I was assigned to Palermo AFS in Southern New Jersey – Ocean City was its address, although it was actually south and inland of Ocean City in Marmora – during all of 1969 and about half of 1970, when the radars were taken out of service and I was reassigned. Palermo was situated between the Garden State Parkway and NJ route 9, about a mile north of Rt. 50. Also, there are exits from the GSP at the south end of Ocean City and at Rt. 50. We were accessible from either exit depending on your direction of travel.

As we know, the Woodstock Music Festival was in August 1969. That was in New York. Protests of the Vietnam War were everywhere then and of course many were included at Woodstock. I’m not sure if the idea originated at the site level or somewhere higher, but suddenly we were forced to practice defending the base in case the hippies found their way down the GSP and attacked our radar site.

We practiced wedge formations at the entrance gate of the site and practiced dispersing crowds with fire hoses [which wasn’t all bad in August in South Jersey]. I suppose the rusty chain-link fence surrounding the site was considered perfectly adequate to fend off those hippies, because we only practiced at the entrance and along the main drive. Of course the threat never materialized. With our proximity to McGuire AFB/Fort Dix, and the Philadelphia Navy Yard, none of us really thought we were in any danger. I guess it can be best chalked up to some “serious fun”.

Ken Zwizanski