A correction here - Safeguard was stood-down because of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 with the Soviet Union, and not because it was considered unable to match the Soviet nuclear threat.
#2 is actually just one of a chain of Air Force Radar bases across the northern US border and was operated by the Air Defense Command. There is one located about 3 miles where I live in Wisconsin. They worked in conjunction with the Canadian Radar Defense Line also known as the Pine Tree Line. They soon became obsolete in the later 70s as the combined US-Can Dew Line was put into service up near the arctic circle much closer to the Soviet territory. It really is sad to see these places decay into nothing.
They're actually called radar stations, not bases. I was assigned to one (Watford City Air Force Station, North Dakota), where I was the SOLE military member there.
There was one just outside Finland, MN that always gave me an eerie vibe. You'd be hiking the Superior hiking trail through unspoiled wilderness, and come out on top of a cliff over looking a pristine valley, and clear blue lake. On the opposing ridge, silhouetted by the sky, was a cold war era radar station.
I seriously doubt that each of the bases just happens to be inhabitated of ghosts, headless or not. I never can understand why people continue to make up and pass on this sensationalism. They are seriously sad people. This is bull.
At 5:20, that's Naval Security Group Activity on the north end of Adak. I was stationed there until 1988. The whole island population at that time was over five thousand; all Navy, Marines, and dependants. Loved Adak!
Has anybody ever thought of restoring these abandoned bases so that they could house American citizens who are homeless?? By doing that, not only would homeless Americans have a place to live, but businesses could be started there so that the people could work, and for American families there could be schools for their children to attend, in otherwords folks, they would be better served by people who would bring them back to life so to speak, and they wouldn't need to be demolished or fall down own their own.❤❤❤❤
Woah what are you talking about we need to keep building these useless bases to keep the military spending budget on the rise faster than inflation, no one wants to hear any of your peaceful solutions, go away😂
Homeless people often need more than homes, though I agree with you. However, there are many homeless who make life for their neighbors a living hell, and can actually be a danger to a building - start fires, flood bathrooms, etc.
@@EinwetokTo be fair if domestic born Americans don't want it, it's better that the immigrants are living in these abandoned places, rather than on the streets of San Francisco.
With the exception of Lackland AFB (for basic training), Keesler AFB (for tech school), and Cheyenne Mountain (for none of your business), EVERY base or station I once called home (stateside AND overseas, including 4 just like North Concord), have been shut down. Kind of sad.
Two of the ones I lived at are now closed: NAS Alameda, where my dad was stationed aboard the USS Hancock (CV-19) from 1973 to 1975, and Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where my dad was stationed on the USS Clark (FFG-11, now belongs to Poland as the "Kasimir Pulaski") from 1986 to 1989.
Fort Leavenworth, lived there for 3 years while dad was active duty. I do not miss this place, the rumors are true place is haunted as hell. The white houses that you showed were officers' quarters when we lived there, and they were the worst of the worst.
The computerized narration sucks. I wish all these sites had been maintained. They are definitely historic. Also, there are plenty more of these around.
The USS Hornet is an active museum, and you can even stay the night there. It's one of the greatest military museums in the US IMO and I'm lucky to live near it. It features a constantly rotating collection of amazing WW2-semi-modern military aircraft that they rotate on the fight deck including an amazing F-14.
Sometimes if you pay attention to events, you might get lucky and discover that the USS Hornet also hosts CarrierCon, an Anime Convention on an American fleet carrier that fought Japan in WW2. We would always joke about how the dead would think or react to see their ship becoming a host for Japanese entertainment.
Thank you! Abandoned? Haunted? It's in the "middle" of Alameda! I was there for a swing revival show about 20 years ago. It was haunted by hipsters in zoot suits, not ghosts.
Pretty recently a goner: Sierra Army Depot, Herlong, CA. Online it looks like it's active, but last year I detoured there because the 'phone for what used to be visitor's housing didn't answer. Nobody home. It's sad to see the baseball field and tennis courts grown over with weeds, etc.
Suisun Bay is further northeast from the San Francisco Bay. These are old pictures because the moth balled fleet has greatly dwindled. That includes their being towed to see and sunk for submarine practice.
I had read a few years ago that the Navy had decreased the number by a large percentage! Problem is that they couldn't find enough able-bodied (and drug-free) men who would be willing to serve on these old ships even if they were taken out of mothballs to support a war effort... The 'men' today would worry about their fingernail polish or mascara 'running' in the salty air!
@@johndesade126spoken like a cranky “vet” who never sailed real seamen don’t insult those who serve, especially when you’re dead wrong about your claims the ships were scrapped because they were rust buckets that were cost prohibitive snd useless. it was cheaper to hire civilian ships like in the past than putting those pieces of crap back in service
Information in the video about the Ghost Fleet is really outdated: "BK In The News: August 9, 2018 -The “Ghost Fleet of Suisun Bay”- the decaying military ships that poisoned the San Francisco Bay ecosystem for 40 years - is finally gone, as a result of legal action brought against the federal government in 2007 by San Francisco Baykeeper, Arc Ecology, and the Natural Resources Defense Council."
You did not mention Homestead, FL. A small part of the base is active, but the rest is abandoned. Driving through there is interesting. Buildings over grown and looking like they were just locked up and left there.
I was living at Minot AFB in the early 70's at the time the Safeguard base was built near Grand Forks. The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty the US signed with the Soviets allowed each side to build one anti ballistic missile system. The Russians chose to protect Moscow, the US chose to protect its ICBM's in North Dakota. (Kind of gives some insight into who was likely to be doing the first strikes...). The pyramid was part of the new over the horizon backscatter radar system that would give early warning of incoming ICBM's. The operators would see the missiles on the radar screen, along with a code of what the likely target was. Partly out of concerns that the ABM missiles would destroy the whole system due to EMP, and partly due to congressional budget cuts, the missile part of the program was eliminated. I always wondered what those poor suckers would do as they helplessly watched the incoming missiles on their screens, particularly the ones that had their code on them?
I dated a man stationed at the radar base in Opheim, MT back in 1979. I was attending a government sponsored vocational school that wss using parts of an abandoned air force base south of there. Its strange to think that such an important part of pur country's security was happening in these rural areas of MT and ND
Some of these half destroyed military bases don't look any worse than some of the housing I was stuck in during my 12 years in the Army. There's some sh#tty housing out there.
The Mickelson Safeguard system was shut down for political reasons. The two types of missiles in it, Spartan and Sprint, were so accurate they made a US first strike attack not only survivable but feasible. The acquisition radar (not shown in this video) built for the Safeguard system is still operational.
There are no ICBM sites in the East. Nike sites surrounded many big US cities starting in the 50s. We lived in a 100 year old house on Ft Leavenworth in the 90s. And they had Halloween tours that played on the stories you mention. I never ran unto any neighbor who had a paranormal story.
grew up about 5 miles away from a Nike missle site in Needham Mass. never really knew about it till the early 80s when they turned the surrounding woods into a fitness trail. was doing the trail one day and came to a huge opening and wow was a quanset hut there and underground missle silos makes you think. l know on the coast of Massachusetts there were numerous nike missle sites
When I was in grade school, and before, Papa worked 11 miles away on the Nike Hercules protecting Travis AFB, and after START, he helped dismantle the ones in the SF Bay area. The mothball fleet at Carquinez Strait between the properties Flannery Group has purchased surrounding Travis AFB and Martinez, were on the east side of the bridge on I-680. I'm guessing US Navy ships were near an US AFB because it was just as close to Mare Island, and probably for the same logistical reason Nike Hercules, as US Army equipment and personnel protected that AFB, Oakland Alameda, the Presidio, McClelland, and that part of the US west coast
Kansas used to have multiple Titan II Missile Silos headquarted out of McConnel AFB designed to respond to a nuclear attack on Wichita, KS. According to one of the START treaties of the Reagan Administration Era the silos all had to be destroyed. I remembet teams of demolition experts going around Sedgwick, Butler and other neighboring counties with silos blowing them up including the Command Centers for each.
I want one with underground facilities; there is an old WW II military installation on an island off of Alaska's coast with underground bunkers. I am beginning work to get a group together and work on cleaning it up enough to get supplies and such up to the bunkers.
i'd add california to your list. most of the bases here, with no regard for what they were, were all closed by 95. including ft ord, castle afb and miramar. castle was a sac base and still they closed it.
I went to Damage Controlman training at Treasure Island. That's closed. Also did training at Moffet. That's closed... although NASA is there now. Lots of closed bases in California.
Back in late 90s visited family in Cali it had big old air ship hangars. Alot new guys jumped off the control tower so they cut access and built new tower
The description of the Nike Missile System as having nuclear strike capabilities is definitely incorrect. It was strictly a defensive anti-aircraft missile system used to protect major metropolitan, industrial, and some military areas. While the Nike Hercules could carry a tactical nuclear warhead it was a surface to air anti-aircraft missile.
In it's later deployments overseas it had a surface to surface mission component. I was lucky enough to visit site SF-88 outside San Francisco, which is now a museum. My timing was good enough that I got to speak to a former crew member from a site in West Germany who told me it had this capability.
@@ghosttownchronicles "Adak" ended up with a few interesting variants on the name. It should also be mentioned that many of the Adak facilities, including the family housing, have been renovated and are now part of the City of Adak. Other parts of the former Naval Station Adak are being actively cleaned of contamination and returned to the original pre-war state by the US Government. It's no longer as isolated as it once was. Alaska Air offers scheduled flights, and all of the commonly found municipal services are available. They even have internet, if you want to pay a premium for rather slow service.
I have problems with that on my Siri or Apple, Apple, Apple, what is called anyway constantly misspelling rewarding sentences to me exactly the opposite of what you’re saying.
Susiun (soosoon as it was written in subtitles) Bay's mothball fleet is gone. Not one ship remains, of the collection. The narrative failed to tell these ships were keep in a 30, 60, 90 and 120 readiness rotation for decades until the technology was just to outdated. Even passed being outdated there was a long term contract to do the various maintenance and inspections on each of the moored ships, mostly to monitor for rupture on the hulls. The local coast guard had a detail to watch for and prevent trespasses for boarding any of the ships. Having lived in the area beyond the mothball fleet, there are stories of people managing to explore a ship or two, but I have my doubts as anyone needed a boat to get to the ships and anchoring near the ships would be obvious, and coast guard woukd have caught them. I know of only one successful exploration, they had plenty of photographs documenting their exploration. The group used a small dingy put in from the nearby marsh. With a 45 minute window one climb an anchor mooring chain then dropped a rope ladder. The group pulled their dingy up onto the deck before they found entrance. Several hours later the the group reverse their procedure and headed back into the marsh. It's kinda sad driving over the bridge and not seeing the ships, however the lead based paint and iron left an environmental nightmare.
Yeah, don't know why the presentation acts like it's current. It fascinated me as a kid to see them there, and I did enjoy seeing the clips of auld lang syne....
"Slick Willie" changed our 'defense response': half of our nuclear subs must be at port at all times; no launching of missiles until AFTER the Russian/Chinese/Iranian missiles hit their targets, etc. ...does it SOUND like they are really wanting to protect us now?
I don't understand why people have to make fake/false thumbnails to attract someone to view their videos. I'm spending more & more time filtering these lies & less time enjoying them. Of course I then block them, kinda defeats the purpose of posting on You Tube...
Tilden is not right outside queens or nyc its at the far end of long island, also note its where the Manhattan project occured along with other top secret projects
I personally do not believe in hauntings. But I still find these abandoned military structures fascinating. What were once important and strategic operating bases have now gone to ruin.
Ive been in fort monroes casemate and sub casemate i didnt the wifi and networking very neat and very old stagnet water in some areas below the fort. Aeesome place
A Marine I served with was stationed on Adak, then he was sent to Greenland before ending up at Camp Gieger in North Carolina. At one point he said he was deeply worried he'd be sent to Diego Garcia. 😮😮😮
I tried to get stationed in Adak after my tour in Okinawa. My roommate at Lejeune had a brother who was a navy Corpsman in Adak for 3 years. He loved it.
@@richwicklund9001 Yeah a Corpsman, my buddy said he guarded what as he described as a forest of darf pine trees in the cold drizzling rain. He actually looked like a scuffy sailor.
Interesting. The prison you depict at Ft. Leavenworth was called the United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB) it was also known as the castle. Beneath the prison structure there are a series of mechanical tunnels. Rumor has it there was even a tunnel down to the Missouri River to bring in prisoners. The prison complex you showed has since been demolished and replaced with a more modern, but smaller, facility nearby. On a side note, there’s a Robert Redford movie called “The Castle” that was based on the USDB.
I was stationed there in the early 1980's as part of the medical corp. In all the time i was there not a single "paranormal activity" had ever occurred and i was granted unrestricted access at all hours of the day and night
The Mickelson base was closed not because it was out dated but because it was part of the Salt nuclear treaty there was supposed to be two of these bases along the northern border but because of the treaty one in Maine was never built and the North Dakota one had to be closed or the United States would be in violation. It radar was similar to that of the navy’s aegis destroyers it was a over the horizon radar. The base was linked hundreds of sprint intercepter missiles that would shoot down incoming missiles with a nuclear warhead.
RAF Fylingdales, similar to this,(early warning radarstation) in the UK used to be 3 golf balls up until 1989 which then saw it update to the AN/FPS-126 Pave Paws Solid State Phased Array Radar System, which is still active today as a missle defence and space debris tracking station. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fylingdales)
There is what appears to have been intended as a sister to the Mickelson base, in Montana, at approximately N 48.28770 W 111.34232 , This is a ways east of Conrad and south of Tiber Reservoir, just off of Ledger Road . As I understand from talking to the old-timers in the area, these were intended to be hardened control centers for the Minuteman ICBM silos in those areas. Mickelson would have been the control for the silos controlled by Grand Forks AFB and the Montana base would have controlled the silos maintained by Malmstrom AFB. The Montana site was completed as far as the three or four stories below ground level and the bottoms of the roughly 3'-4' thick sloped concrete walls were started along with interior support columns, prior to ceasing construction. The foundation has been allowed to flood. The radar bases in the area were farther north, closer to the Canadian border (and Russia). There were bases north of Havre and Malta, and at Opheim among others, as well as Glasgow AFB north of Glasgow that is still used by Boeing for testing.
I was stationed at Benton AFS in Northern PA on top of a secluded mountain in Ricketts Glen State Park. It had the Radomes (Golf ball looking covers over the radar.) and was allegedly used to aid in NYC and DC air traffic control. Lots of deer and other foresty type of critters. Good experience for a young Airman in the late 60's.
Don't forget Ft. Carroll under the Key Bridge in Baltimore. Also there are still a number of WW2 spotting towers along the Delaware coast from Henlopen down to Fenwick Island.
I was on Adak in 1986, one of my favorite places I ever got to visit while in the military. I understand, now you can hunt caribou on Adak, would love to do that.
Nike and Titan are two seperate systems, Titan being attack, Nike defense. I don't thin you actually found any secret Titan sites, but there are MANy forgotten Nike sites, especially around large cities such as Cleveland and Philadelphia.
@@bostonrailfan2427 Actually, most were remote sites, such as the two in the Cleveland area. One is now part of a public park and the other, which was literally on the edge of lake Erie, one was the computer center for the US Navy's Finance Center. I was stationed there in the 1980s, and the launchers were part of the parking lot, the mess hall was used for meetings, lectures, and parties, and the barracks was converted into office spaces. The base even had a small chapel, which at the time I was there was used for storing landscaping equipment.
Fort Tilden has a matching gun battery, Battery Lewis in Rumson, NJ on the other side of the entrance to NY harbor. It is part of Hartshorne Woods Park. There are earlier Endicott system fortifications at Fort Hancock/Sandy Hook NJ (Gateway National Recreation Area) and even older bases at Fort Wadsworth/Battery Weed (Staten Island), Fort Jay and Castle William (Governors Island) and Castle Clinton (Battery Park, lower Manhattan).
Fort Leavenworth is abandoned? better tell the prisoners at the US Army Disciplinary Barrack and the 1st Infantry Division they don’t exist… and the ghost fleet has bern gone for several years, at all three locations.
Okay this was barely holding on to reality and then it went to “the ghost fleet” in “Sassoon” bay. It’s THE MOTHBALL FLEET and it has nothing to do with abandoned ships floating around and being destructive to the environment. TOTAL BS
These are PERFECT opportunities for environmental organizations to restore them to native prairie, native trees and bushes, to healthy water. Hey, US Fish andWildlife, Environmental Defense, Natural Research Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy…step up!
i just have subscribed - i like this type of content but most of the videos usually go on for far too long, i think you've found a gap in the market here. best of luck with your channel! :)
All these abandoned government-owned places and we still have all the homeless people that we have in the United States with all this abandoned government-owned property
Do we fire "titanic" missiles at sunken ships? That should really be Titan missiles. You could have filmed the whole thing in the Oakland-San Francisco area with all of the "abandoned" bases there.
My family visited Ft. Leavenworth when I was a kid in the mid 70s We stayed in a guest house that had been officer's quarters. My sister had her guitar leaning against a chair while we slept. She said she heard someone lightly strumming the strings during the night and found the case opened in the morning. I heard nothing, closest I've come to a ghost story.
The hornet is NOT in the moth ball fleet .. and the fleet is all but Gone anyway…. Only a couple ships out there at any given time.. been several years since it was full up
#8 Ghost fleet is not at all like the pics shown here. It's actually called Suisan Bay and there are 11 ships scattered to the east of the Benicia Martinez bridge. There is some serious photoshopping done here.
Your saying that in SF Cali the ghost fleet is making a problem with floating items coming of the moth balled fleet and the city is moving to do something about it ,,, it must be unsightly humm? Well I can only guess it can't come anywhere close to the sight smell and danger of downtown SF,,, and that is something the same people could have prevented themselves.
