Welcome All Alaska Nike Vet's
2/10/2026
Hello Nike Vets,
Regarding the proposed Nike reunion at Niagara Falls we are sad to report that the response was far below what we needed to see to proceed. Our information was sent to over 360 former Nike guys and only about 10 positive replies. From experience we know that if we get 30 to 60 responding with an interest only about 10-15 will show up in the end. We understand the reasons, health, finances and family concerns.
Though we are closing out this endeavor we are open to discussions on other possibilities, particularly if there are other vets willing to help in arrangements and places of interest.
Wishing well for all of you.
Reunion Committee
To those that would be willing to plan any reunion in the future below are some points you may want to address. In order to include other vets that served with "Hawk Sites" . And put out any reunion related content on the "Facebook" pages and other places that have Nike or Hawk content.
Here are
some other options I think should considered.
1: Keeping the
reunions for “Alaska Nike Vets” and holding them in the Lower 48. We need new volunteers to do the planning as
former planners have reached the age that they wish to “step back” and let some
of the younger vets take charge.
2: Periodic reunions
put on by FONSS would surely be held in Anchorage as that is their home
base, and a reunion affords the opportunity to show fellow veterans the
progress of restoring Site Summit. FONSS understands that vets would not be
interested in traveling to Alaska each year, nor is holdiing a annual reunion part of
its mission.
3: Consider opening up
the reunion to include all who served at Nike sites in the USA and overseas.
This would be a huge task to say the least. To get the word out would be a
challenge. Just the list of Alaska Nike Vets includes at present over 350
active email addresses. Notices would have to be posted on all “Nike Related”
places on the web. Also, this could involve the following chore. Ed’s Nike Site has listings of vets for each
unit USA and Overseas with email contact information. As you might expect some
of this contact information is old and outdated and no longer a viable
contact. My guess is that the number of
vets posted there would be well over 3,500.
Side note
on Ed’s Nike Site. Ed Thelen recently passed away. He was in the
process of handing over the site to others; I hope that it is kept alive as it
is a vast storehouse of Nike Information. I just found out that Greg Brown a vet who
is active in the Nike Historical Society and SF-88 has taken over the site and
we wish him good luck.