Inside Alaska's Long Range Radar Sites
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2016
- Alaska Public Media Reporter Zachariah Hughes takes a look at the U.S. Air Force's long-range radar stations.
Follow the link for the whole story: www.alaskapublic.org/interacti...
With 15 radar sites located in Alaska, these sites are the military's first option for monitoring and securing American airspace in the Pacific.
The remoteness of these sites, as well as, climate change in the arctic pose many challenges for the future of Alaska's long-range radars.
I was at Kotzebue Air Station, 81-82, great remote assignment. The town of Kotzebue was only 6 miles away and had the only Dairy Queen north of the Artic Circle. Tracked the
SR-71 many times coming out of Russia at high altitude and moving very fast.
I never knew about a Dairy Queen there, but definitely a KFC. I knew a man that was at Kotzebue in the 1970’s as Air Force, then hired as a civilian in 1977 when they started the contract and did for the next 35 years and used his home in Kotzebue to house people waiting to go to their assignment in Cape Lisburne when the weather was OK
Funny that there is no mention of Shemya and the FPS-80, FPS 17, and FPS 108 radars. They had ranges out to 3000 miles or more.
For some reason, Shemya and Clear still have radars, but not under the Alaska Radar System anymore. And Galena’s has been long-abandoned as well.
I was at Sparrevohn AFS from May 1972 to April 1973. It was in the middle of no where 200 miles west of Anchorage. I worked at the main power plant at the lower camp for a couple months then I manned the top camp standby power plant for the rest of my time there. Iw as the only power plant operator at the top camp. My extra duty job was top camp mailman. I also guarded the power plant during exercises. There were 75 men at the bottom camp and 75 at the top camp.
I just got a job in QA at a facility manufacturing parts for the LRDR. I'm very proud of what we do and very proud of my work in such a cutting edge piece of tech.
I was stationed at Galena (10 miles from the coast) between '75-'76 servicing aircraft with fuel. There were no domes there however, there was a Radar Dome at Campion approximately 10 miles away up a gravel road. Only road around. Galena was and still is actually a state airport and we had 2-4 F-4's stationed their. When we'd get the call 2 F-4's went up to chase the Soviet Bear bomber back into their airspace. This happened several times while I was there. Had a heck of a flood on the Yukon River with blocks of ice as big as a small house. Almost wiped out the village that was next to the river. The main reason I'm writing this is when I left Galena, we were on a C-130 and had to make a stop at Indian Mountain. To get there we had to fly through a curved valley and at the end of the valley was the runway that was sloped upwards and at the end was nothing. Scared the crap out of me. We finally made to Anchorage. It wasn't a bad assignment with the exception of sing the phone to call home. Cost a fortune!
My first job after retiring from the Air Force was working as a cook for Alaska Fire Service for 2 months. Great times! And a bush town that has a fitness center and swimming pool!
I was at Tatalina in 1977. Back in the day, we has scope controllers there who passed on intercept data to Elmendorf and eventually to NORAD HQ in Colorado. We had a non-working tram too. The winds made it unsafe which was a problem on all of the sites that had them. We had a runway about 3 miles from base camp that included a weather cab. As a weather observer, I worked the weather shack alone 12 hours at a time, six days a week. Base camp had about 100 men in total. We had a theater, a bowling alley, an NCO club and an Officers Club. Top camp had about 25 men ding one week rotations. I was slated for a one year tour but it was shortened to 185 days as the site was transitioned to civilian care. I loved it. What an adventure for a 21 year old. Alas, by the mid 80s it was converted to an automated station and shut down as was the entire DEW and Pine Tree Lines. Some sites, such as the 4 Greenland sites, were abandoned in place. It's like the Rapture hit and the personnel transported out leaving their personal effects behind. Others were razed to the ground.
Celeste Talley Tatalina had two dome buildings connected when I was there 2013. They were constructed about 1983 like all the other sites except Tin City and the train buildings on the Arctic coast. Weather there was much better than the coastal sites. Just four other people there besides myself with an IT person paying a short visit. I flew commercial to McGrath, then a tiny two person aircraft flew me to the site for a five minute ride. Still no bridge between there and McGrath to this day! As for the radar dome, you have a very dangerous ride in a vehicle there and no tram. My weather observer certification was made there with classroom training at the Tin City site. Tatalina was a piece of cake for weather unlike Tin City and Cape Romanzof where it changes every ten minutes
I was at Tatalina in 1970.
I was stationed at Clear from Sept 1968 to July 1969
Very cool! What was your experience like?
@@alaskapublicDon't expect much info from anyone stationed at these locations, it's still classified.
When I was in the Air Force back in the early 1980's . We put in a lot of telephone cable in many of those radar sites because the were going to remove all of the Air Force personal and everything was going to be linked up to satellites and the information sent back to Elmendorf AFB. Only a hand full of people would maintain these sites and some will be unmanned or closed.
Yep, by 1983 they were all gone. And many small new buildings for living quarters and garage constructed and old buildings now used for cold storage.
Thank you for sharing...I spent 8 months at Port Mollar, AK in 1969...US Air Force.
Been to several from Washington to Montana to Utah to California. They didn't have kitchens (Dammit!!) but they were fascinating. If I were a loner, it would be perfect place to work.
#AlaskaPublicMedia
Great video! thank you!
Is Indian mountain AFS, still in operation? Was there in 19 69.
It is. That’s one of the sites I didn’t go to along with Sparrevohn.
How did you do it, then? I was a civilian contractor that got frustrated from lack of decent internet 2012-2013 and having to call my wife on an actual telephone instead of just texting or FaceTiming her. And I’m an X’er born in 1968! I’ve heard stories about those going up to the dome stuck up there for days or even weeks and can’t come down because of the weather facing boredom, starvation, and lack of real toilets.
I was stationed there 1960-61 at top camp as a cook. Site is still there with domes at bottom only. Now operated by civilians working for the Federal Government. Very sparse crew, nothing left of top camp, although there was one dome for some time.
@@sidrabin5282 it’s actually civilian Union contractors. I was one of them. My main duties each day were mainly cooking and cleaning, but I also had to be proficient with warehousing, being a quartermaster, palletizing, filling out forms, ordering food and equipment, handling electronics properly, and weather observation.
I was stationed at Cape Lisburne, 1968-69. Quite a bit more rudimentary and basic than what I see in these recent videos.
The old bowling alley there was used as cold storage when I was there in 2012. I also remember there were always bears within the horizon.
Sounds like an information give away.
Yea....I was at Tatalina.
From my experience, that’s one of the better ones. Consistent weather not killing you and a small town nearby. But the town is not connected by a bridge and you have to fly to get there.
Watched this because I worked at one site for about a week. No issues because I was not connected with Arctec or any other military contractor. If I made a mistake......Adios! On the other hand, if limited cooperation (aka pissed me off).....Adios! Still got paid. “But as with a lot of jobs” From J kinda got my attention! This seems to be the way of Alaska!!! Not only did you have to do your job very well, you had to keep vigil on any drama unfolding around you. Had to be focused on both to be successful. A lot of times who is better at the latter is the one more apt to succeed!!!
I’m confused, it sounds to me like you were working for another company, but under Arctec at the site and if you made one mistake or somebody from Arctec pissed you off and you stood up to them, you were given the boot to leave the site. Or is that your company that does that?
I know I was pretty long-winded on that testimony I made, and I was treated like a POS at some of the sites but these people wrote new hire reports on me and gave it to management saying that I was a slug and difficult to get along with.
I’ve been in the federal service on base for the past 4 1/2 years and I’ve been treated like royalty in comparison
Jon Stewart What I was saying is that MY boss was a high ranking Officer at Elmendorf. The rest came from years of experience working in Alaska.
One Bad Apple Okay, thank you!
@@pressureworks and whom are you, may I ask?
@@pressureworks well? I’m waiting for an answer!
Its spelled Paridise in Antarctican apparently.
Half the people working at the sites are hicks that can barely read or write.
this video make me want some mac n cheese
There is not Radar on Wake island.
stroln Somehow they’re connected. The Air Force has an inspector that goes to the radar sites plus Shemya and Wake Island. I almost took the position, but retired.
Enough already with the constant changing camera angles. That is not you we naturally view things.
Unidentified ya say?
:57, that lady being interviewed was nasty and impossible to work with. She and the station chief thought they had everybody by the cojones and could do what they wanted to.
Was great until last sentences.
What was wrong with the last sentence? What he said is true.
DJM 445 no it’s not. “climate change” didn’t cause any of the issues they deal with.
Dafuq is with these kids and their “fry voice”...
You actually spent time consciously practicing ?
🙄
Yes. They are all coached to speak that way. Plus the annoying constant camera angles
250 miles out.
Flat earth peeps...
Yeah but radar bounces off the curvature of the ionosphere and Earth to travel that distance. You flat earth people are so stupid and obviously never been in a plane or been a pilot.
Greatpumpkin Patch I guess your not familiar with tropo scatter
You need to work on not doing that raspy drag in your voice
Your mom said the same thing
Its from the cigarette smoke during his drag queen performance, or global warming drying his throat out.
I like that voice!
Vocal fry is disgusting
You were doing all right until the moronic "climate change" comment.
The scraggly looking chatterbox in the video along with the woman make me laugh when they say that the radar system is for aircraft tracking when their not , they are for tracking nuclear missiles launched by North Korea and our other enemies. There are raydomes in Denver Colorado too and they clearly told people what the radars are for , so guess what guys the guy in the video lied when he said that it's secret stuff that can't be talked about or shown to people.
That is incorrect. DEW line radars are, in fact, for aircraft tracking. They use the FPS-117 radar which spins around and provides three dimensional positioning using a radar pencil beams transmitted from the radar face. I know this because I helped to build part of the Royal Saudi Air Force air defense network that uses 17 long range radars of the same kind…the FPS-117. To track ballistic objects, the US and our allies use a combination of BMEWS and Pave Paws (plus sea based X- band, Aegis ashore, et al).