Photos: Visiting a Nike missile site

The mascot of the Army's Air Defense Artillery program was a bird called the Oozlefinch. Its motto was "If it flies, it dies," a term that was appropriate given that the program was built around surface-to-air missiles designed to protect American cities.

One of the major components of Air Defense Artillery was the Nike missile program, which encompassed both the Nike Ajax, a fully conventional missile system, and the Nike Hercules, which featured both conventional and nuclear missiles. At one time there were more than 200 Nike missile sites in the United States, each of which was tasked with protecting a specific city.

The program was originally commissioned in 1954, and was finally decommissioned in 1975. Today, the only restored Nike missile site is in the Marin Headlands, just north of San Francisco, and is known as SF-88L. The site is open to the public every Wednesday through Friday.