Arlington Heights Air Force Station
| Arlington Heights Air Force Station | |
| call sign: tbd | |
 United States Air Force general surveillance radar station | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| Command | 1960-1969:  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 [1] |
| Annexes | Gap Filler radar sites (AN/FPS-18)[1] |
| - RP-31D Monee, Illinois | 41°24′36″N 087°45′54″W / 41.41000°N 87.76500°W |
| - RP-31F Williams Bay AFS WI | 42°36′57″N 088°32′23″W / 42.61583°N 88.53972°W |
| 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 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. 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--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 2 "Information for Arlington Heights AI, IL" (Radomes.org webpage). The Air Defense Radar Veterans' Association. Retrieved 2012-04-01. External link in
|publisher=(help) - ↑ Winkler, David F; Webster, Julie L (June 1997). Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program (PDF) (Report). U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories. Retrieved 2012-03-26.
- 1 2 "POW Camp South of Arlington Now Open" (Arlington Heights Historical Museum transcription). Arlington Heights Herald. May 4, 1945. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
- ↑ Meyerhoff, Keith (September 14, 1967). Nike Site Has History as 'Embattled' Land (Report). Prospect High School. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
- 1 2 3 "Arlington Heights Facts at a Glance" (chronology). Arlingtoncards.com. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
- ↑ compiled by Johnson, Mildred W (31 December 1980) [February 1973 original by Cornett, Lloyd H. Jr]. A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980 (PDF). Peterson Air Force Base: Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center. 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
- ↑ "Corrections to The Second Edition of Rings of Supersonic Steel". Ed-Thelen.org. October 29, 2006. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
- 1 2 Stimely, Margot (February 1996). Nike Base (Report). Arlington Heights Historical Society. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
