Burglars often prowl rural neighborhoods, hoping to find unwatched homes. But chances are good that any robber who happens to drive by Terry Ulmer’s home is going to seek another town in which to carry out his dirty work.
Ulmer lives in Alpine, in east San Diego County, and it’s impossible to drive along his street without noticing his neighborhood-watch sign: a U.S. Navy surface-to-air guided missile launcher.
“You go into [most] neighborhoods and see a little sign that says ‘Neighborhood Watch.’ Well, this is how we roll out here in Alpine,” Ulmer told Fox 5 San Diego.
He was half-joking, because the launcher, as ominous as it might appear, does not carry live ammo. And although the Mark 10 Twin-Arm Guided Missile Launcher probably is a crime deterrent, it’s mostly part of a vast monument to the men and women who served in the Navy during World War II.
Ulmer also built a replica pilot house of a 1943 Navy destroyer. The pilot house, complete with an open bridge and original artifacts, was completed in eight months with the help of 15 friends. Ulmer collected many of the parts while working for the Navy.
The tribute, he explained, is mostly for veterans of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“I really feel they are the greatest generation,” he said. “I just wanted to do something for them.”
But the missile launcher is what catches the eye of passersby and neighbors, and not all of the neighbors are appreciative of the extreme nature of his warning sign.
“They got a little nervous over there at that one house you can see from here,” Ulmer says in the video report. “She says, ‘Gee, Terry, do you have to be pointing it my way?’”
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