Dauphin Island Air Force Station

Dauphin Island Air Force Station
Part of Air Defense Command (ADC)
Dauphin Island AFS
Coordinates	30°15′01″N 088°04′42″W / 30.25028°N 88.07833°W / 30.25028; -88.07833 (Dauphin Island AFS TM-196, Z-249)
Type	Air Force Station
Code	ADC ID: TM-196, NORAD ID: Z-196, Z-249
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1958
In use	1958-1974
Garrison information
Garrison	693d Aircraft Control and Warning (later Radar) Squadron 635th Aircraft Control and Warning (later Radar) Squadron

Dauphin Island Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 1.9 miles (3.1 km) east of Dauphin Island, Alabama, near historic Fort Gaines (Alabama). It was closed in 1980.

Beginning in September 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acquired part of the facility. Today the site is part of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS), designated by NORAD as Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) Ground Equipment Facility J-12 with an ARSR-2 radar.

History

Dauphin Island Air Force Station came into existence as part of Phase III of the Air Defense Command Mobile Radar program. On October 20, 1953 ADC requested a third phase of twenty-five radar sites be constructed.

The 693d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was assigned to the station on 1 September 1958. The site had an AN/FPS-20 search radar and two AN/FPS-6A height-finder radars, and initially the station functioned as an aircraft control and warning station.

The Ground Air Transmitting Receiving (GATR) Site for communications was located at 30°14′47″N 088°04′56″W / 30.24639°N 88.08222°W / 30.24639; -88.08222 (Dauphin Island AS GATR), approximately 0.4 mile southeast from the main site. Normally the GATR site was connected by a pair of buried telephone cables, with a backup connection of dual telephone cables overhead. The Coordinate Data Transmitting Set (CDTS) (AN/FST-2) at the main site converted each radar return into a digital word which was transmitted by the GATR via microwave to the Control center.

Dauphin Island AFS began operating an AN/FPS-7 radar in 1960, and joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to DC-09 at Gunter AFB, Alabama. After joining, the squadron was re-designated as the 693d Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 March 1961. The radar squadron provided information 24/7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile. On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-196.

In 1961 Dauphin Island AFS became a joint-use facility with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). However, it was removed from joint-use status in 1962 and then put back in joint-use status in 1963. A second radar squadron, the 635th Radar Squadron, arrived from Fort Lawton, Washington on 1 January 1963. This unit operated an AN/FPS-93 and an AN/FPS-6 radar. In 1965, the site was again removed from joint-use status.

Over the years, the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars. The Air Force inactivated the 693d on 30 September 1970. In 1972, Dauphin Island became part of the Southern Air Defense Systems (SADS). It was given a new NORAD designation, Z-249. The 635th was inactivated on 1 July 1974.

The radar site became Operating Location G, 630th Radar Squadron, which inactivated on 31 December 1977. It then became Operating Location E, 678th Air Defense Group. The site closed for good on 30 September 1980.

Today the station is the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Alabama's primary marine education and research center. Part of the station also is used by the United States Coast Guard as a recreational facility. Most of the USAF buildings have found new uses, and several radar towers have been re-purposed.

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
Dauphin Island AFS, AL

Aerospace Defense Command (ADC)

Bases

CONUS	Amarillo Beale Charleston Davis-Monthan Dobbins Dover Dow Duluth Eglin Edwards Ellington Ellsworth England Ent Ethan Allen Fairfax Fallon Fort Heath Fort Lee Geiger George Glasgow Grand Forks Grenier Griffiss Gunter Hamilton Hancock Homestead Hurlburt Hunter Imeson Key West Kincheloe Kingsley Kirtland Lackland Laredo Larson Luke MacDill March Malmstrom McCoy McChord McClellan McGhee Tyson McGuire Minneapolis-St. Paul Minot Mitchel New Castle Niagara Falls Norton O'Hare Otis Oxnard Paine Perrin Peterson Pittsburgh Portland Presque Isle R.I. Bong Richards-Gebaur Robins K.I. Sawyer Selfridge Seymour Johnson Sioux City Stead Stewart Suffolk County Tinker Travis Truax Tyndall Vandenburg Vincent Walker Webb Westover Wright-Patterson Wurtsmith Youngstown

Overseas	Ernest Harmon Frobisher Bay Goose Bay Keflavik McAndrew Pepperrell Thule

Stations

CONUS	Adair Aiken Almaden Alpena Antigo Arlington Heights Baker Bedford Bellefontaine Belleville Benton Blaine Brookfield Brunswick Bucks Harbor Burns Calumet Cambria Cape Charles Cape Cod Carmi Caswell Chandler Charleston Cheyenne Mountain Claysburg Clear Colville Condon Continental Divide Cottonwood Cross City Crystal Springs Curlew Custer Cut Bank Dallas Center Dauphin Island Dickinson Duncanville Eldorado Empire Finland Finley Flintstone Fordland Fort Fisher Fort Lee Fortuna Gettysburg Grand Marais Grand Rapids Guthrie Hanna City Havre Highlands Houma Hutchinson Joelton Keno Killeen Kingman Kirksville Klamath Lake Charles Lake City Las Cruces Las Vegas Lewistown Lockport Lufkin Lyndonville Madera Makah Mica Peak Miles City Mill Valley Minot Montauk Moriarty Mount Hebo Mount Laguna Mount Lemmon Naselle North Bend North Charleston North Truro Oklahoma City Olathe Omaha Opheim Osceola Othello Owingsville Ozona Palermo Point Arena Port Austin Port Isabel Pyote Red Bluff Rochester Rockport Rockville (Indiana) Roslyn Rye Saint Albans San Clemente Island Santa Rosa Island Saratoga Springs Sault Ste Marie Shemya Snelling Snow Mountain Sweetwater Texarkana Tierra Amarilla Thomasville Tonopah Topsham Two Creeks Wadena Walnut Ridge Watertown Waverly West Mesa Willow Run Winnemucca Winslow Winston-Salem Woomera Yaak Zapata

Overseas	Armstrong Baldy Hughes Beausejour Cape Makkovik Cartwright Cut Throat Island Elliston Ridge Fox Harbour Hofn Hopedale Kamloops La Scie Langanes Latrar Melville Puntzi Mountain Ramore Red Cliff Rockville Saglek St. Anthony Saskatoon Mountain Sioux Lookout Spotted Island Stephenville

Air
Defense
units

Forces	Central Air Defense Eastern Air Defense Iceland Western Air Defense First Fourth Tenth Fourteenth

Air Divisions	8th 9th 20th 21st 23d 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 32d 33d 34th 35th 36th 37th 58th 64th 73d 85th

Sectors	Albuquerque Bangor Boston Chicago Detroit Duluth Goose Grand Forks Great Falls Kansas City Los Angeles Minot Montgomery New York Oklahoma City Phoenix Portland Reno Sault Sainte Marie San Francisco Seattle Sioux City Spokane Stewart Syracuse Washington

Wings	Fighter 1st 4th 23d 32d 33d 50th 52d 56th 78th 81st 325th 328th 507th Detection and Control 71st 73d 551st 552d Air Defense 46th 4620th 4621st 4622d 4624th 4625th 4627th 4628th 4683d 4700th 4702d 4703d 4704th 4705th 4706th 4707th 4708th 4709th 4710th 4711th 4750th 4751st 4752d 4756th 4780th

Groups	Fighter 1st 4th 14th 15th 23d 32d 33d 50th 52d 53d 54th 56th 57th 78th 79th 81st 82d 84th 325th 326th 327th 328th 329th 337th 343d 355th 408th 412th 414th 473d 475th 476th 478th 507th Air Defense 10th 500th 501st 502d 503d 514th 515th 516th 517th 518th 519th 520th 521st 525th 527th 528th 529th 530th 533d 534th 564th 566th 567th 568th 575th 637th 665th 678th 692d 701st 751st 762d 765th 778th 780th 827th 858th 4606th 4620th 4676th 4700th 4721st 4722d 4727th 4728th 4729th 4730th 4731st 4732d 4733d 4734th 4735th 4750th 4756th Aircraft Control & Warning 503d 505th 540th 541st 542d 543d 544th 545th 546th 563d 564th 565th 566th

Squadrons	Aerospace Defense Command Fighter Squadrons Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons

Major
weapon
systems

Electronic	TB-29 EB-57 EC-121

Fighters	Propellor: F-47 F-51 P-61 F-82 Subsonic Jet: P-80 F-84 F-86 F-89 F-94 Supersonic Jet: F-101 F-102 F-104 F-106

Missiles	AIM-4 AIM-26 AIR-2 CIM-10

Ships	Guardian Interceptor Interdictor Interpreter Investigator Locator Lookout Outpost Pickett Protector Scanner Searcher Skywatcher Tracer Watchman Vigil

Texas Towers	Texas Tower 2 Texas Tower 3 Texas Tower 4

Miscellaneous

Air Defense Command Emblem Gallery (on Wikimedia Commons)
General Surveillance Radar Stations

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Dauphin Island Air Force Station

History

See also

References