History of 616 ACW Wasserkuppe, DE

The 616 AC&W Sq. was radar unit at Fort Shafter Kahuku, Hawaii from July 1946 until December 1948 when it was deactivated.

In November 1953 the 616th was reactivated at Fort Shafter, Hawaii and deployed to Flandern Kaserne Ulm, Germany; to replace the 123rd AC&W Sq. that, in October 1952, had been deployed to Ulm from Donaldson AFS, Greensville, S.C., the 123rd returned to Blue Ash ANG station, Ohio.

Flandern Kaserne, Ulm was the new home of the 616th AC&W Sq. as Southern Sector Combat Reporting Center (CRC), its primary radar was located at Turkheim circa 22 miles from Ulm, with 4 subordinate 4 detachments.
DET.1-WELS, AUSTRIA pulled back in 1955 to become DET.1-FREISING (CRP); DET.2-REGENSBURG (RP) DET.4-LANDSHUT (RP)
DER.6-PFORZHEIM (ALT.CRC)

Radars at Turkheim were MPS-11 and MPS-14 with TPS-1D and TPS-10D as backup. Co-located on the site was FM radio, Teletype and Cryptographic sections.

In 1958, the 616th began training Luftwaffe soldiers for site takeover; October 1958 the 616th relocated to Boelcke Kaserne until 10 September 1959, and in 1962 relocated to Wasserkuppe until December 1978, when the Luftwaffe assumed control of the mission and the installation; the 616th AC&W Sq was deactivated 1 January 1979.


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