Rockport Air Force Station

Rockport Air Force Station
Part of Air Defense Command (ADC)
Rockport AFS Location of Rockport AFS, Texas
Coordinates	28°05′30″N 097°02′45″W / 28.09167°N 97.04583°W / 28.09167; -97.04583 (Rockport AFS TM-191)
Type	Air Force Station
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1959
In use	1959-1963
Garrison information
Garrison	813th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron

Emblem of the 813th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron

Rockport Air Force Station (ADC ID: TM-191) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 4.1 miles (6.6 km) southwest of Lamar, Texas. It was closed in 1963.

History

Rockport 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 813th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was assigned on 1 July 1958. It operated an AN/FPS-3 search radar and an AN/FPS-6 height-finder radar at the site. The station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes.

In addition to the main facility, Rockport operated three AN/FPS-18 Gap Filler sites:

Riviera, TX (TM-191A): 27°19′38″N 097°44′35″W / 27.32722°N 97.74306°W / 27.32722; -97.74306 (TM-191A)
Palacios, TX (TM-191B): 28°41′24″N 096°14′51″W / 28.69000°N 96.24750°W / 28.69000; -96.24750 (TM-191B)
Delmita, TX (TM-191C): 26°39′00″N 098°27′39″W / 26.65000°N 98.46083°W / 26.65000; -98.46083 (TM-191C)

The Air Force inactivated Rockport AFS on 1 August 1963 due to budgetary constraints. Today, not much of the station remains. A few buildings, some disconnected streets in poor repair and most of the area is overgrown grass adjacent to the Aransas County Airport is all that remains. The nearby Air Force housing area remains intact, long-ago sold off and being used as single-family housing.

Air Force units and assignments

Units

Constituted as the 813th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron

Activated on 18 December 1956 at Oklahoma City AFS, OK (not equipped or manned)

Moved to Rockport AFS on assigned 1 July 1958

Discontinued and inactivated on 1 August 1963

Assignments

33d Air Division, 1 January 1958
Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector, 1 Jan 1960
4752d Air Defense Wing, 1 September 1961
Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector 25 July 1963 - 1 August 1963

References

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

Cornett, Lloyd H. and Johnson, Mildred W., A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson AFB, CO (1980)
Winkler, David F. & Webster, Julie L., Searching the Skies, The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, Champaign, IL (1997).
Information for Rockport AFS, TX

External links

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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