Manning the new facility at Stewart AFB

by
Chris McWilliams
SAGE Operator 27350B
Nov 1957 - Oct 1960

On 4 NOV 57, Special Order #103 were cut by the 656th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, Saratoga Springs AFS, NY, assigning seven of us 27350 Radar Operators to HQ Boston Air Defense Sector (BADS), Stewart AFB, Newburgh, NY. to report NLT 18 NOV 57. These orders met with mixed emotions, as the 656 was a great duty station, and we hated to leave it.

Upon arrival at Stewart AFB, we were assigned to two story brick barracks just across the street from the brand new SAGE Direction Center, an imposing four story concrete blockhouse. The base was bustling with activity, with ongoing F-86 interceptor flight operations right behind the DC, and with new troops arriving almost daily to man SAGE. Barracks space was tight, but all in all Stewart and Newburgh was pretty good duty. Our time was spent on base details, with trips into the DC for orientation and familiarization, crew assignments, photo shoots, VIP visits etc. One of our less pleasant duties (besides KP) was night time "fire watch". The barracks had coal fired furnaces, and troops were detailed to make the rounds of the barracks (about 10 of them) every night to keep the coal hoppers filled. Security in the DC was very tight, and a double badging system was used. One badge was carried outside the blockhouse, and exchanged for another badge retained at the security checkpoint in the DC entrance.

On 8 JAN 1958, orders were cut by the 3387th Technical Training Squadron (SAGE) 424 Trapelo Road, Waltham, Massachusetts, assigning 71 of us 273X0’s from Stewart and McGuire AFB, NJ (NYADS) to 6 weeks TDY SAGE training at Lincoln Labs. We were housed in Murphy Army Hospital in open bays (none of us were happy about that). As "scopedopes" we were surprised to see the display consoles blinking the data, rather than displaying from a rotating cursor. The consoles looked like science fiction compared to the radar scopes we were used to. Lightguns and keypad data entry, plus switches and buttons all over the place. No more backwards plotting on Plexiglas walls while climbing up and down "bleachers" in the dark.

Returning to Stewart and McGuire in late February, we were awarded AFSC 27350B, and started "working up" towards SAGE operational status. As I recall, we had two main problems: (1) multiple radar blips on each target caused by imprecise radar site locations in the computer, and (2) lots of glitches in the "smoothing and predicting" program which associated computer symbology to a particular radar track. This kept those of us in the Tracking Section on our toes. T-33’s flew numerous test flights getting the system properly set up and registered. SAGE had excellent communications built into the consoles, and I remember spending many long midnight shifts playing "Battleship" over the comm lines to stay awake. During the day, IBM personnel worked along side us on the consoles (for a lot better salary). Several of us made day trips up to IBM Kingston to provide USAF operator input into design ideas and modifications for the consoles.

NYADS barely beat us to operational status. System exercises using SAC bombers returning from overseas deployments were hectic, to say the least. There were bomber and interceptor tracks all over the scope. The bombers used both sophisticated electronic and chaff jamming, flying intersecting and zigzagging changing altitude flight paths trying to confuse our defenses. As the amount of data input increased, the "frame time" (time for the computer to run through all its calculations and display operations) got progressively longer. At 15 seconds frame time, the computer would start discarding data, so we had to keep the inputs down through radar mapping, selective data turnoff, etc. Eventually, we got the bugs worked out, and SAGE became a formidable air defense system.