I am Richard L. Bethea and I served a one year tour at Sparrevohn AFS (719th AC&W Sq) remote radar site Top Camp during 59/60.

Sometime that winter of 59/60, a 6X6 truck slid off the switchback road near the top with nine airmen on board. The driver with one airman in the cab and seven airmen in the back. As it began sliding off the road, four airmen in the back were able to jump clear of the truck. The other three airmen jumped but slid down under the truck as it rolled over on them. The driver and front passenger remained in the cab as it kept rolling over and over down the mountainside until it came to rest against a small ridge. The injured were air lifted out for medical treatment with very severe injuries. Do you know if any of those airmen may have died and are counted among those 13 deaths on that switchback road?

I have tried in vain to find any document that list the names of those 13 airmen and the nature of the accidents that took their lives. Do you know where I can find the document listing those incidents? Thank you for any information you can send me.


Richard L. Bethea
Sparrevohn AFS, TC 59/60

I found this website showing a pilot's view of landing at the 719th AC&W Sq, Sparrevohn, AK. Great views of that horrible runway.
http://www.firebirds.org/menu10/rader/rader_mnu.htm
Chuck Sunder
Minneapolis

Montauk AFS 773 RADS, 1976-1981,
Great Tour Great Site, Great Club, Land's End" NCO/All Ranks Club
I miss one Guy in particular:
Robert Bob" Saunders Tsgt then, He went into AWACS after Montauk on the West Coast,
Bob was a Korean American fellow that had been adopted by an Iowa,Des Moines, Preacher, he attended Uof Iowa and was about 5'4"
He was a Marathoner, and lifted weights, ,He rode a Harley and drove a Datsun 280z, Bob is/was a great friend to me and my wife Rieko Darling, She was main force in running the Club Accts Recievable Clerk,Bartender,den Mother for all(went thru 7 in 5 years) the lost club "Managers".
If anyone has any Info Regarding Bob Sanders drop me an E-Mail
darlingunited@yahoo.com
or call 360-739-4319.
He was about 34 in 81 so he is about 61 now.
Great friend and mentor....and he could Drink Lordy could Bob drink.
Jim Darling Sgt USAF 76-81

Hi. I am doing some research on late 1950s, early 1960s employee housing on the Blackfeet Reservation. It is my understanding that some of the buildings came from the Cut Bank facility in Montana. If anyone has any information about this, it would be appreciated.

Thank you
Joan Brownell

Has any one any information on the 737th It was originally a mobile unit (Call Sign Walnut-2). It was equipped with the GE Height finder and the Bendix
1- meg a watt long range search radar MPS 11, complete with IFF. We had a back tipsy 10-D and an old GPS - 4 for back up.

I was stationed there from Dec.1956 - Dec.1957 as a radar repairman AFSC 30331C. I was sent there after completing Radar School in Biloxi, Miss.

The facility was rather new only 2 years or so in 1956. I had heard that all of the US bases in Morocco were closed in the 60's at Casablanca, Siti-Slemian,
Rabat, and all 5 of the AC & W sqds

Regards,
A 2/C Bill T. Hardaway
13115 Ricon Dr.
Houston, Texas 77077

I've just learned that there was an AC&W site here in West-Central PA: Claysburg AFS, 772nd AC&W. The site was located atop Blue Knob (now a ski resort)mountain. I've asked around here (I live about 8 miles from Blue Knob)and nobody seems to remember it. Anyone on the forum who was stationed there? If so, how was it? Tnx.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/09/chinese-buildin.html

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/20080923.aspx

Two items of interest, one concerning a possible, or impossible microwave drive, another the Army Air Force returns?

Billy refreshed my memory with his comments. Fantasyland was the last block of instruction in BED and everyone was anxious at that point to complete that part of the course and go home. In the 30332 course, we were given a two-week break between BED and sets, and most of the guys used it to go home on their first leave since entering the Air Force. At the time, I believe that the radar maintenance program at 45 weeks was one of the longest tech schools the Air Force offered to enlisted men.

Regarding "Fantasyland", I attended HVY Ground RM School beginning late 1960, ending in October 1961. There was no "Fantasyland" block at that time. Our last block in BED/RM before Sets was IFF/SIF, then 2 weeks break. We also had a 1 week break at the end of 9 weeks (3rd or 4th block). Also, I remember during the first block that there was a fascinating color organ (using fluorescent color tubes)in the classroom in Allee Hall. HankB

Super Site! If you were at the following, drop a line. I was a Scope Dope by trade.
777 RADES Klamath CA 1976-78
848 ACW Wallace AFS, PI 1978-79
4754 RADAR Eval Sqdn, later known as the 1954th, then 84TH RADES 1979-1981
615TH ACW Boerfink (Neubrucke)Germany 1981-84
After Germany, it was off to Tinker AFB and AWACS doing that airborne thing off and on for the next 14 years. I had a break catching an assignment to 7th AF, Osan AB Korea 1989-90, TAC/ACC DOYA 1990-91, then over to ACC/IG 1991-94, Langley AFB, VA
After leaving Langley it was back to full time flying at Elmendorf AFB, AK 1994-1998. RTB to Tinker in the summer of 1998 and decided to retire at the end of the year. I have many fond memories of nearly 23 years of active duty but the ground RADAR assignments were by far the most influential in character building and I daresay "interesting" for a young Airman . Where else could a 19 year old young lady learn about skin paint and inspections relative to a short extremity? Those Maint Chiefs, Ya gotta love em!
Keep up the great work with this site!

John: I, too, was at Keesler in 61. I remember block 10 of BED and indeed it was called Fantasyland or the Fantasy block. I also remember the instructor bs'ing most of the block with only a slight reference to the swt and klystron. It was a short block, 1 week, and was the last one, so hardly anyone paid any attention to what was said, anyway.

When I went through basic electronics school at Keesler, I remember a block of instruction that, if I recall it correctly, was called Tomorrowland or Fantasyland because the subjects taught were (for that time) considered futuristic and exotic. Two of the technologies I recall were klystrons and traveling wave tubes. Does anyone else out there recall that block of instruction?

John,
You forgot about the magnetrons that were partners to the Klystrons. The magnetrons were actually easier to work on

Herk...

It's true that magnetrons were easier to work on. They were simple and were not a new technology in 1961. They had been around since WWII. As I recall, the klystrons and traveling wave tubes were fairly new technology at that time. The FPS-20 was a state-of-the art radar in 1961 and it contained a klystron. I remember pulling one while stationed in Iceland. I seem to recall it was an all-day procedure. My recollection about Tomorrowland was prompted as I attempted to set up a new cell phone I just purchased. I thought back to my days at Keesler and realized how far technology had advanced since those days.

First time visitor enjoyed the site.I was also stationed at manassas air force station from nov
of 59 to may of 60.

Would like to hear from Army or Air Force personell stationed @ Highland Air force station,Highlands New Jersey,Army--HQ 51st Arty Bde,--Air force 646 AC@W Sqdn. was stationed there 1961-1962.

Veterans planning to attend the Fort Fisher AFS Site Reunion of 17-19 October 2008, and planning to stay in on-site lodging and/or planning to participate in the banquet dinner and/or the cookout / fish fry, need to contact the Fort Fisher Air Force Recreation Area Reservations Clerk, Ms Katie Powell, at katiepowell3@bellsouth.net, (910) 458-6549, no later than 01 October 2008. That is, from this point forward, please contact Katie **directly** -- and please do so by the 1st of October. Thank you!
-- Tom

USAF 57-61, 689th ac&w, Mt Hebo, Or 57-60, 623rd ac&w, det 2, Kumeshima,60-61. Would like to hear from anyone stationed at these locations, and this time period.

FROM COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE 9-18-08
In an about-face from three months ago, the military has agreed to review security threats to NORAD after a government oversight agency found vulnerabilities hadn't been fully assessed before the U.S. and Canadian air, space and maritime warning command was moved from Cheyenne Mountain to Peterson Air Force Base.

The "Hanoi Taxi" is on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio if you did'nt already know that.

White Alice tech class of 64 at Romanzof

Anyone out there that remembers the callsign of the C-141 that picked our prisoners in Hanoi?

The answer to the call sign of the Hanoi Taxi was" Bravo 26 "

Just adding some info to Jack Kerr's message. I beleive that the Russian plane was one of their transports that flew constantly to Cuba. The aircraft that escorted the plane in were F101B's. I was at NYADS at the time but did not work that shift.

John,
While flying mission on EC-121H a Bear, on it's way to Cuba, bucking the jet stream ran short on fuel requested permission to fly into JFK to refuel.
We flew with it to JFK along with two interceptors out of Suffolk County. They were either F-102 or F-106. Braniff (name from past) put two pilots on board to fly with Bear on to Cuba.

When I was stationed at ther 932nd in Iceland in the early 60s, we were constantly running intercepts against Bear bombers that flew past Iceland on their way to Cuba. It was especially interesting during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two bombers that recently flew to Venezuela were supersonic Blackjack bombers.

US Air Force to Overhaul Handling of Nuclear Material
By Al Pessin
Pentagon
12 September 2008

Secretary Gates created the task force after two recent incidents of mishandling nuclear material that led him to fire top Air Force officials. In one incident, nuclear triggers were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan. The other was an unauthorized flight of nuclear weapons across the United States.

The task force chairman, former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, says he and his colleagues did not expect the depth and extent of problems they found.

"We were surprised, as a matter of reality," he said. "The erosion [of oversight] had gone much further than we anticipated."

Schlesinger says, in recent decades, particularly since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Air Force has lowered the priority and prestige it once attached to its nuclear weapons program. He says funding and staffing fell, and the result was dissatisfaction and poor performance by troops assigned to work in that field.

Among other things, the task force recommends putting all Air Force nuclear-related work under one new command, and holding commanders and ordinary airmen to a very high standard. Schlesinger says the Air Force also must add people to the effort, and make nuclear operations an attractive career option.

The Russians just sent two strategic bombers to Venezuela to participate in military exercises with Venezuelan forces. According to news reports, it's the first such flight since the end of the cold war. Russia may also deploy maritime patrol aircraft (probably a version of the Tu-95 Bear) to Venezuela. Both bombers were supposedly tracked by NATO forces on their trip. I'm curious to know if they flew along the east cost of the U.S. and what our response was. In the bad old days, such planes would have had a USAF escort throughout much of their journey.

I'd like to hear from anyone stationed at 701st Radar Squardon Fort Fisher, Kure Beach N.C. I was there from Feb.'65 to Sept.'67.

Thank you for the look around. Among the items that I looked at for the 751st RADS (my old unit), someone had uploaded the information brochure. I was assigned at the base between June 1974 through July 1977 at the GATR site. My rating was 30454.

Based upon information in the brochure, it appears to have been published between 1967 and 1971 (reference SLBM Detection..."). The 71st Missile Warning Wing was activated in 1967 and deactivated in 1971. When I arrived in 1974, the unit was Det 4, 14th MWS.

Enjoyed visiting the museum online. Thanks.

Herb Holeman
West Mesa Air Force Station 1957-58

All the kudos here are very much appreciated. Thank you very much. I must emphasize, though, that most of our success is due to you -- our members and our other visitors -- sending us copies of your memorabilia such as your personal photographs, air-division/air-defense sector yearbooks, newspaper clippings, personal accounts, and so forth. We have received a lot of excellent material, but we still need more. There are still many of the old air-defense radar sites (long-range and gap-filler), GATR sites, Manual and SAGE Direction Centers, BOMARC missile sites, etc., where we have very few photos or no photos at all, or other materials. So, when time permits, please look through your photograph collection and your other memorabilia, and compare your materials to what we currently display on line. If you have items that we do not, please contact us, and please let us know what you have and how we may obtain copies. Thank you very much once again. -- Tom

I can't tell you how much I enjoy your work in preserving the radar site experience. Thanks a million.

Ted Ward. The single channel UHF receiver wa the GRR-7.

HI. This is great! (For a guy just turning 65, it's fun pretending that I'm 18 to 22 again! - for memory purposes, of course -
I was stationed at Tonopah AFS, 866th Radar Squadron from about June of '62 to June of 63. (From there, I continued onto Harmon AFB, NFLD until March of '65.)
I worked in the GATR (Ground To Aie Transmitter Reciever?) building, maintained the amplifiers, consoles and what-not in the Radar site, as well. (That meant that I did a lot of traveling around the hill from time to time...) We had the GRT-3 single channel UHF Xmtr's, single channel UHF reciever's (I can't for the life of me remember it's G number!), GRC-27 multichannel Transciever (I think that's the designation), BC-639 VHF Tx/rx, BC-610 HF transmitter. We also had the T2 Datalink System.
Most of our time was spent doing PMI's...meter readings and filter cleanings (in large tubs of Triclor!).
GATR was sort of an adjunct to the radar site. We were about 1/2 mile off on our own road....at Tonopah.
My time at Tonopah didn't seem all that bad...I enjoyed much of it.
A couple of years later (in 1966-67) I volunteered as a civilian technician in the White Alice section of the BMEWS in Alaska...Cape Romanzof. (We maintained the Troposcatter communication system between the Alaskan sites.) I mention this because my time at Tonopah gave me a lot of preparation for much of my experiences - both work and relaxation - at the Cape.
I can't immediately recall any of the names of my fellow guys at Tonopah...but I have an idea that some names will pop up soon...Thanks for letting me share....Ted

Thanks for documenting and preserving my Command. Most of my career in ADC. 57-58 Keesler AFB, 58-61 656th Radar Sq, 1961-1967 551st AEW&C Wg, 1967-1868 AFTAC, 1968-1970 551st AEW&C Wg,1970-1971 777th Radar Sq, 1971-1972 Keesler AFB, 192-1974 637 ADGp, 1974-1977 2nd Comm Sq, Buckley AFB.
Keep up the good work.

Congratulations on the Sites Tenth anniversity.

Many thanks for giving the means and opportunity to find and contact many of our friends whom we haven't (in my case over 43-47 years)in many years. I have been able to thank several people that I worked with and for back then who through their encouragements helped shape my life and career.
Keep up the good work!

Ken, Keesler 61-62; 759th Nasalle WA 62-64; 777th Requa CA 64-65
Retired Electrical Engineer,SONAR Tech Rep.

Many thanks to Gene and Tom.......Because of this excellent radar website, I started my own website (610/618th ACWSq-Southern Japan 1945-1959) and was able to make contact with over 300 ex members of my old radar squadrons. This enabled us to have 4 reunions in various parts of the US and another scheduled for this month. Each of these squadrons had many detachments, but we all became buddies because of having shared the same experiences at radar stations in a far off place long long time ago.

Was assigned to the 665 Radar Squadron in 1967/68 and visited with my family shortly after it closed. Had great fun explaining the "Copper Harbour Stare" and recalling the battle of the Cliff view Inn, among other great adventures living in 319" of snow.

638 ACWRON. Curlew,WA. Arrived (from Keesler radar school as an A3c) 08-19-54 Departed (discharged) 07-12-58. This was a terrific duty station (except for the 6 mile trip to the bubble) My twin brother (Neil) also was stationed there (Motor-pool)I married a girl from Republic 52 years ago this coming Dec......Hope to hear from somebody...

Hey guys, thanks so much for all of your hardwork with the OL museum.As a 60s scope dope(691st X-city,Fl)its great to share the best years of my life with this site.We were special people with a special task;I am proud to be associated with the other veterans who served on the many sites around the world.Job well done.

thanks for all the good work you are doing,certainly brings back good old memories to this domer.served 4 years at the674th osceola,wi

Happy 10th!! Great job, great website..Best years of my 24 year AF career were spent in ADC (North Truro, Suffolk County & Gunter (MOADS)..

Hey,

Heard you folks are having a birthday. Have a great one, and Thanks for all your many hours maintaining this website.


Gary Hagan-AF Havre AFS,1961 thru 1962, Hopedale AFS, 1962 thru July 1963

A very informative and historical service, my hat's off to you folks, Woody, and now Gene and Tom, for setting up this and the other sites. I salute you all who were members of this unique career group on this your "10th Anniversary". Although only part of my Air Force career was dedicated to "AC/W Sqdns", it will always be foremost in my mind. Thank you all,

Stan F Schloesser

Happy 10th Anniversary Radomes.org. I use your website all the time for references. You guys are the best!

Steve Hornung