submitted by Mark Morgan
My comments from my last visit, dated 4 January 1989, were "Due to the rotten road conditions and low ceiling, I didn`t even try to climb up Hamaker Mountain. Despite having a 4WD truck, I didn`t want to take a chance of getting stuck."
Funny how ten years later you can finally learn just what a good decision you`ve made...
Designated TM-180/Z-180 under the Semi-Mobile Radar, Phase III program, Keno served the Air Force as both a radar/early warning site and as a Backup Interceptor Control facility, backstopping the 25th Air Division direction center at McChord. The radar laydown was two AN/FPS-6A`s (downgraded to a single radar in 1960), an AN/FPS-20A (replaced by an FPS-67 in 1962), and AN/FPS-6B (installed 1960, replaced by an FPS-90 in 1963).
The assigned squadron was the 827th AC&WS, which activated at Kingsley Field on 8 September 1957 and moved to the radar site the following February. It became operational under the manual network in February 1959, tied into the SAGE network in June 1960, and redesignated as a Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 December 1962. The 827th`s gap-filler dets were at Yreka, CA and LaPine, OR.
On 1 March 1970 the 827th formally deactivated as a radar squadron and stood up as an air defense group, operating the BUIC installation. The 827th ADG inactivated in October 1977 and operations reverted to an Operating Location of the 25th Air Division at McChord. At the time of its deactivation, the 827th manned the last operating BUIC in the western United States.
Squadron/group assignments over the years were to the 28th Air Division (9/57-3/59, Hamilton AFB), 25th AD (3/59-3/60), Portland ADS (3/60-4/66), 26th AD (4/66-9/69), and 25th AD (9/69-10/77).
When I got to the top I found two enclosed radar tower buildings within a fenced perimeter, one of which still has a radome. According to the signs, it`s still an FAA installation (gee, no kidding); what appears to be the former ops/BUIC building is at the other end of the compound. Outside the fence were a few small cinder block buildings and a former garage/motor pool structure, but other than that, everything else has been cleared off.
Hell of a view, though (05 Oct 98/Oregon Outback Tour 4/98).