Contributed by Mark Morgan
Silver Lake ADCC – This was the big one, the first postwar Air Warning Station in Puget Sound and the early home of the 25th Air Division and several associated units. Six years ago – using a single reference I found at the Everett Public Library (BOMARC & Rollercoasters Tour 3/97) – I placed the site in the old Snohomish County Fairgrounds, immediately west of the Silver Lake and east of I-5. Turns out I was off by about three-quarters of a mile.
According to the USACE the War Department acquired the 93.5-acre property between 1946 and 1948 and used it as a regional air defense headquarters, incorporating transmitter and receiver facilities, housing, administration and recreational buildings. The 25th Air Defense Division activated on site on 25 October 1948 under Brig Gen Ned Schramm, a World War II commander of the San Francisco Fighter Wing, the 71st Fighter Wing, IX Air Defense Command and postwar Deputy Commander of Fourth Air Force at Hamilton.1 Fourth Air Force initially authorized a staff of 18 officers and 31 men to operate the division. On 6 November 1948 Brig Gen Schramm returned to Hamilton to assume the duties of Vice Commander, Fourth Air Force and Maj John C. Burnett assumed temporary command. Col Clinton D. Vincent – the famous “Casey” Vincent for whom the air force base outside of Yuma was later named – assumed command of the division on 20 April 1949.
On 3 May 1949 the 25th ADD transferred from Fourth Air Force to Headquarters Air Defense Command; it redesignated as the 25th Air Division (Defense) on 20 June 1949. On 10 November 1949 the division transferred to the Western Air Defense Force. 2 The 25th moved to McChord on 14 September 1951.
The units under the 25th at Silver Lake were the 505th AC&WG (9/49-6/51), 634th AC&WS (4/48-2/52), 635th AC&WS (8/48-9/50) and the 636th AC&WS (8/48-9/50). The 635th moved back to McChord in September 1950 while the 636th transferred to Condon AFS, OR in September 1950; the 634th was apparently the last unit out of Silver Lake, inactivating on 6 February 1952, but it returned to service at McChord on 20 June 1953 and ultimately operated Burns AFS, OR. The 505th Aircraft Control & Warning Group moved to Silver Lake from McChord and later moved back; the group operated the initial Cold War air defense radars in the northwest under the SUPREMACY and LASHUP programs.
The Air Force declared the Silver Lake facility excess in 1953; it subsequently became residential and school property. At the time of USACE’s visit in 1988 only one large concrete building remained on site and it was subject to demolition. According to the report, the building was the former auxiliary power house and I can now vouch that the structure is gone; all I found was housing – a mix of old and new – and over-55 trailer/prefab park, Discovery School and a few copses of trees. Sad to say this one’s completely gone but as before with the AAA sites, no surprise here.