Montauk Air Force Station | |
|---|---|
| Part ofAir Defense Command (ADC) | |
| Location | |
  Montauk AFS Location of Montauk AFS, New York | |
| Coordinates | 41°04′03″N071°54′20″W / 41.06750°N 71.90556°W /41.06750; -71.90556 (Montauk AFS) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1942 |
| In use | 1942–1981 |
Montauk Air Force Station was aUS military base atMontauk Point on the eastern tip ofLong Island,New York. It was decommissioned in 1981 and is now owned by theNew York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation asCamp Hero State Park.
The eastern tip of Long Island has always had strategic significance, even in the days of theAmerican Revolution. When theMontauk Lighthouse was first authorized in 1792, part of its mission was to keep a lookout forBritish ships sailing for New York orBoston, and as such was the first military installation atMontauk.
Montauk was always considered a prime location for a possible invasion because of its remoteness and prime location midway between two major American cities. DuringWorld War I, the Navy establishedNaval Air Station Montauk in August 1917, commanded by LTMarc Mitscher.[1] Reconnaissancedirigibles, an airplane, troops andCoast Guard personnel were stationed at Montauk.
Fort Hero was established in 1942 on the point just south of the Montauk lighthouse. Thefort was named after Major GeneralAndrew Hero, Jr., who was the Army's Chief of Coast Artillery between 1926 and 1930. He died in 1942.
InWorld War II, with GermanU-boats threatening the East Coast and Long Island, Montauk was again considered a likely invasion point. TheUS Army upgraded Fort Hero, and renamed it Camp Hero in 1942. The Navy also acquired land in the area, includingFort Pond Bay andMontauk Manor. They built docks, seaplane hangars, barracks, and other buildings in the area. There was also a hugetorpedo testing facility.
The whole facility, withArmy,Navy andCoast Guard constituents, was officially known as the "US Military Reservation" but the locals just called it "Camp Hero".
Camp Hero itself grew to 278 acres (1.13 km2), and included four surplus16-inch naval rifles, originally intended for battleships, installed ascoastal artillery pieces in two concretebunkers. These batteries rendered obsolete almost all previous heavy guns in theHarbor Defenses of Long Island Sound. They were designated with battery construction numbers 112 and 113, Battery 113 was also known as Battery Dunn. A two-gun6-inch battery, Battery 216, was also built.[2] The coastal gun emplacements werecamouflaged with netting and foliage. A large "Fire Control Center" was built next to the lighthouse to direct the artillery andanti-aircraft guns. Other armaments included quadruple.50 caliber machine guns for low altitude defense, and90 mm and120 mmanti-aircraft guns. The camp was a self-contained town with recreational facilities,barracks and its ownpower station.
Camp Hero was also used as a training facility and atarget range, with guns being fired at offshore targets.
To protect it from enemybombers andGerman spies in fishing boats, the entire base was built to look like a typicalNew England fishing village. Concrete bunkers had windows painted on them and ornamental roofs with fakedormers. The gymnasium was made to look like a church with a faux steeple.
When World War II ended, the base was temporarily shut down and used as a training facility by theArmy Reserve. The naval facilities were largely abandoned and the gun emplacements were dismantled in 1949.[3]
After the 1948Berlin Blockade in Germany, theCold War began in earnest. This event, coupled with the advent of the SovietTupolev Tu-4 intercontinental bomber in 1947, created serious concern about the possibility of a Soviet air attack on the continental United States. This spurred theUnited States Air Force (USAF) to direct itsAir Defense Command (ADC) to take radar sets out of storage for operation in the Northeastern United States in 1948.[4] By August of that year, a radar station had been placed at Lashup Site L-10 at Montauk, NY.[4] This program was appropriately named "Lashup"[5]
As part of this temporary network, ADC placed anAN/TPS-1B long-range search radar at Fort Hero in June 1948 and designated the site asMontauk Point, L-10. The Montauk site fed into a primitive control center established atRoslyn AFS, New York. In 1950 it activated the 773d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (AC&W Sq) to operate the facility.[6] On 1 December 1953, the site designation was changed toLP-45 and the Air Force facilities were renamedMontauk Air Force Station. Montauk AFS was incorporated into the permanent ADC network of General Surveillance Radar Stations.
With the establishment of a permanent presence, ADC equipped the site withAN/CPS-5 andAN/TPS-10A height-finder radars. A year laterAN/FPS-3 andAN/FPS-5 radars were operating. Between 1955 and 1956 anAN/FPS-8/GPS-3 made an appearance at the tip of the site. In the spring of 1957 Montauk AFS received one of the firstAN/FPS-20 units along with a pair ofAN/FPS-6 height-finder radars.
In November 1957, the Army closed the Camp Hero portion of the military reservation as Soviet long-distance bombers could fly well above ground-based artillery. The Air Force continued using the western half of the facility for radar surveillance. The Eastern portion of the site was donated to New York State, but it remained unused because of its close proximity to a high-security facility.
During 1958, Montauk AFS joined theSemi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to DC-01 atMcGuire AFB, New Jersey. After joining, the squadron was redesignated as the 773d Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 October 1958.[6] It was also a major part of theNORAD defense system, so security was very tight. Montauk AFS wasstate of the art and many new systems were developed or tested there includingmagnetic memory for storage,light pens,keyboards,WANs (Wide area networks) andmodular circuit packaging.
Montauk was the operational parent station forTexas Tower 3 (TT-3) offshore in the Atlantic Ocean from June 1958-25 March 1963. TT-3 was operated as an annex of the 773d AC&W Sq, with its offshore personnel assigned to a flight of the 773d, although the facility was logistically supported by the 4604th Support Squadron (Texas Towers) at Otis AFB.
In December 1960, the large, high-powerAN/FPS-35 radar became operational at Montauk. Thereflector was 126 feet (38 m) long and 38 feet (12 m) tall, weighing 40 tons, and was supposedly only the second ever built. It was able to detect airborne objects at distances of well over 200 miles (320 km). It also used "frequency diversity" technology making it resistant toelectronic countermeasures. The AN/FPS-35 was so powerful that it disrupted local TV and radio broadcasts, and had to be shut down several times and re-calibrated. The problems caused this radar to be taken out of service temporarily in 1961. With the problems resolved, the radar was operational again in 1962 and by 1963 anAN/FPS-26 had replaced one of the AN/FPS-6 height-finder radars.
In 1963, the site also had become anFAA/ADC joint-use facility. Around 1965, the site was removed from joint-use status. On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated asNORAD ID Z-45. In 1978, the Air Force submitted a proposal to theCarter Administration to close the base, as it was largely obsolete due to the emergence of orbital satellite reconnaissance technology. In September 1979, as part of a general draw down of anti-aircraft forces by Aerospace Defense Command, Montauk AFS was transferred toTactical Air Command and became part ofADTAC.
In addition to the main facility, Montauk AFS operated two unmannedAN/FPS-14 Gap Filler sites:
Both sites opened in 1957. They were closed in June 1968. The Manorville site remains, although abandoned with vegetation growing over the facility. The Chilmark site is now obliterated.
The installation, which had also supplied long-range radar data for theFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) since 1962, was kept operational until a new facility operated by the (FAA) inRiverhead, New York was ready for use.[7]
The Montauk installation was shut down on 31 January 1981.[8] Considering its size, removing the huge antenna was problematic at best so it was "abandoned in place", with its controlling motors and electronics removed, allowing it to move with the wind to prevent it being torn off its base in a storm. A GATR (Ground Air Transmitter Receiver) facility remained in service to direct military aircraft operating within the region. This system was deactivated and removed in 1984. Riverhead now controls all air traffic in the area.
Sourceafter 1951[6]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
