A lot of readers may not be familiar with 44066/Texas Tower 4. So, here is a brief description of what is was and the history. 44066 is the National Data Buoy Center's official designation of the 2010 deployed buoy several miles WSW of the Hudson Canyon tip.
For those of you that lived through the Russian Missile Crisis and heyday of the Cold War, the US
had started the first aspect of Homeland Security with the establishment of the DEW line. This was the Defense Early Warning system and part of it was the situating of a few ocean based Radome facilities on stilts in the offshore waters of the Mid Atlantic. They were called Texas Towers because of their resemblance to the oil towers offshore off of Texas. (No relations to the sniper of such terminology.)
I think there were 5 proposed towers to be built but only a couple were actually deployed and firmly planted in the Atlantic. The Tower #4 was situated about 12 miles North of the Tip of the Hudson Canyon is 180 feet of water.

As you can see it was pretty impressive and under the auspices of the Air Force even thought it was on the water. It was piled deep into the ocean bottom, and rose 360 feet from there to the platform bottom. It stood 180 feet above the water. Crew were photographed fishing from up high and actually reeling up their catch. Incredible sea life was observed as well. Life was good for those aboard this tower for most of the time.
Inside was all kinds of instrumentation designed to provide early warnings of low flying enemy, specifically, Russian aircraft that potentially carried bombs to threaten the coast of the US. This was also a good spot to keep an eye on Russian trawlers and submarines that might be close to shore ( about 75 miles from NY Harbor) and to eavesdrop on any threatening conversations.
There was a constant crew of about 50 that monitored the area 24/7. On a rotating basis men would be helicoptered or shipped back to Otis AFB and supplies brought in by ship on a schedule.
There was an inherent flaw however in the deployment of the tower. Sometime during either construction or shipping of the parts to the platform anchor bed one of the legs had been fractured.
Given the go ahead to continue to construct this tower the one leg was buttressed to remain solid against the ocean's conditions. This leg was repaired more that once but never had the stability of a firm leg and swayed often to the rough seas. Crew named her "Old Shaky" and used to laugh about it. Unfortunately this bad leg was a bad omen.
The military ran this program from 1955 to 1963 when the last tower was dismantled. I guess by that time the technology had progressed so that on the water stations were no longer necessary much like the extinction of Lightships.
In January of 1961 one horrible Noreaster hit our coastal waters. It was a miserable and dangerous storm. With weather forecasts not being what they are today, it snuck up and its intensity was not anticipated. Calls were made to the main base asking for aid to abandon the platform but due to the sensitivity of the equipment a contingent of 28 men was left to ride it out and protect US property.
However the storm intensified and began to rock the tower mercilessly. (One can read the transcripts of radio contact and the men calling for help in other online history. ) Attempts were made for an emergency rescue but were not successful because of the severity of the storm. A Navy ship went out to try a rescue but had to turn back because of the waves and the impossible situation of getting 28 men off a 180 foot high tower into 20-30 foot seas and near hurricane strength winds. One could hear the frantic calls for help on the radio. Then it suddenly went dead.
The tower had collapsed. 28 men went down. None were rescued. The storm was too severe, the water way too cold for rescue or survival.
It was a tragedy of the time. However for many years the government failed to recognize the plight nor take responsibility nor commemorate the sacrifice of these men. President Obama stepped up and did so last year in 2011.
Prior to that during talks about deploying this newly positioned buoy, the  National Data Buoy Center agreed to co-name the 44066 buoy Texas Tower 4 in memorial for these souls given to Davy Jones Locker. Finally a blessed homage to the men who were in actuality one of the first modern guardians of our Homeland in the 20th century.
More to come in a later post..