Condon Air Force Station
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Condon Air Force Station (1951-1970) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 near Condon, Gilliam County, Oregon. Named Condon Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-32 and later a Sage ID of Z-32. Abandoned in 1970. History of Condon Air Force StationEstablished in 1951 and became operational as Condon Air Force Station manned by the 636th AC&W Squadron. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning misssion. The early warnng mission involved tracking and identifing all aircraft entering their airspace while the GCI mission involved guiding Air Force interceptors to any identified enemy aircraft. Controllers at the station vectored fighter aircraft at the correct course and speed to intercept enemy aircraft using voice commands via ground-to-air radio. Initial equipment included the FPS-3 search radar and an FPS-4 height finder radar. SAGE System TransitionThe transition of the manual GCI system to the automated SAGE system began with the installation of the FST-2 coordinate data transmitter and search radar upgrades. The FST-2 equipment digitized the radar returns and transmitted the digital returns to the SAGE direction center. Under the SAGE System, interceptor aircraft were directed to their targets by the direction center computers and controllers, greatly reducing the need for local controllers and equipment at every radar station. The FST-2 was a very large digital system using vacuum tube technology. Over 6900 vacuum tubes were used in each FST-2 requiring 21 air-conditioned cabinets, 40 tons of air conditioning, 43.5 kva of prime power, and usually a large new addition to the operations building. The FST-2B modification added two more cabinets but with newer solid-state (transistor) technology to process coded responses from aircraft transponders. The FST-2 installation was completed by December 1960 and Condon AFS became a SAGE site. The site began operation as a SAGE site in December 1960 initially feeding the Larson SAGE Direction Center DC-15 at Larson AFB. With the closure of DC-15 in 1963, Condon was connected to the McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 at McChord AFB. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-20 and two FPS-6 height finder radars were installed. The FPS-20 was upgraded to an FPS-66 in 1961 and replaced with an FPS-27 in 1964. The FPS-66 was sent to Burns Air Force Station as a replacement for their FPS-7 that was destroyed by a fire.
ClosureCondon AFS and the 636th were deactivated on 30 Sep 1970. Physical PlantThe physical plant of the site was divided into a main site, a housing area and a radio site. The main site housed the operations building, the radar towers, the enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the chow hall, the motor pool and the backup generators. Apart from the main site was a small 27 unit housing area for married personnel. At Condon the north quadrant of the main site contained the operations area while the other three quadrants were devoted to the cantonment area. A separate radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts. Like most early radar stations, Condon originally had a radio transmitter site and a separate radio receiver site used by local controllers for voice direction of fighter interceptors to their targets. With the SAGE System, the SAGE Direction centers had the primary task of directing intercepts and the local radio sites were reconfigured, usually into a single site that was known as the Ground to Air Transmitter Receiver (GATR) site. The GATR site communicated with the interceptors from either the local site or the SAGE direction center via voice commands and/or a digital data link. 
Current StatusAbandoned near Condon, Gilliam County, Oregon. The housing units are in use by private owners.
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