THE 903RD AIRCRAFT CONTROL & WARNING SQUADRON
GREAT FALLS AFB, MONTANA
1954-1955

Contributed By: Ray Bergen, Radomes Staff

In July of 1954 I transferred from the 681st AC&W Squadron, Cut Bank AFS, Montana to the 903rd AC&W Squadron, Great Falls AFB, Montana. At the time I was an A/2C and was a Radar Operator (AFSC 27350). I had been stationed at GFAFB in 1952 in the 29th Air Division where I worked in the Manual Control Center, so it was a homecoming, of sorts.

The base was still called Great Falls AFB. Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom, the Vice-Commander of the resident SAC Wing at the base had yet to put a T-33 into the side of Gore Hill, just northwest of downtown Great Falls on 21Aug54, to earn a place in history by having the base renamed in his honor.

The 903rd was a brand new organization with no facilities or equipment. The EMs were billeted in the 29th Air Division Headquarters Squadron area and ate in their mess hall and relied on them for all supplies. The squadron initially consisted of two (2) officers (the CO and Adjutant) and about a dozen EMs - mostly radar maintenance and operations people. We were told that we would be getting an AN/TPS-1D search radar and our first task was to find a place to put it. I don`t recall that the term "lashup" was applied to us but that is what we were.

The "1Dog" did not have the greatest range so it was thought that the best place for it would be on top of the tallest structure on the base, which turned out to be the hanger used by the 29th Fighter Interceptor Squadron that flew the Lockheed F-94C StarFire. The 29th FIS CO didn`t want to have anything to do with a search radar sitting on top of his hanger. He and his Maintenance Officer worried that the firing circuits for the 2.75" Folding Fin Aerial Rockets (FFAR) in the 94s could inadvertently be affected by the energy transmitted by the radar set and cause the firing of every rocket in every plane in the squadron. Considering that there were 24 airplanes in the squadron and each one had 48 FFARs this was a valid concern. So we had to look elsewhere for a home for our radar set.

Finally after an exhaustive search - which lasted all of a week - we were given the use of an old WW II barracks area for all of our needs - barracks, orderly room, dayroom, supply, operations, communications and radar maintenance. Everything except mess facilities as we continued to be fed by HQ Squadron of the 29th. These old barracks areas consisted of eight one-story barracks, each with a capacity of about 60 men, and two combination shower/latrine buildings. We ended up using only two of the barracks buildings, one to house the orderly room, operations and maintenance and the other for a barracks and supply room and one of the latrines. Using these outside latrines in the middle of a Montana winter was a chilling experience to say the least.

The AN/TPS-1D search radar arrived in September of 1954 and we immediately set about getting it up and running. To achieve this a hole was cut in the roof of the "operations hut" barracks and the mast for the set was poked up through the hole and the antenna was mounted on the mast. We did not have a lot of test equipment so, in order to see if the set was radiating, we pointed it at the PX, which was about a long block away, and at an appointed time the maintenance crew turned it on. It worked. We knew it worked as every flash bulb in the photo department of the PX went off. I and another operator were witnesses to this having been the most vocal in our disbelief that this would happen.

After we got the set calibrated and up and running and got radio gear installed we operated from 0800 to 1700, Monday through Friday, working with the fighters from the base and from the Montana Air National Guard squadron stationed at the Great Falls Municipal Airport up on Gore Hill. We monitored their departures and assisted in their returns to base after they had run practice intercepts under the control of the GCI sites up on the border; Yaak, Cutbank, Havre, Opheim, etc. The Guard flew Republic F-84 Thunderjets having recently transitioned from WW II vintage North American P-51 Mustangs.

The Air Force had a program called "Operation Bootstrap" which was designed to help personnel earn college degrees. The program paid all tuition costs except for books and a fee of $1.00 per quarter/semester credit hour that the student had to pay. I enrolled at the College of Great Falls and carried a 16 quarter-hour course load. I was able to get most of my books second-hand. I went to school from 0800 to about 1400. When I got back to the base I worked in operations until we shut down and then I would do paper work in the Orderly Room where I doubled as the Squadron clerk. I had left high school early in 1952 to enlist and here I was entering college only a year behind my high school classmates.

One of my fellow students was Col. Malmstrom`s daughter and we sometimes rode the bus into town together. The college, now a university, was located behind Columbus Hospital and had about 300 students. I managed to get through two quarters before being sent to the 606th AC&W Squadron in Korea.

The 903rd`s existence is shrouded in mystery as no one knew that it existed at GFAFB.