Duncanville Air Force Station

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Duncanville Air Force Station (1952-1964) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station established in 1952 during the Korean War. Located near Duncanville, Dallas County, Texas. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-78. Relocated to Perrin Air Force Station in 1964.

History

Established in 1952 and became operational in 1952 as Duncanville Air Force Station manned by the 745th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron.

Initial equipment included two FPS-10 radars, one FPS-10 serving as search radar and one FPS-10 serving as a height-finder radar. In 1958 the FPS-10 being used as a height-finder radar was replaced by an FPS-6.

Note: Some sources indicate that the search radar was initially a CPS-6B but "Searching the Skies" below indicates that it was an FPS-10. The confusion might stem from the fact that the FPS-10 is a stripped down CPS-6B and the major components all had CPS-6B nomenclature tags. The differences in the CPS-6B and FPS-10 were "only in the number of indicators used, in the absence of B-scan indicators and in the telephone system. The AN/CPS-6 has more indicators, and its telephone system is supplied as part of the equipment." It would be very hard for on-site personnel to know they were dealing with an FPS-10 just by looking at it or even by working on it. See MIL-HDBK-162A below for the full explanation under the FPS-10 section.

NIKE System (1959-1968)

In 1959, the United States Army co-located an Army Air-Defense Command Post (AADCP) DF-30DC at Duncanville Air Force Station for the Nike Missile air-defense system in the Dallas-Fort Worth Defense Area. The AADCP used the Duncanville AFS radar data with the Army "BIRDIE" system to provide local command and control over the Nike Hercules missile sites that were located around the Dallas area. SAGE System command and control was furnished by the Richards-Gebaur SAGE Direction Center DC-08 at Richards-Gebauer AFB, MO. Manual command and control was furnished by the command post at Oklahoma City AFS, OK. These missile sites were manned by Regular Army and National Guard units between 1960 to 1968 (see Dallas/Fort Worth NIKE Sites).

BUIC System

Duncanville was incorporated into BUIC I, a manual backup interceptor control system implemented in 1962. BUIC I provided limited command and control capability in the event the SAGE system was disabled.

Closure

Duncanville AFS was deactivated on 31 Jul 1964 and the 745th AC&W Squadron was moved to Perrin Air Force Station, near Sherman, Texas.



Duncanville AFS Major Equipment List
Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems Comm
Unit Designations
  • 745th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1952-1964)
745th Assignments


Duncanville Air Force Station Partial Commanders List (edit list)
Assumed Relieved Rank Name Cullum Notes
1951~ Major Delaney, Louis A. N/A
1953~ Major Arthur, Hugh T. N/A
1956~ Major Beighley, Joe W. N/A
1962~ 1963~ Lt Colonel Ward, Samuel G. N/A
1964~ Colonel Ashenhurst, H.E. N/A

Current Status

Unknown

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Location: Near Duncanville in Dallas County, Texas.

Maps & Images

Lat: 32.64861 Long: -96.90694

See Also:

Sources:

  • Cornett, Lloyd H. & Johnson, Mildred W., A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization (1946-1980), Office of History ADC, Peterson AFB, Colorado, 31 Dec 1980, 179 pages, Pdf, page 101.
  • Winkler, David F., Searching the Skies: the Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, USAF Hq Air Combat Command, 1997, 192 pages, Pdf, page 156.
  • MIL-HDBK-162A, 15 Dec 1965.
  • USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Database Entry: 2087524

Links:

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