America's Last Line Of Air Defense- Right In Your Own Backyard!

Old unused service road in James W. Day (formerly Nike) Park, leading back to a formerly secret past. Photo by Gary Rice

Imagine having powerful Nike-Ajax guided missiles just blocks from your home. Imagine having soldiers, support buildings and underground military storage tanks, just minutes from your door. That was indeed the case from 1957 until about 1968, right here in your community, at a Nike missile launch site. This site was located in the area currently occupied by the properties comprising part of the campus of Tri-C West, along with the present-day James W. Day (formerly, Nike) Park on Pleasant Valley Road.

It was one of a number of launch sites for air defense missiles in the Greater Cleveland area; all to be deployed if necessary in order to save Cleveland, Ohio and the rest of America from the effects of Soviet bombers.

Ironically, having these sites also made us prime targets for those very same Soviet bombers!

Gulp...

By the 1960's, huge inter-continental ballistic missiles had been developed, and could be launched against any target in the world, with very little time available for a response. These were targets that the Nike-Ajax missiles could not possibly shoot down, so these anti-aircraft weapons were taken out of service and the missile centers were decommissioned.

In the case of the Parma facility, the land became available for Tri-C's use, and also for a city park. As recently as year 2000, several underground storage tanks were finally removed from the park area.

A walk through the James W. Day (formerly Nike) Park will reveal old service roads, dirt mounds, and tree cuttings cleared for northern horizon launches of those missiles.