Fort Hancock, New Jersey was by far the plum assignment of my military career.
For two reasons;
One, it was close to home. Because of that, we were able to visit our folks after just a three hour ride.
Two; It was a fisherman's paradise.
I was never a fisherman before, but with the Jersey beach just a 10 minute walk away, I soon became a beach bum and an avid surf fisherman.
Fort Hancock, NJ is located on a peninsula of the Atlantic Ocean, jutting into the New York harbor, less than 10 miles from Coney Island of Long Island. The peninsula is calledSandy Hook and for many years had been used as a Coast Artillery base, hence the name, Fort Hancock. The fort also had a dirigible hanger on one of the elbows of the bay side. It was demolished at about the time I left.
Sandy Hook is also the home of the Sandy Hook lighthouse. which is still in service. Sandy Hook has since been converted to a National Recreational Area. Its days as a military reservation are now over and now belongs to the American people as a recreation area. For me, it was a recreation area long ago. The fort was erected in the 1890's as a coastal defense installation. Although the guns are gone, the battery emplacements are still there as can be seen in the pictures by clicking on the links above. It's a great place to visit.
Sandy Hook is actually an island and not really a peninsula that stretches south and is connected to Highlands NJ by a bridge, as seen below left.
Being anarrow strip of land, it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and Sandy Hook Bay on the west. The ocean side provided surf fishing for Striped Bass and other ocean going types, while the bay provided fishing for other types of smaller fish, such as snapper blues, weakfish, etc. The small inlets and mud flats provided us with clams, sea worms and minnows. The worms and minnows of course, were used for bait for the stripers.
There was no civilian housing available at Fort Hancock, and since Therese was waiting for the birth of our first child, I spent my first few months living in the barracks. These weren't the types of barracks commonly seen in military camps.As seen in the picture to the right, they looked like very old college dorms, and believe me, they were old. But they were more comfortable than barracks. The parade ground was right out the back door, as you can see. Also, notice the Sandy Hook Lighthouse in the background.
I traveled home as often as I could until one day, our 1st Sgt. got a telegram ( we had no cell phones then) that Therese was in labor. I left immediately, and on April 7, 1954, Claire was born in Waterbury; Our first success. There were to be more to follow.
On the opposite side of the barracks, across the street, was a trailer park beginning to fill up. I guess the park was established some years before when the fort was a coast artillery base. Hook-ups for water, electricity and sewage were already in place. Most of the trailers were coming from a trailer dealer in Robbinsville, a small town near Fort Dix. With no money down, I was able to get a house trailer for our growing family. It wasn't big, but neither were some of the apartments we had been living in. And it was private, and it was close by.
During the summer months we were hosts to our families and friends. As you can imagine, they came out to spend time on the beaches. They were beautiful beaches. There was swimming, fishing and clamming available. One day Pop and me were fishing in the surf. I had borrowed a fishing rod for him to use. Pop was standing on a breakwater fooling around with the reel of his fishing pole. He didn't see the big wave that came up and knocked him right off the breakwater. He fell into the surf, clothes and all. He went one way and the fishing pole went another. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt and we eventually retrieved the fishing pole.
Therese's folks came out often. I had found a small boat in a cove that had been lost during a storm. Her father had an outboard motor that we hooked it up to and had a great time puttering round the Hook. Sometimes the ocean side was tricky, so with a small boat, we stayed in the bay. The summers were great for the beach, though fishing was poor at that time. In the spring and fall, I did a lot of striped bass fishing. Life was good on Sandy Hook.
After a few months, we traded our trailer for a new one. We bought our first television set. The TV kept Claire occupied. She would sit in her rolling spider chair, watch TV and fall asleep. Our new trailer was a far cry from the old one. It was the same size as the old one, 35 feet long, but all the appliances and furniture were new.
Therese became pregnant again and because of her previous problems, she was in the care of a civilian doctor in Longbranch, NJ. We just didn't trust Army doctors. On a hot summer day in July, while I was at one of our missile launcher sites, someone tracked me down and told me that Therese was starting labor. I drove to the trailer, picked her up and we went to the hospital in Longbranch. At about 10:00 or 10:30 PM, her doctor and I were having coffee in the cafeteria when he left, came back a short time later and told me we had a boy. The date was July 7, 1955, my birthday. What a present. Of course, we named him Roger.
The following month, we experienced a couple of hurricanes (Connie & Diane) that made Sandy Hook an island in spite of the bridge in Atlantic Highlands. We were cut off from the mainland for a few days because of the high water. But the main damage done was back home, in Waterbury. There, the damage was unbelievable. (Click on the WATERBURY link above for some pictures). The following week end, we drove to Waterbury and toured what areas were accessible; unbelievable.
Every Nike missile battery had two Warrant Officers in charge of the technical aspects of the site. One in the IFC (RADAR) area and another in the Launching area. My expertise was in the Launching area. My friend Herman Boldt, from my Ranger days, had made Warrant Officer, so I applied too. In April of 1956, I was awarded my Warrant. That also meant I would need to be reassigned. And so it was good-bye to Sandy Hook and hello Washington D.C., (Waldorf, MD).
