Othello Air Force Station

Othello Air Force Station (1951-1975) - A Cold War long range U.S. Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 near Othello, Adams County, Washington. Named Othello Air Force Station after the nearby town. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-40 and later a Sage ID of Z-40. Abandoned in 1975.

Othello Air Force Station Main Gate, Motor Pool in Background.	Othello AFS Orderly Room, OPS Building, Radome and Radio Site in Background.
Othello AFS, two FPS 6s on the left, FPS 3 in the bubble and Operations building on the right, circa 1959.

History of Othello Air Force Station

Established in September 1951 with the relocation of the 637th AC&W Squadron to the newly constructed radar station. Initial equipment included the FPS-3 search radar and an FPS-5 height finder radar. The radar equipment evolved into an FPS-3 search radar with two FPS-6 height finder radars while the site was still a manual Ground Control Intercept (GCI) site.

SAGE System Transition

The transition to the automated SAGE system began with installation of the GPA-37 analog intercept control system which allowed local controllers to vector interceptors to their targets. Operation of the GPA-37 continued even as the site was being upgraded for the automated SAGE system with the FST-2 installation and the search radar upgrade to the FPS-20. 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 site began operation as a SAGE site on 15 Mar 1960 initially feeding the Larson SAGE Direction Center DC-15 at nearby Larson AFB. With the closure of DC-15 in 1963, Othello was connected to the McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 direction center at McChord AFB. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-7C. A FPS-26A height finder radar was installed in 1963-64.

Gap Fillers

Othello AFS was responsible for the maintenance of two remote unattended gap filler radar sites. The unattended gap filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites were equipped with short range FPS-14 or FPS-18 search radars and FST-1 Coordinate Data transmitters that sent digitized radar target data to a SAGE direction center and to the main radar site. Both the radar set and the FST-1 were dual channel to increase site up time. Maintenance teams were dispatched for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators on the FSW-1 remote monitoring equipment suggested the site had problems. The FSW-1 also allowed remote operation of specific functions such as channel changes for the radar and for the FST-1, it also allowed remote operation of the diesel generators at the gap filler site.

**Othello AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites** (edit list)
ADC	NORAD	Location	State	Type	From	To	GPS	Notes
P-40B	Z-40B	Wenatchee	WA	FPS-18, FST-1	1964	1967	47.50889, -120.24028	On Badger Mtn
P-40C	Z-40C	Okanogan	WA	FPS-18, FST-1	1960	1967	48.52820, -119.94279	Building foundation only Tower pads only On Starvation Mtn Transferred from Colville AFS at closure

BUIC System

In the following years Othello AFS was selected as a Backup Interceptor Control (BUIC) site to backup the Sage direction center in case of failure. BUIC I operations began in 1962 and ended 1 Mar 66. BUIC III operations began in the late 1960s. As the threat from Russian aircraft attack changed to a missile threat the need for the backup BUIC systems evaporated and it was deactivated in 1974. Othello AFS and the 637th were deactivated on 31 Mar 1975 as the need for the SAGE system itself was reduced.

Physical Plant

The 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. Just outside the main gate was an NCO club. Across Radar Road (now Sage Road) from the main site was a small housing area for critical married personnel. The housing area was initially built with 9 units and later expanded to a total of 27 units. North of the main site was a separate SAGE System Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housing radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts from the SAGE direction center. Before the SAGE System was implemented there were separate radio transmitter and receiver sites for local controllers to direct aircraft intercepts. The original transmitter site was repurposed as the SAGE GATR radio site while the receiver site was used for storage.

Othello AFS Major Equipment List
Search Radar	HF Radar	Data Systems	Radio
FPS-3 FPS-20 FPS-7C FPS-107	FPS-5 FPS-6 FPS-6A FPS-90 FPS-26	GPA-37 FST-2/A/B FYQ-47 GSA-51

Unit Designations
637th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1947-1960) 637th Radar Squadron (SAGE) (1960-1970) 637th Air Defense Group (1970-1974) 637th Radar Squadron (1974-1975)

**Othello Air Force Station Partial Commanders List** (edit list)
Assumed	Relieved	Rank	Name	Cullum
		Major	Richardson,	N/A
		Lt. Colonel	Kundrat,	N/A
	1953-12	Lt. Colonel	Trueblood, Charles	N/A
1953-12		Major	Hudgens, Clifford E.	N/A
		Colonel	Friend, Robert	N/A
1959~	1960-03	Major	Neblett, Murrell F.	N/A
	1962-08-01	Major	McElroy, Wilson F.	N/A
1962-08-01	1965-11-01	Major	Meyer, William S.	N/A
1965-11-01	1969-08	Major	Colburn, Lewis K.	N/A
1969-08	1971-05	Lt. Colonel	Werner, Paul B.	N/A
1971-05	1973-04	Lt. Colonel	Marvin, George C.	N/A
1973-04	1974-07	Lt. Colonel	Postas, John R.	N/A
1974-07		Major	Erickson, Donald W.	N/A
1974~		Captain	Klenke, Duane E.	N/A
Dates are formatted in yyyy-mm-dd to sort correctly. The Cullum Number is the graduation order from the United States Military Academy by year and class rank and links to a page for the officer on the website version of the Cullum Register. Listings without a Cullum Number indicate that the person was not a graduate of the United States Military Academy.

Current Status

Private property near Othello, Adams County, Washington.

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Location: On Radar Hill, 7 miles south of Othello, Adams County, Washington.

Maps & Images

Lat: 46.721389 Long: -119.18

Multi Maps from ACME
Maps from Bing
Maps from Google
Elevation: 1,280'

See Also:

Sources:

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 165.
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 85, 155.

Links:

Visited: 23 Aug 2016, 13 Oct 2010, 1958-1960