The 655th Radar Squadron was in existence and based near Watertown in the early 1950`s prior to the construction of the radar site on Dry Hill. I know this because my stepfather was assigned to the 655th in the motor pool when he met my mother. At that time, the unit was based on a U.S. Army training facility called Camp Drum (now Fort Drum and home to the 10th Mountain Division). As a child I can remember my stepfather taking my mother and I out to where he worked to show us around. I clearly remember seeing the search radar antenna slowly rotating on top of a steel tower even though at the time I didn`t know what I was looking at. My mother re-married in 1951. My stepfather was discharged from the Air Force that same year.

I confirmed the above information with my brother`s father-in-law. He is a retired civilian employee of Fort Drum and clearly remembers the 655th being located there in the early 1950`s. He recalled the radar tower and antenna and remembered the names of officers assigned there.

In 1957 our family moved to a home just outside Watertown. By that time the 655th had moved to its permanent home on Dry Hill. Dry Hill is actually on the edge of a geographical feature know as the Tug Hill Plateau. This high area rises above the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and is famous for its "lake effect" snowstorms which can dump several feet of snow in just a few hours. Westerly winds pick up moisture as they cross Lake Ontario. As the air rises as it moves over the plateau, that moisture is released as snow. The area receives some of the heaviest snowfalls in the continental United States outside of the mountains of the west. Snowfalls of over 300 inches a year are common. I`m sure anyone who served with the 655th can tell stories of those legendary snow falls.

Because Dry Hill is much higher than the surrounding area, the radar site and the radomes were clearly visible for several miles and could be seen from the front lawn of our house. My parents continued to live in that house until 1980. The radar site was de-activated at about the same time. Today the radar site is a New York State prison.

The CPS-5 radar antenna photo shown in the Lashup section of the web page looks like the tower and antenna I recall seeing as a child when my mother and I visited my stepfather-to-be at the 655th in the early 50`s before it moved to it`s permanent location on Dry Hill.

John Tianen

In late 1957, as techrep for BJ Electronics (Santa Anna, CA. They made Rolls Royce class, Signal Generators.) working on the AN-MSM-11 SAGE Radar Test Set, we moved from the gap filler at Ulisses, PA, to the 655th, located on "Driyer Hill, "just South of Watertown, NY. I remember the snow was so high, that tunnels were cut, from houses to the street, in the small towns and on farms.

By the fall of `57, the 655th had their `FPS-3[`MPS-7?] converted to an `FPS-20 and were in the process of installing their second `FPS-6. The `6 had a problem with the Azimuth drive, that had stumped the civil service installation crew, who had left for the week end. Being broke, and having nothing better to do, as well as being an ex-Philco techRep, from the 751st AC&W, I listened to an Airman interested in fixing the AZ drive problem. The Amplidyne would not run. It turned out that the "Heinemann" 3 phase circuit breaker, in the control panel, had an open phase. (I always suspect the source or power supply, unless there is clear evidence to the contrary.) The spares kit provided a replacement, and the `6 was radiating and tracking targets, when the installation crew came in on Monday.

I was an SFC in the reserve, having transferred from the NG, in order to drill in with units in various towns that were near our operation locations. The USAR outfit in Watertown, was an AAA Bn. with 75 mm Sky sweepers, as I recall.

They had a dead `TPS-1D search set. Turned out that their `TIPSY DOG" needed a 5J26 maggie, the same type that the "FPS-3 used. The 655th still had some in tech supply.... The AAA Bn. CO was aghast but happy, when I fixed his "1D and then tuned it to a non interfering frequency, with the `20 on the hill. The AAA Bn had caught hell, in the past, from the 655 AC&W folks, for being jammed by the `1D.

The MSM-11, by the way, was mounted in a 1.5 ton 4WD International truck, that towed the nicest little 5 KW generator trailer that I have ever seen. Inside, we had L and S band signal generators and receivers set up to transpond with AC&W radar`s. For gap fillers, we used a sig. gen. that had a 180 KHz rep rate, that looked like CW to a radar. It could "take out" an S band radar, from about 10 miles! There was also a surplus `APR-4 for use in finding weak signals. The whole idea was to provide a signal from a known Azimuth, to enable the `FST-2 computer to align the various radar sites signals. As maintenance standards were improved, sun strobes could be picked up at dawn and sunset. The `MSM-11 contract was canceled at the end of June, 1958, having been replaced by the SUN, as in ole sol!

I am going to send some of your downloaded info to Clint Blaise, who was the Philco Site Engineer, at the 751st AC&W, Mt. Laguna, CA.

I visited that site in the late 1980`s. The same old `6 parts, (s/n 17, 34) were still up in its tower, being operated by a small USAF contingent.

Best Regards, dah