Charlie Battery site as it appears in 2003
Charlie Battery site was named the "Florentino R. Roque HAWK missile site". The naming of all Key West HAWK missile sites, commemorated by a bronze plaque outside the ready building, were in honor of Key West citizens killed in Vietnam. Roque was killed near Ong Tauong Village on October 2, 1966. Roque was born in Key West in 1945 and lived there until he entered the Army in 1963.
The bronze dedication plaque that was in front of the Ready Building is now located at American Legion Post 28 on Stock Island.
The Charlie Battery site on Saddlebunch Key is now a luxury RV park under private development. Click on the picture above to visit the Original Charlie Battery HAWK site.
The Geiger Key location of Charlie Battery has been identified as part
of the DOD Legacy Cold War Project. The purpose stated by the Department
of Defense: "To establish and coordinate by Fiscal Year 1993 with
other federal departments, agencies, and entities a project to inventory,
protect, and conserve the physical and literary property and relics of the
Department of Defense, in the United States and overseas, connected with
the origins and the development of the Cold War, which are not already being
carried out by other capable institutions or programs"
The report on the Geiger Key site reads as follows: "The Army built
a HAWK missile site in Key West, Florida, as a link in the defensive perimeter
it constructed during the Cold War. The anti-aircraft facility, unusual
because it was built as a permanent installation, was intended to guard
against attack from Cuba, 90 miles away. In 1979 it closed and, although
the property continues to be maintained by the Naval Air Station, Boca Chica
Field, to date no new use has been found for the facility. It sits abandoned,
collecting rust and graffiti."
Charlie Battery gate - Then
Charlie Battery gate - Now
BCC, ROR, BRAVO ILLUMINATOR - Then
BCC, ROR, BRAVO ILLUMINATOR - Now
Launcher area - Then
Launcher area - Now
atop the berm in bravo battery looking toward CWAR
Launcher crewman running test on launcher
missile cans in front of generator building
Click the launcher to visit the original Charlie Battery
Tac Site
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| Photos at the Charlie Battery Tac site | ||||||
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| See photos of Charlie Battery alumni during the 1970's | ||||||
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| 35mm slides taken by Lt Ed Bayne | ||||||
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| Photos of the Tac Site taken in May 2000 | ||||||
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| Photos of Tac Site in 1984 | ||||||