Middleton Island Air Force Station

Middleton Island Air Force Station (1958-Present) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Station, part of the Alaska AC&W Radar Network. Located along the Gulf of Alaska, 65 miles southwest of Cape St. Elias. The island measures only 3.5 miles long and .5 mile wide. Initially functioned as a Ground Control Intercept (GCI) or Early Warning radar site, with a Permanent System ID of F-22. Later redesignated a surveillance site. Deactivated in 1963. Middleton Island Air Force Station Operations Area 1960s. L-to-R FPS-3 Tower, FPS-6 Tower, Operations Building, FPS-4 Tower and FPS-8 Tower. History Construction began in 1954 and was completed in 1958 by the Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company under a $2,878,122 contract initially supervised by project engineer Bernard Sturgulewski for the USACE. The site became operational in May 1958 as Middleton Island Air Force Station manned by the 720th AC&W Squadron which had been activated on 8 Sep 1955 to operate and maintain the site. Initial equipment included an FPS-8 search radar and an FPS-4 height-finder radar. Also installed were an FPS-3 search radar and an FPS-6 height-finder radar. The FPS-3 and the FPS-6 became the primary radars while the FPS-8 and FPS-4 became secondary radars. Aircraft track data from these radars was manually plotted on plotting boards and passed to a Manual Direction Center on voice and teletype circuits. The closure of Middleton Island AFS was publically announced in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner newspaper on 6 May 1963 and the site ceased operations on the 15th of May 1963. Closure and deactivation of the 720th AC&W Squadron were effective on 1 Oct 1963. Physical Plant Middleton Island was just outside the area of severe arctic weather that covers much of Alaska in the winter months and as a result, the physical plant of the site had some characteristics of AC&W sites in the lower 48. The site was a single level site with the operations area adjacent to the cantonment area but not connected. The operations area had four radar towers and a central radar operations building. Separate buildings contained A/G radio receiver equipment and A/G transmitter equipment. The cantonment area functions were mainly contained in a single "T" shaped composite building. The stem of the "T" contains two sections, one housing the site administration offices and the other housing the dining hall. The top of the "T" had six two-story wood-framed sections, three on a side. The three sections on the right side contained the Airmen's quarters while the three sections on the left housed the Officers and NCOs. Four separate buildings alongside the "T" provided utilities, power, HVAC, water and other support functions. A small airstrip provided facilities for fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. No family housing was provided as this was considered a remote unaccompanied tour (1 year). Annual bulk resupply shipments to Middleton Island AFS were sealifted during the summer months under the Mona Lisa and later the Cool Barge programs. Airlift of supplies, mail and personnel were available year-round, weather providing. Air-Ground (A-G) Communications Separate radio facilities housed the radio transmitter and receiver equipment for communicating with aircraft. Middleton Island White Alice Communications Site After HF radio systems proved inadequate for command and control communications, the Air Force implemented the White Alice Communications System (WACS). This was a system of tropospheric scatter and microwave radio relay sites constructed during the mid-1950s to provide reliable communications to Alaska Air Command (AAC) AC&W system. The Middleton Island White Alice tropo site was co-located with the radar site. It was activated on 29 Nov 1956. The site had two pairs of 60' tropo antennas, one pair linked to Neklasson Lake (130 miles) and the second pair linked to Boswell Bay (69 miles). Facilities included a 4,300 sqft equipment and power building constructed in six sections. Crew quarters and support were provided by the Air Force Station. Middleton Island AFS Major Equipment List Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems Com FPS-3 FPS-8 FPS-6 FPS-4 Unit Designations 720th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1958-1963) 720th Assignments 8 Sep 1955 - Activated, assigned Headquarters 10th Air Division (Defense). 1 Jun 1957 - Reassigned to Hq 5039th AC&W Group. 1 Nov 1959 - Reassigned 10th Air Division (Defense). 1 Aug 1960 - Reassigned 5070th Air Defense Wing. 1 Oct 1961 - Attached 5040th AB Wg for admin and logistic support. 1 Oct 1963 - Inactivated Middleton Island AFS Partial Commanders List (edit list) Assumed Relieved Rank Name Cullum Notes 1956 1957 Captain Pope, N/A Recollection 1958 1959 Major Hintenach, Albert H. N/A 1958-01 1958-03 Major Pangle, N/A 1958-03 ~ Major Pryor, James C. Jr N/A 1958 1959 Major Baker, Dean N/A 1959-07 ~ Major Saul, Edwin S. N/A 1960 1961 Major King, John W. N/A 1960 1961 Major Lebsock, Ronald C. N/A Conflicts with above 1962 1963 Major Butler, Owen K. N/A Last Commander? Current Status Most of the old AC&W site buildings have been demolished. The site has also had an environmental remediation project that has further erased signs of the old AC&W site and the White Alice tropo site. {"selectable":false,"height":"-500","width":"-500"} Location: Middleton Island in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska. Maps & Images Lat: 59.43611 Long: -146.33056 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: 108' See Also: Alaska Manual System Radar Sites Permanent System Radar Sites US Radar Sets Sources: Denfeld, D. Colt Ph.D., The Cold War In Alaska: A Management Plan For Cultural Resources, 1994-1999, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, August 1994, 327 pages, Pdf, page 118-119, 159-161, 238-239. History of the Aircraft Control and Warning System in Alaska: Air Defense of Arctic Skies, Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, 2002 updated 2013, 140 pages, Pdf, page 69-70`. Reynolds, Georgeanne Lewis, Historical Overview And Inventory: White Alice Communications System, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, April 1988, prepared for USAF, Alaskan Air Command, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska, 16 pages, White Alice USACE, page 13 Top Cover and Global Engagement - A History of the Eleventh Air Force USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Database Entry: 2375250 Links: Radomes - Middleton Island Air Force Station Wikipedia - Middleton Island Air Force Station Middleton AC&W Visited: No