Dale writes:
"I was one of the earliest sent to the 791st AC&W Squadron at Hanna City, Illinois. It was sruing the spring of 1951, probably in May. Several of us had been trained as Radar Operators. I think that at that time there was only one barracks, the west one, open. I do remember that the "to-be" streets were really mud for quite a while. For some time we were kept occupied with various detail work.

Sometime in the summer a class was organized to retrain a lot of us to be the Radar and Radio Maintenance people for the equipment that was to be installed there. The classes met in the not-yet-completed operations building and were taught by Philco and RCA tech reps. After a few months of basic electronics, the group was split into two classes, one for radio and one for radar. The split classes lasted until the spring of 1952 when the base became operational."

The AN/FPS-3 radome, in the background, had not yet been painted at the time this photo was taken. Anyone ever having worked in a black radome will remember what happened when the sun came out on a hot summer day. With a 90 degree temperature outside, the inside temperature could climb as high as 150 degrees. Radar Maintenance techs considered the white paint a godsend.

Also notice that grass was not yet growing around the barracks in the foreground, indicating that this site was very new at the time of the photograph.

A typical barracks room wall locker and dresser. While not particularly impressive by itself, it indicates that Hanna City personnel had some decent amenities for the early `50s.