Cold War veterans recall nuclear tensions between U.S.-Soviet Union from 1947 to 1991

Unknown to most Long Islanders is that during the Cold War the United States had nuclear surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles deployed in Nassau and Suffolk counties — the last line of defense against Soviet-era nuclear bombers that might target New York City.

Two of those Nike Hercules missiles — named for the Greek gods — are now on display at the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage. There, officials and clergy will honor Cold War-era veterans at a special event on Friday.

Among veterans slated to attend are former U.S. Navy Capt. Tom Donovan, a squadron commander who flew sub-hunter missions in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean; former U.S. Air Force Airman First Class and NSA electronic surveillance operative Charles Heller; and Chris Suhr, a former Air Force ground crew member responsible for maintaining Boeing B-52 bombers assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC). (The Cold War refers to the 1947 to 1991 nuclear staredown between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.)

Heller, 82, of Valley Stream, came out of the Bronx to join the Air Force after the Cuban missile crisis, when President John F. Kennedy stared down Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev over nuclear missile batteries being set up in Cuba in October 1962. The Cold War scenario takes on new importance today, the three vets agreed, in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Even during the Cuban missile crisis, Khrushchev never said, 'We're going to use nuclear weapons,' " Heller said. "This guy [Russian President] Putin, I don't know if he's sane, if he's crazy, but he's said it — and that's … much more dangerous."

Heller said he still could not discuss secret surveillance he was part of while in Turkey monitoring Soviets on the Black Sea beginning in 1963, or the work he later did for the NSA.

 "We did a lot of intercepts, some of them very important," he said. "That's all I can say."

Donovan, 69, who retired as a member of the Pentagon Chief of Naval Operations staff, came out of Queens Village and St. John's University to become a naval aviator flying Soviet sub-hunting missions in a Lockheed P-3 Orion. He served in several theaters of operation, mostly under President Ronald Reagan.

His most memorable mission was a dayslong track of a Victor III-class Soviet nuclear attack submarine, a hunt that began in the Mediterranean, went through the Strait of Gibraltar, was picked up by other U.S. Navy tracker flights in the Atlantic, then followed by British, Dutch and Norwegian surveillance teams, who chased the sub back to Murmansk.

"When this guy realized he was getting his clock cleaned," Donovan said of the sub captain, "he high-tailed it out of there … He probably got relieved of command when he got home."

Suhr, 75, grew up in the shadow of the old Grumman plant in Bethpage, joined the Air Force and serviced B-52 bombers, including time in Guam where the big bombers flew non-nuclear raids on Vietnam. But Suhr said it was his time assigned to now-shuttered Griffiss Air Force Base in upstate Rome that was most memorable.

At any given time, he said, there were six B-52 bombers loaded with nuclear weapons set to launch on the Soviet Union via flights over the North Pole.

"During the highest alert the planes would taxi to the end of the runway, go to take off position, then they'd be recalled," he said. "When I first got there, the base commander said, 'If they ever launch it only means one thing — we're at nuclear war.'… You learn to just live with it and say, 'I think these guys [world leaders] are just blowing off smoke when they talk nuclear war, because they'd be total idiots to use nukes' … You can't have a minor nuclear war."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”