Apr '67--Dec '67: 21 AD. McGuire AFB, NJ

Jan '68--Dec '68: 29 AD, Duluth IAP, MN

I was at Cape Newenham from about Nov. 1959 through
June of 1960, then moved to Port Moller for the
remainder of my 1 year tour.

I sure enjoy the pictures of both sites, and hearing
about others who served at these sites.

THANKS!
Carl E. Eaton, SMS
USAF, Retired

Looking for william Swiderski that was at Joelton TN. (799th A.C.& W.) also John M. Rhineheart fro the same station. Anyone else who was ever at Joelton contact me we are having a 50 year celebration reunion. Jerry

It brought a lot of memories looking at this web site. I was stationed at Mt. Laguna AFS, CA and then at Indian Mountain, AK. Morgan Freeman, the actor, also served at Mt Laguna.

I was only at San Pedrofor about a year, but getting together with the guys for baseball games against the Army was a blast, and being stationed in Palos Verdes Estates wasn't all bad either. LOL!
Still a few people like Steve Hiltner and a few others I would like to get intouch with just to see how life has treated them.

Good Times & Good Friends
I'll never forget.

Big Bob

I was stationed at Fort Yukon, AK from Sept. '73-Sept. '74. I was a Scopedope, trained at Keesler. Would like to hear from anyone else who was there.Maj. Haugen was our CO.

Closing of Cheyenne Mountain - Sent my feelings and the comments of Gary and Tom to the president, my two senators and my representive in the house.

Re: NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex closure. Admiral Keating’s leadership of NorthCom, if memory serves, included the botched (putting it kindly) preparation and response to Hurricane Katrina. FEMA justifiably took the brunt of the heat as should the state and local governments. But the good admiral failed to anticipate, plan for and execute disaster relief in a timely manner.

"The U.S. military failed to provide adequate emergency communications for Hurricane Katrina response, contributing to days of confusion after the storm devastated Mississippi and Louisiana, the admiral in charge of domestic defense forces said on Thursday. "The devastation was so complete, so comprehensive ... that we couldn't figure out how bad it was," Vice Adm. Timothy Keating said of the lack of satellite telephones or working cellphones carried by aid troops sent to the U.S. Gulf Coast last month. "They (telephones) weren't there for Katrina because we just didn't think to put them in there for Katrina," added Keating, chief of the U.S. military's Northern Command, in response to questions from defense reporters."

"We just didn’t think ..." Exactly.

From “Inside the Ring” column, Washington Times, Fri., March 23, Cheyenne closing: The Air Force, U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Northern Command are planning to shut down the huge underground command bunker at Cheyenne Mountain, Colo., where U.S. nuclear war operations would be held and space and missile tracking is done. A defense official said Congress is being misled about the supposed cost savings for moving the mountain’s functions to other less-protected bases. “The real cost will be billions of dollars, and we will lose the cornerstone of the U.S. nuclear command and control facilities,” said the official, who opposes the move. Instead of placing command and tracking posts in the hardened, survivable Cheyenne Mountain, “we are going to base the deterrence for North America out of an office building.” The official said that it took years to build the current team of U.S. and Canadian military officials at Cheyenne Mountain into “the most integrated, technologically fused, state of the art system in the world.” “It is probably the Eighth Wonder of the World, but in six months it will be ripped asunder and nothing will be left,” the official said. “This country will be at a risk level rarely ever seen. But it’s like safety: Until something blows up, no one notices and everyone’s happy. Then you hear ‘how did this happen?’ “ The official said an honest cost-benefit analysis was never done on closing the mountain and moving more than 250 North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command specialists to nearby Peterson Air Force Base. The command center will be moved to a building at Peterson that is under the flight path of all commercial aircraft traffic at Colorado Springs airport and easily within target range of a terrorist with a shoulder-fired missile. The same building experienced two power failures last summer that “brought Northcom to its knees” while the command center at Cheyenne Mountain continued operating under generator power, the official said. To move the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, the Space Control Center and the Missile Warning Center will cost $1.2 billion. To avoid drawing the attention of Congress, military leaders devised a plan to keep the mountain “open” but in reality “remote” all their systems to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado and Peterson. “There will be no cost savings for anyone; in fact this entire process will end up costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars to move and then millions a year to keep up systems both in Cheyenne Mountain and at the remote facilities in three separate sites,” the official said. A spokesman for Northern Command said Cheyenne Mountain will be placed in a standby mode over the next two years as its functions are moved. “While the cost and security analysis studies are still being conducted, moving Cheyenne Mountain to an alternate command center status makes the country safer,” the spokesman said. “The GAO has released a preliminary report on the realignment and confirmed that the decision to move functions from Cheyenne Mountain significantly increases operational effectiveness for command and control in the homeland.” Outgoing Northern Command commander Adm. Tim Keating told reporters in a press briefing in Colorado yesterday that the Cheyenne Mountain transformation proposal is “a sound plan that will save us money.”

I was assignet to my first AC&W sit in August 1955, 688th Amarillo,TX. Would like to find anyon that served there between Aug 1955 and May 1958. Thanks. William (Bill) Washburn

Thanks go to Gary Jacobs re his recent post about the pending deactivation of the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex. I myself was greatly dismayed when I read about this move last year.

Maybe I'm off base here, but it appears to me that the *real* reason that Admiral Keating (the first and only non-Air Force NORAD Commander) wanted to shut down the mountain and move operations to Peterson AFB is because he himself did not want the inconvenience of having to drive up to the mountain every day. So, for his own personal convenience, it seems that Admiral Keating has unilaterally put the North American continent at great risk under the guise of ''cost savings.''

Is it just me, or does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

Just a thought here: Maybe we all should write our Senators and Congresspersons regarding this situation. An election year is past approaching, and this just might be an opportune time for us veterans and other patriotic Americans to speak up. Personally, I think I would sleep better at night knowing that NORAD were still inside its hardened Operations Center deep inside the mountain – not out in the open inside an ordinary office building which is vulnerable to all kinds of accidents and deliberate attacks.

Does anyone recall just why the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex was built in the first place? As you might recall, its predecessor was located in downtown Colorado Springs at then-Ent AFB, inside the Chidlaw building. It didn't take a genius to figure out just how vulnerable that facility would be to either conventional or nuclear attack. Is the NORAD / NORTHCOM building at Peterson AFB any safer? It seems our enemies have an annoying way of finding our weaknesses, and then exploiting them. Does anyone remember 9/11 (2001)? It would seem that Admiral Keating has forgotten!

A great movie was shown on Turner Classic Movies last night. It was called "An Island In The Sky", all about Labrador.
It stars John Wayne, Lloyd Nolan, James Arness, Andy Devine and others. Look for it on Amazon or other sites. It is a fun movie down memory lane for us ol' radar types!

For those folks who worked with radars on wheels, check out www.mobileradar.org

To All: Regarding our website problems, here is a quick update based upon information I received via e-mail from Gene McManus, our founder & webmaster -- The web site has been down because the web hosting company has moved servers, and some settings didn't get set as they had been. They're not wanting to change settings because they're considered ''non-standard.'' Gene says that he is not sure when this will be resolved, because it will take quite a while to make the changes that their 'standard' settings will require. Although he is quite busy with his paying job, and thus doesn't have a lot of time right now, Gene is now changing some stuff over to their 'standard' so it doesn't get trapped again. So, the website is back up, but very crippled. The more-common stuff is running, but lots of stuff won't be for some time to come. Please stand by. Your patience is appreciated. -- T.

Arrived at Topsham,Maine, from the 735th AC&W Sq in Morocco. Was at the 735th from Mar 59-Mar 59 then on to Topsham. Was an Air Policeman.

I was assigned to the 727th AC&W Squadron, Myrtle Beach AFB, SC in 1958-1959. This unit was part of the 507th Tactical Control Group out of Shaw AFB, SC. The Air Force re-established its presence at Myrtle Beach on 27 Sept 1954 with the activating of the 727th AC&W Squadron. This was a mobile radar unit which was active during the day for training purposes. The Radar Site was located between the Myrtle Beach AFB runway and the city of Myrtle Beach. The following equipment was assigned: AN/MPS-14, Height Finder, AN/MPS-16, Height Finder (mfg's by Avco) & AN/MPS-11, Search Radar. Just wondering if there are other members of the Radome community who were assigned to this unit. There was a sister unit at Shaw AFB, SC, namely the 728th AC&W Squadron. Looking forward to communicating with anyone familar with the 727th AC&W Squadron of this time frame.

Always enjoy reading any thing about the old career field. Thanks for the good work.

I was stationed at Lockport AFS, NY (763rd) (1977-1978) and North Truro AFS, MA (762nd) (1979-1981). Drop me a line if you remember me. Believe it or not, I still work for the AF.---14 Mar 2007

Re the posting from CMSgt-r Art Zambile, here is one minor correction: The Vichy (MO) radar site was indeed built. It was a Gap-Filler Annex, and was operational from Aug 1959 to Dec 1962 (or some time thereafter), per ADC records. The facility was located on the west side of the present-day Rolla National Airport, which was formerly the Vichy Army Airfield. In fact, the building and the radar tower are still standing, and the AN/FPS-18 radar sail and its radome are still in place on top of the tower. (By the way, the Vichy GFA site is one of only four GFA sites today where the radome is still present on its tower.) Recent photos may be viewed on our ''Vichy'' webpage.

I was never assgd to an AC&W station, but I did visit two (Neah Bay and Port Townsend ) when I was stationed at Paine Field (near Everett, Wn.) in 1953 and 54. I was assigned to the 529th ABG at Paine, a 29150 (teletype). Washington was beautiful country, and the two above locations out on the Olympic Peninsula were always special places to visit. Nothing but tranquility and natural beauty. i would love to revisit there someday. I was discharged from there in April of 54. BPM

I was stationed at Cold Bay Air Force Station "714th" AFS in 82 - 83. I was told that I was the last Airman Basic ever sent remote duty Alaska. Who knows for sure. Difficult assigment right out of Basic and Tech school. The job was listed at "Classified" in Basic and they wouldn't tell me until tech school what it was. Then at tech school they didn't have any information about Cold Bay. Talk about operating in the blind! During my duty as a "scope dope" I filled the position of "Trusted Agent" the only Airman to fill this role also. Met some great guys while serving. Caught two Russian "Bears" in our airspace during my tour. Best food I will ever eat,,,Salmon, Cod, Halabut, Crab.

Those of you who have retired in the last 10 years or so but who
still show as stationed at one of Radomes' sites, or an 'open' end-
ing tour date [8/87- ] or [8/87-TBA] or [8/87-??] pls msg me and advise when you were discharged or retired. Also, if you have re- tired from Civil Service or a Company working on AF radar, pls ad-
vise--thanks. If your email address has changed, pls change it [following instructions] or let me know...
Aaron Allen.

Never was PCS to any site but,Had the opportinurty to visit many a site (Hanna City, Arlington Heights IL, just to name a couple) as an OJT Advisory Service Instructor during the late 70s, Can say it was quite an experience for sure. Maybe a few of my students might crop up. Of course while assigned to Keflavik Iceland we were the support base fo Hofn and Rockville Iceland. Which I was required to visit quarterly. The old Kirksville site is about 75 mile from where I currently live. Also, the Vichy site, which was never built is close by.

Served Cape Charles AFS, 771st RADS 1974 - 77.

worked in AN/FPS26A tower. Looking for info on any reunions.

Jack that site was called Bar-Main in those days. Today it's known as Barter Island Long Range Radar Station (LRRS). Jim

Jack that site was called Bar-Main in those days. Today it's known as Barter Island Long Range Radar Station (LRRS). Jim

Was watching Animal Planet TV show about caribou. They showed airplane landing at Kaktovik, AK. In the picture there were 2 or 3 radomes. Anyone know what radar site that might be?

Hi: Does anyone know the email address and status of
A2C Thomas H. Meeks [Opr. at 871 Acws, Villatobas AS ES?
His email shown is no longer valid...Thanks.
Larry Bohannon/ Strongsville OH.

I was at fire island anchorage 1958 dec. Sent to Cape Lisbuerne jan. to dec. 1959 I was a radar operator.

I'm trying to locate a friend from 871 Villatobas ES,
A2C Thomas [Tom, Toby] H. Meeks. He was also at Ajo-
Luke-Wms. His former e-mail [thmeeks@msn.com] is no
longer active. Does anyone know where Tom is?--thanks!
Larry['Bo'] Bohannon...

One of our long-time valued members, Jeff States, asked to have some information passed onto our Radomes, Inc. members. Because this could benefit military members and veterans, we are posting this information this time. (Normally, we prefer the website 'Guestbook' to be used for radar site-related matters, but exceptions are okay from time to time when the information might be of interest to a large number of our members and visitors). Anyway, Jeff works for Carnival Cruise Lines, and he brought it to our attention that Carnival offers ''substantial discounts'' on their cruises to current or former military members. If interested, please contact Jeff directly at phone no. 1-800-819-3902, x82555, or by e-mail at either rstates@carnival.com or psu68@bellsouth.net.

I'm sorry but I can't help you with any information about the 808th in Rochester, Mn. I was only there from Jan. to Apr. of 1957 when they closed. I was than shipped to the 787th in Chandler, Mn. for the duration of my enlistment. That's been 50 years. Ron Workman might be able to help you on this His e mail is: sonnyworkman@adelphia.net

Larry Smith