Military Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Military Wiki
Register
in: Vague or ambiguous time from April 2014, Articles needing more detailed references, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia,
and 17 more

Arlington Heights Air Force Station

Sign in to edit
Arlington Heights Air Force Station
call sign: tbd
Flag of the United States Air Force United States Air Force general surveillance radar station
Country United States
State Illinois
Command 1960-1969: Airdefensecommand-logo Air Defense Command (later Aerospace Defense Command)
Garrison 755th Radar Squadron
 - coordinates 42°03′51.5″N 87°59′44″W / 42.064306°N 87.99556°W / 42.064306; -87.99556 [1]
Annexes Gap Filler radar sites (AN/FPS-18)[1]
 - RP-31D Monee, Illinois 41°24′36″N 087°45′54″W / 41.41°N 87.765°W / 41.41; -87.765 (RP-31D)
 - RP-31F Williams Bay AFS WI 42°36′57″N 088°32′23″W / 42.61583°N 88.53972°W / 42.61583; -88.53972 (RP-31F)
Code 1960 April 1: RP-31 (ADC)
1963 July 31: Z-31 (NORAD)

Arlington Heights Air Force Station was a 1960-1969[2] USAF general surveillance radar station 1.8 miles (2.9 km) south-southwest of Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Arlington Field[]

Arlington Field[3] opened in 1942, as an auxiliary airfield for the nearby NRAB Chicago and which had a World War II prisoner-of-war camp,[4] opened on May 4, 1945, with 75 German POWs.[3] Project Nike Integrated Fire Control Site C-80 of the 45th Antiaircraft Brigade opened at Arlington Field in 1955,[5] and in January 1960, the 755th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron transferred to the field from Williams Bay Air Force Station at Elkhorn, Wisconsin,[6] while the co-located Arlington Heights Army Installation was being built for a Project Nike Army Air Defense Command Post.

Air Force Station[]

Arlington Heights Air Force Station was activated on 1 April 1960, when Williams Bay AFS was redesignated from P-31 to gap-filler RP-31F. In 1962, the station began providing Semi-Automatic Ground Environment radar tracks to Data Center DC-02 at Truax Field, Wisconsin, for the Chicago Air Defense Sector's ground-controlled interception.[5] One of the two Arlington Heights Air Force Station's General Electric AN/FPS-6 Radars height finders was upgraded[when?] to the -6B variant and then the -90 variant,[7] and the station's Bendix AN/FPS-20 Radar was also upgraded to an AN/FPS-67.[when?] The 755th inactivated on September 30, 1969, and Project Concise ended the site's Nike operations in 1974--52 acres (21 ha) transferred to the city parks district.[5] A May 1979 golf course was built[8] near the nuclear bunker[specify] —the Arlington Lakes Golf Club has 90 acres (36 ha) with 14 lakes.

In August 1994, 3 military units were still stationed at the Arlington Heights military site.[8]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Information for Arlington Heights AI, IL" (Radomes.org webpage). The Air Defense Radar Veterans' Association. http://www.radomes.org/cgi-bin/museum/acwinfo2x.cgi?site=%22Arlington+Heights+AI,+IL%22&key=ArlingtonHeightsAIIL&pic=ArlingtonHeightsAIIL&doc=ArlingtonHeightsAIIL. Retrieved 2012-04-01. 
  2. ↑ Winkler, David F; Webster, Julie L (June 1997). Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program (Report). U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231. Retrieved 2012-03-26. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Arlington Heights Historical Museum transcription "POW Camp South of Arlington Now Open". May 4, 1945. http://www.radomes.org/museum/documents/ArlingtonHeightsAIILHistory.html Arlington Heights Historical Museum transcription. Retrieved 2012-04-01. 
  4. ↑ Meyerhoff, Keith (September 14, 1967). Nike Site Has History as 'Embattled' Land (Report). Prospect High School. http://www.radomes.org/museum/documents/ArlingtonHeightsAIILHistory.html. Retrieved 2012-04-01. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Arlington Heights Facts at a Glance" (chronology). Arlingtoncards.com. http://www.arlingtoncards.com/facts/. Retrieved 2012-04-02. 
  6. ↑ compiled by Johnson, Mildred W (31 December 1980) [February 1973 original by Cornett, Lloyd H. Jr]. A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980. Peterson Air Force Base: Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center. http://www.usafpatches.com/pubs/handbookofadcorg.pdf. Retrieved 2012-03-26. "669th Radar Sq (SAGE): assigned 1 Jan 51 at Ft. MacArthur, CA,…moved to Santa Rosa Island, CA 11 Feb 52;…moved to Lompoc AFS, CA 1 Apr 64" 
  7. ↑ "Corrections to The Second Edition of Rings of Supersonic Steel". Ed-Thelen.org. October 29, 2006. http://ed-thelen.org/CorrectRSSOct06.html. Retrieved 2012-04-01. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Stimely, Margot (February 1996). Nike Base (Report). Arlington Heights Historical Society. http://www.radomes.org/museum/documents/ArlingtonHeightsAIILHistory.html. Retrieved 2012-04-01. 
All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Arlington Heights Air Force Station and the edit history here.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.