Killeen Air Force Station

Killeen Air Force Station (1958-1961) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station established in 1958. Located near Killeen, Bell County, Texas. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of TM-192. Also known as Gray Air Force Base Radar Site. Closed in 1961.

History

On 14 Feb 1957, the 814th AC&W Squadron moved to Killeen Air Force Station, assigned to the Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86, 33rd Air Division (Defense) Headquartered at Oklahoma City Air Force Station. The 33rd ADD provided command and control over subordinate radar stations from the Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 located on Oklahoma City Air Force Station.

Initial equipment included the FPS-3A search radar and a FPS-6 height-finder radar on temperate towers. The FPS-3A quickly underwent modifications to become a FPS-20A and in November 1958 the 814th AC&W Squadron began operating the FPS-20A in an arctic tower.

Manual Operation

Killeen Direction Centers & Sectors
Assigned	Direction Center	Sector
Nov 1958 - 1 Jan 1960	Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86	33rd Air Division
1 Jan 1960 - 1 Feb 1961	Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86	Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector

Closure

Killeen AFS and the 814th were deactivated on 1 Feb 1961.

Gap Fillers

Killeen 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. The Killeen AFS gap filler radars were located at Schulenburg, TX and Normangee, TX.

**Killeen AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites** (edit list)
ADC	NORAD	Location	State	Type	From	To	GPS	Notes
TM-192B		Schulenburg	TX	FPS-18, FST-1	1960-04	1960-12	29.76186, -96.93095
TM-192C		Normangee	TX	FPS-1?, FST-1			30.99262, -96.11478	Building exists

Physical Plant

The operational area was reached by driving out the back gate (through another guard post) of Gray AFB, four or five miles, and then up a very steep road to the top of a flat bluff. The only buildings were the operations building, supply building, the diesel power generating building and a small radio building.

The 814th AC&W Sq. was located in a new two-story combination administrative and barracks building. Nearby Fort Hood provided food, pay, medical support and other base facilities like the Post Exchange and Commissary.

Killeen AFS Major Equipment List
Search Radar	HF Radar	Data Systems	Comm
FPS-3A FPS-20A FPS-14 GF FPS-18 GF	FPS-6	FST-1 GF	GKA-5

Unit Designations
814th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1956-1961)

814th Assignments
8 May 1956 - Activated at Tinker AFB and assigned to Oklahoma City AFS, OK, as the 33rd Air Division 14 Feb 1957 - Moved to Killeen AFS, TX Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 1 Jan 1960 - Transferred to Oklahoma City ADS Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 1960 - Site redesignation to Gray AFB, TX 1 Feb 1961 - Discontinued

**Killeen Air Force Station Partial Commanders List** (edit list)
Assumed	Relieved	Rank	Name	Cullum	Notes
1956~		Major	Woody, Willard B.	N/A
1960~		Major	Garwood, David E.	N/A

Current Status

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Location: Killeen in Bell County, Texas.

Maps & Images

Lat: 31.05111 Long: -97.8625

Multi Maps from ACME
Maps from Bing
Maps from Google
Elevation: 1,204'

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 102.
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 158.
USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Database Entry: 2087770

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