I was stationed at the 689th AC&W SQ. from Jan 1954 til Jun 1956 which was located in Portland Or. This was before Mt Hebo.Cant find anything about this base in all your history.

I have read many of the msg's over the years and have seen this Guest book grow with Manual Radar SAGE,BMWEWS,TCS, AEW,TEXAS TOWERS,BUIC,412L but now I am curious why you have not included AWACS,I think there are troops out there that would like to see some of the newest radar that has evolved. Buck Brennan

Love this site, love to hear from anyone I was stationed with, drop me a line.

For John Tianen
I think it was just an error of editing and research. I have noticed a lot of mispronunciations Of bases and areas of Vietnam. Just my opinion.

I see errors all the time on the Discovery Channel and the Military Channel and I am far from being a military expert. I used to do a lot of video production before I retired. One thing that you must always do in the pre-production stage is to check the script for correct content, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Plus, I always was in attendance when the voice-over was read to make sure it was read correctly. I guess that didn't happen in this case. When I heard them refer to the GAGE system, I almost broke out laughing.

Great site, just discovered today (10-25-09)

Thanks for the efforts put into it.

Pete K.

Thanks for the site, brings back a lot of memories, some good and some------

I was watching a program on the evolution of radar and its use in air defense on the Military Channel. To my surprise, I found out that the US had a sophisticated radar-based air defense system called GAGE. That's right, GAGE. Did anyone out there work on the GAGE system? Surely it must have been ultra-secret, because I never heard of it. And I had a SECRET clearance.....

wadena afs,62-64 ,murphy dome 64-65 ,winnemucca afs 66-68 ,dong ha rvn 68-69 ,mc dill afb 69-72 ,robins afb 72-74 ,ang 74-00. retired smsgt reg af.

Selfridge ANGB, Mich., was home to the former 661st AC& W Sq. The story below concerns that base, which, if memory serves, had all five service branches on it, at least circa 1972. One memory: A Coast Guard helicopter pilot who liked to fly right over the FPS-35 tower. I guess he liked the view or some such, but I always wondered if his instruments went a little crazy. I didn’t work on it, but I think it put out 5 megawatts. I was in the more genteel FPS-26A, the location of which is now a parking lot.

Selfridge base halts redevelopment plan: The Detroit News, Sat., Oct. 17: Harrison Township -- Selfridge Air National Guard Base has scrapped a plan announced more than two years ago to redevelop 670 acres of land at the military installation, saying it will focus instead on developing a master plan. The Air Force in September 2007 selected Beztak Companies of Farmington Hills to develop the land. The firm's plans called for building a hotel, retirement communities, medical facilities, office and light industrial space and the continued operation of the base's golf course. But base officials recently announced that, given recent growth in programs at the base, they will not pursue that path. … In addition to the Air National Guard's 127th Wing, Selfridge is home to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Sector Detroit headquarters, Marine Corps air wing and infantry units, Naval Reserve Center Detroit, a Navy construction battalion and a Coast Guard Air Station. In August, the federal government announced it earmarked $30 million to set up a first-of-its-kind intelligence operations center at Selfridge. The government intends to use the center to enable agencies, such as Border Patrol, the Coast Guard, Michigan State Police and their Canadian counterparts, to share information about security along the U.S.-Canadian border. …

Link: http://www.detnews.com/article/20091017/METRO03/910170343/1409/METRO/Selfridge-base-halts-redevelopment-plan

I was a radar operator from1954 to 1977.8 years with the 552 AEW&C wing.@ mcclellan afb.enjoyed it alol.
WOsmun

I WAS STATIONED AT JOELTON,TN. 799TH AC&W 57,58 AND THEN AT DOBBINS AFB,MARIETTA ,GA..THEN AT FIRE ISLAND , ALASKA 626TH 1959 AND 1960..SERVED IN THE NORAND COMBAT OPERATIONS CENTER ON FIRE ISLAND 1959 AND 1960...
WOULD LIKE TO TOUCH BASE WITH ANYONE STATIONED AT THESE INSTALLATIONS DURING THOSE TIMES..ESPECAILLY THOSE IS OPERATIONS...
GOOD WISHES TO ALL OF YOU,
TOM ETHERIDGE

Hey Tom Etheridge,I remember you from Joelton of course I saw you in Sept.at our fourth reunion. Hope we can contact others that might have been at Joelton. Take care my young friend. Jerry Swanson

The Joelton site(799) roster has three people listed with no (or invalid) contacts does anyone know the wherabouts of Joe Ford, John Rhienheart or Bill Swiderski? I at one time had contact with Rhieneart and Swiderski but can't seem to make contact for reunion purposes,appreciate any and all help. Jerry Swanson

John,

Have you considered contacting an attorney? There are several who advertise nationally specializing in asbestos related claims.

Larry...

My Dad's medical condition was such that he could not have a lung biopsy without putting him at risk for other serious health problems. Plus, he had already had different forms of cancer earlier. Here's a word of advice about lawyers who advertise on TV. My Dad had a problem with a medication prescribed to him. We contacted a TV law firm that was advertising for those who were injured by that medication. To make a long story short, these law firms are only interested in the low-hanging fruit. Unless they think there is a high probability of winning, they will tell you to get lost. After months of dealing with them and filling out endless paperwork, that's what happened to our case.

Larry Jackson believe Biloxi place was Hugo's

TCE is a known carcinogen that reportedly might have actually contributed to, or caused, a high number of cancer cases in certain locations. One of the most notable is Camp Lejeune, NC. According to recent news stories, as many as 40 men formerly stationed there have been diagnosed with breast cancer. In men, breast cancer is very rare. So, the high incidence of male breast cancer at one location is statistically significant. Sure, there are unknowns in the equation. Maybe there were one or more other causes or contributors? I am always skeptical, too. But when it comes to TCE and certain other carcinogenic chemicals, clean up just might be very much needed, especially if the contaminants are in the drinking water. And cancer does not strike evryone who is exposed -- it's a roll of the dice.

Here is one such news story: http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/40-men-from-camp-lejeune-now-report-breast-cancer/1042131

Jack.

Hugos? You are the victor! Pun intended.

Tom.

Ididn't have breast cancer but I did have bladder cancer. 1992 Hmmm?

Used TCE to clean parts in the 26 tower at MacDill (660th '65-'68). Spilled some on floor once. Vinyl floor tile melted almost instantly -- should have told us something. Cleaned our hands with it also. Burned. Used motor oil to sooth burning then washed with soap and water. Yeah, we were smart radar techs.

TCE was used by IBM in circuit board manufacture in Endicott, NY. That plant is now shutdown and there is ongoing litigation over the cleanup of ground water. Many test wells have been drilled in the village and are monitored constantly. To give a bigger picture (history) Endicott was also the site of the Endicott-Johnson shoe company. They operated tanneries as well as shoe making facilities in the same area as the IBM plant.

Military (Army Air Force) connection with IBM in Endicott: the Norden bombsite was manufactured at the IBM plant in Endicott during WWII.

After I left the miltary, I worked in a lab that serviced mercury vacuum gauges. Mercury is a metal that is liquid at room temperature. If it is dropped, it breaks into thousands of tiny beads that lodge everywhere. Our lab was awash in mercury and we handled the stuff carelessly with no awareness of its toxicity. Later, I had a part-time business installing heating and air conditioning equipment. We used to tear out old air duct systems that were often covered in asbestos. Between the dust and asbestos, I would sometimes blow black snot out of my nose for a day or two after a really dirty duct demolition job. So far I haven't developed any health problems from the exposure to that sh*t. But if I do, I'll always wonder if that early exposure was a factor. My Dad, who worked in the motor pool in the Air Force (asbestos brake dust) also worked with me in my heating business and got exposed to asbestos along with me. He recently passed away from lung cancer. I don't know if there was a connection between his death and asbestos exposure, but who knows.

Re: TCE and contamination. It's likely that our "disposal methods" were not the best, but neither is running around with you hair on fire with immensely expensive hazardous cleanup for stuff like this. Like most radar & electronic techs I lived in this stuff for many years, never giving a thought to hazardous materials, and I'm doing just fine, thank you very much. The zillion-dollar cleanups of these old sites are, in my opinion, mostly just extremely expensive boondoggles.

Ditto the two half drums of TCE. We used to wash our greasy hands in it. I think we covered this once before. We had a carbon tetro chloride fire extinguisher in our weapons carriers. When the fuel pump vapor locked, we sprayed the extinguisher contents on it to cool it off. It worked. That green smoke that came off of the hot fuel pump was Phosgene gas. Spelling?

TCE replaced the carbon tet. Safer.

Speaking of pizza. Some network is asking for names of the best pizzarias in the USA. I vote for the one in Biloxi in the 50's, that was located in an alley downtown. Name?

Now I know, always wondered why you radar techs acted different , let!s just say a little funny AKA weird, to much TCE? (LOL) this coming from the high intellect of the radar group "Scope Dopes"

It seem like trichloroethylene (TCE) was the solvent of choice in the military back in the 50s and 60s. I remember we had 55 gallon drums of the stuff and used it to clean everything. We had 55-gallon drums cut in half that we used as parts cleaning sinks. They were set up on the open deck of the 26 tower. After we washed the parts, we dumped the used solvent through the open grating of the deck onto the ground below. It killed all the vegetation and left a greasy brown stain on the ground. We just didn't know any better back then.....

Hey, John Tianen -- it wasn't just the military that left behind a legacy of TCE and other contaminants. Private industry was equally guilty, if not worse. For example, just drive right across town to the Raytheon Missile Systems (Tucson) plant, formerly Hughes Missile Systems, and you'll be at a major Super-Fund Site. The whole area is contaminated with TCE in the soil and ground water.

Channel 7, Denver news:

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy -- groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is identifying and cleaning up dozens of former nuclear missile sites in nine states.

To date, the corps has spent $116 million at 44 former Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missile -- or ICBM -- sites and 19 former Nike anti-aircraft missile sites from the early Cold War. The missile sites include 14 in Kansas, 10 in Nebraska, seven in Wyoming, seven in Colorado and two in Oklahoma. California, New Mexico, New York and Texas have one contaminated site each.

Total cleanup costs are projected to cost $400 million, according to corps spokeswoman Candice Walters.

The problem is a chemical called trichloroethylene, or TCE, which was used to keep missiles clean and ready to rumble on short notice. Long before environmentalism went mainstream, the men who maintained the missiles didn't think twice about dumping used TCE into the silos' blast pits.

Exposure to high concentrations of the chemical could cause nervous system problems, liver and lung damage, abnormal heartbeat, coma and death, according to the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. TCE also may cause cancer, other government agencies say.

TCE may have polluted many more missile sites than the corps is aware.

The corps has evaluated a total of 395 former ICBM and Nike missile sites since the Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, program began in the early 1980s. But the corps didn't identify TCE as a high priority until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adopted a drinking water standard for the chemical in 1989 ...

Link: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/21259782/detail.html

I attended SAGE maintenance school (~1959) in Biloxi,MS and then sent to Port Austin, MI to the 727th AC&W radar site (1959-1962).

On e-Bay, unrelated to me in any way whatsoever: e-Bay item no. 190340127032, Lot of Vintage Slides RCAF Millitary Radar Air Force: Up for auction is a rare collection of approximately 100 vintage slides. This is a mixed batch featuring some photos taken by a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Images feature work sites, air shows, retro military base equipment and radar stations. Particularly stunning are some shots of radar bases and scenery in the artic. Slides are mostly Kodachrome from the 1960s and early 70s.

Looks to me like BMEWS-type stuff but I am no expert on such matters.

Also, final thoughts on the book, “Atomic America,” by Todd Tucker. He basically tells three stories, one of a nuclear reactor accident that killed three men, the rush and rivalry between the services in the 50s to use nuclear power, and the success of Admiral Rickover in the Navy’s program. The author used a narrative device of breaking the accident into short sections preceding each chapter. I found it annoying enough that I read them sequentially to keep the facts straight in my mind. Overall, a good read though I think his brief skimming of the subjects left me wanting to know more. One of the possibilities raised was one of the techs liked to “goose” guys, and one unlikely theory was he did just that to a man pulling out a control rod on the reactor, too far as it turned out, resulting in an explosion.

There’s also a photo of a nuclear reactor hooked up to two GE J-47 jet engines to determine how that atomic airplane could be built.

Also on e-Bay, unrelated to me in any way whatsoever: e-Bay item no. 360187999078: PREPAKT CONCRETE Air Force Radar Island 1956 print advertisement, "A nation's sentinel stands on strong legs ..."

Anyone stationed,attached or temp assigned to Btry A 5th Missile Bn.7th Arty.Orangeburg NY[Nike Hercules--Nike Ajax]---HQ 52 Arty. Bde Highland AFS Highland NJ --646 AC&W Sqdn. Highland AFS. 1960 thru 1962,Would like to hear from you, Willie Campbell

JUST WANTED TO LET YALL THAT KNEW HIM THAT M/SGT KEITH VORHIS HAS PASSED AWAY. HE WAS STATIONED IN WEISBADEN GERMANY IN THE 50S--N, AFRICA...SEVERAL STATESIDE BASES AND WAS A 1ST SGT IN NAM. HE WAS FROM NEW YORK BUT RETIRED IN GOOSE CREEK SC. RIP GOOD FRIEND!! BILL

Ref: 10/04/2009 15:30:43

Just goes to show you can never completely trust even, alleged, experts to know what they're talking about, assuming the ConVair exec actually knew anything about nuke power. If he wasn't an engineer he likely didn't know anything except how to find new revenue streams and that usually means Government contracts

A nuclear-powered radar site??? Imagine that! The next thing you know someone will claim that there was lots of pinochle played on midnight shifts "back in the day."

When I was stationed at Saratoga AFS, I used to go into town occasionally for a brew and a little fun. I recall talking with more than one local at a bar, who upon learning I was stationed in the military at the local base, would say "Oh, you must be in the Navy." I would correct them and tell them I was in the Air Force. It seems the Navy had a nuclear reactor training school in Ballston Spa N.Y. (I think), a town close to Saratoga Springs. I remember running into Navy troops at the local bars and they told me they were training to be reactor operators on nuclear subs. The school was over a year long. I think the school was located there because General Electric had a big nuclear facility outside of Schenectady N.Y. called (I think) the Knowles or Knolls Atomic Plant.

After I posted the story of the Navy in Saratoga Springs, I did a Google search and found that the Navy school in Ballston Spa is still in operation, training operators for shipboard nuclear reactors. The operation is called the Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU).

I just did a "Google" search, and located a modern news clip on-line on "YouTube" about the PM-1 nuclear reactor at Sundance AFS atop Warren peak.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ERj2vnY3f4

Continued reading from, "Atomic America," pp. 152-153, "Camp Century was not the Army's only successful field installation, or its longest-running reactor. PM-3A a McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, went critical on March 3, 1962, and powered the research station there for ten years. SM-1A at Fort Greely, Alaska, went critical on March 13, 1962, and also supplied reliable power for a decade. PM-1, on a lonely hill in Sundance, Wyoming, went critical on February 25, 1962, and powered a NORAD radar station there for just over six years. The Army program's final and most powerful plant was located, ironically, on a ship: the "power barge" Sturgis, named for General Samuel Sturgis, who had been chief of engineers during tghe birth of the Army's nuclear program. The 10,000 kilowatt MH-1A aboard the Sturgis supplied electricity to the Canal Zone in Panama until 1976. By the time the MH-1A was decommissioned, it had outlived the Army program, a program that remains best known inside the nuclear power community for the plant that exploded and killed three men in Idaho in 1961."

This is an interesting book for the issues it raises of training, maintenance, design, as well as the policies that influenced them, inside and outside the military. (Here I want to avoid political issues, and think of the technological and military issues involved.)

A paragraph from a Convair aircraft executive3, 1958:

If only our politicians, military leaders and numerous Department of Defense committees would realize that even with our first crude power plants we can show useful nuclear powered aircraft -- and if they would only remember the utterly useless Wright Brothers airplane -- and if only the would realize that these embryo beginnings are developing a knowledge of almost unlimited possibilities -- then maybe they would get off their broad backsides and help this country be first with the Nuclear Powered Aircraft.

I was stationed at Point Arena 1959 to 1960

I am sorry to notify you than Walter (Mickey) Sexton of the 656th AC&W Squadron passed away about a year ago

I am reading this book, while waiting for jury duty, that involves the DEW Line. It thus far does not appear to be a fear-mongering book, but quite interesting in the details of the early days of the atomic era. (The “everything changed after X” format is too much in vogue in book publishing, thanks mostly to the excellent book, “Longitude.”)

“Atomic America,” subtitled, “How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History” by Todd Tucker, Free Press, March 2009, Hardcover, 288 p; ISBN-10: 141654433X; ISBN-13: 9781416544333: On January 3, 1961, nuclear reactor SL-1 exploded in rural Idaho, spreading radioactive contamination over thousands of acres and killing three men: John Byrnes, Richard McKinley, and Richard Legg. The Army blamed "human error" and a sordid love triangle. Though it has been overshadowed by the accident at Three Mile Island, SL-1 is the only fatal nuclear reactor incident in American history, and it holds serious lessons for a nation poised to embrace nuclear energy once again. Historian Todd Tucker, who first heard the rumors about the Idaho Falls explosion as a trainee in the Navy's nuclear program, suspected there was more to the accident than the rumors suggested. Poring over hundreds of pages of primary sources and interviewing the surviving players led him to a tale of shocking negligence and subterfuge. The Army and its contractors had deliberately obscured the true causes of this terrible accident, the result of poor engineering as much as uncontrolled passions. A bigger story opened up before him about the frantic race for nuclear power among the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force -- a race that started almost the moment the nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS), where the meltdown occurred, had been a proving ground where engineers, generals, and admirals attempted to make real the Atomic Age dream of unlimited power. Some of their most ambitious plans bore fruit -- like that of the nation's unofficial nuclear patriarch, Admiral Rickover, whose "true submarine," the USS Nautilus, would forever change naval warfare. Others, like the Air Force's billion dollar quest for a nuclear-powered airplane, never came close. The Army's ultimate goal was to construct small, portable reactors to power the Arctic bases that functioned as sentinels against a Soviet sneak attack. At the height of its program, the Army actually constructed a nuclear powered city inside a glacier in Greenland. But with the meltdown in Idaho came the end of the Army's program and the beginning of the Navy's longstanding monopoly on military nuclear power. The dream of miniaturized, portable nuclear plants died with McKinley, Legg, and Byrnes.

Gary's quote is not completely correct. Sundance AFS, WY (Z-201) operated a portable nuclear power plant (PM-1) from 1962 until 1968. This was our only nuclear-powered radar station.

Buck---I can confirm that through June 1967, we (radar operators) were still classified as 273X0.

For those interested...

http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/The-Book-of-Hours.html

* History of Flight-----"The Book of Hours"

A peek into the logbooks of history’s notable pilots.
* By Tom LeCompte
* Air & Space Magazine, November 01, 2009

This is an open message to Aaron Allen: We appreciate your assistance and intent. However, please keep in mind that the troops know what AFSC's they were assigned. Please do not change any information without clearing it with the listed persons first. True, sometimes "typos" are made ... but please do not assume -- please check first. Thank you.

hello i own and live on tm 177 at dickinson ND you have some of the pictures miss labeled on the site please change the AT&T one that is an old water well from the base and is abandoned thank you