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Dallas Center Air Force Station | |
|---|---|
| Part ofAir Defense Command (ADC) | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Air Force Station |
| Controlled by |  United States Air Force |
| Location | |
  Dallas Center AFS Location of Dallas Center AFS, Iowa | |
| Coordinates | 41°43′02″N093°54′19″W / 41.71722°N 93.90528°W /41.71722; -93.90528 (Dallas Cente AFS M-122) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1955 |
| In use | 1955-1957 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 650th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron |
Dallas Center Air Force Station (ADC ID: M-122) is aUnited States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station 3.7 miles (6.0 km) northeast ofDallas Center, Iowa, that was closed in 1957.
Dallas Center Air Force Station was established as part of the planned deployment byAir Defense Command of forty-four Mobile radar stations across the United States to support the permanent Radar network established during the Cold War for air defense of the United States. This deployment had been projected to be operational by mid-1952.
The site consisted of 38.92 acres fee by purchase and condemnation and no-area license by donation made between March 1954 and November 1956: funding, constant site changes, construction, and equipment delivery delayed deployment. Improvements at the site consisted of a radar station; traffic check house, power building, mess hall, administration building; two supply buildings; 65-man airmen's barracks; base auto shop; water storage and pump house; above and underground storage tanks; sanitary sewer system; streets, drives, sidewalks, and parking areas.
Operational status was achieved in 1956 after the650th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was moved to Dallas Center on 1 July 1955 with anAN/TPS-1D radar that had been moved in fromFort Snelling, Minnesota. Initially, the station was a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. The construction of the buildings was almost all wood or sheetrock.
Budget cuts forced Dallas Center AFS to cease operations in mid-1957, and the tending 650th AC&W Squadron was inactivated shortly after that. The site was then converted to an unstaffedAN/FPS-18 gap-filler radar annex (P-71C) forOmaha AFS, Nebraska. It was finally inactivated in December 1957. GSA reported an excess 38.23 acres fee on October 30, 1959, and then quitclaimed it to a private party on March 7, 1961, reserving road and utility line easement to the 3.15 acres. Relatives of the private party still own the 38.92 acres, which include the site and access on which the staffed radar station was located.
Both buildings and the radar tower are still extant. The site is now being used for Greenhouses for truck crops and as an auto junkyard. In 1988, the owners stated that only two structures remain and that all the above-ground storage tanks have been removed.
Units:
Assignments:
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
