1969, and the 21st Air Division on 19 November 1969. It was inactivated on 31 December 1969.

    References

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