Nike Missile Dallas-Fort Worth Defense Area
Site designations and locations of Nike Hercules sites guarding Dallas-Fort Worth were: (DF-01) north of Denton, (DF-20) northeast of Terrell, (DF-50) southeast of Alvarado, and (DF-70) Fort Wolters. Headquarters facilities were located at Duncanville Air Force Station.
Responsibility for constructing these four sites, installed to defend Dallas with its defense production facilities, fell on the Corps of Engineers Fort Worth District. Each site required about 30 acres. At Alvarado, the Fort Worth District was forced to bring condemnation suits to acquire the land. Construction began in 1958. Total acquisition and construction costs for each site came to $1.5 million.
These Nike Hercules sites were manned by Regular Army and National Guard units and operated from 1960 to 1968. Missile defense was coordinated from a "BIRDIE" site collocated with Air Force tracking radars at Duncanville Air Force Station.
The Dallas-Fort Worth defense was established primarily for the protection of the Convair/General Dynamics, Vought and Bell aircraft plants in Fort Worth and Grand Prairie, and the government, commercial and rail transportation facilities in the area. Included under the defense umbrella were the Army's huge helicopter pilot training installation at Fort Wolters, SAC's Carswell AFB (7th Bombardment Wing) and Naval Air Station Dallas.
The area's four widely dispersed Nike Hercules sites were constructed in the late 1950s. The command post was colocated with the Air Defense Command's Duncanille AFS, south of Dallas. Long range early warning C2 were furnished by the SAGE installation at Richards-Gebauer AFB, MO, and the manual command post at Oklahoma City AFS, OK.
The sites at Denton and Terrell were turned over to the Texas Army Guard in February 1964. All four sites were inacitivated in 1969.