May
16, 1963 Newspaper Clipping from the Lewistown Daily News
The Lewistown Air Force Station invited the public
to observe Armed Forces Day Saturday,
May 18, by visiting the 694th Radar Squadron, located in Maiden
Canyon.
Major
Francis B. Mael, base commander,
in extending the invitation,
said: “Even though our base is located 17 miles from Lewistown, we feel that we
are a part of your city. The friendliness and acceptance of an air base located
so near is something the citizens of Lewistown can be quite proud. With the
missile activity right in our midst, and the world situation as it is now, it
is very important that our civilian population visit the military installation
nearest them on this one day of the year when we hold open house. I’m certain
after a tour of our radar site, everyone will be more aware of the effort
expended by the Air Defense Command in defending our nation against enemy
attack.”
The air station will open its gates to the public
from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. All autos approaching the base will be handed a
descriptive brochure of the station, and invited to drive through its housing
area. Upon entering the lower station, groups of 20 to 25 will be formed for
guided tours through the motor pool, offices, medical center, barracks, NCO
club, bowling alley, diesel plant, supply and ending at the base dining hall,
where free doughnuts, coffee, and ice cream will be served. Persons desiring to
tour the upper are invited to do so, but must provide their own transportation.
Guided tours have also been arranged for this area.
This portion of the site, which is the actual
operational section of the base, is commonly called “The Hill” as it sits atop
Judith Peak, and is reached by a 7-mile scenic drive from the main base. Buildings in this area house the radar sets,
data processing equipment, and other electronic equipment which connects the
Lewistown station with the SAGE building in Great Falls. At the present time,
construction of a fallout shelter is in progress on “The Hill”, and extreme
caution is asked of those visiting the upper area.
The Lewistown Air Force Station is one of the newest
Air Force installations in the United States, originally being activated in
July 1958, at Great Falls. In November 1958, construction of the station was
only partially completed and very few personnel were assigned there. In April
1959, the physical construction of the site and its buildings were completed
and the influx of personnel and technical radar equipment began.
On February 15, 1960, at one minute past midnight,
the 694th AC&W Squadron (as it was then designated) became
operational, thus beginning the around-the-clock surveillance operation. For
one year, the 694th operated under the old manual type of operation,
in which the radar operators and controllers actually controlled the flight
plans of aircraft flying in the area of Central Montana.
However, on March 1, 1961, the 694th
AC&W Squadron completed a changeover to the SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground
Environment) system of operation, and was redesignated the 694th
Radar Squadron. With this new SAGE system, which introduced data processing
machine and computer to Air Defense, the radar operators no longer deal
directly with the aircraft, but now relay information received on the scopes to
the direction center in the SAGE building in Great Falls. With these complex
computers and the SAGE direction center, the identification and interception of
hostile aircraft is completed with unprecedented speed and accuracy. Although
only four years old, the 694th utilizes the most modern and complex
equipment in the Air Force and thus remains an important link in the great
chain of radar squadrons that protect the northern border of the United States.