Flintstone Air Force Station

 (1956-1961) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1956 on Lookout Mountain, Dade County, Georgia. Named Flintstone Air Force Station after the nearby unincorporated community of Flintstone. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of SM-165. Abandoned in 1961.

History
Occupied in March 1956 and became operational later in 1956 as Flintstone Air Force Station manned by the 867th AC&W Squadron. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning missions. The early warning mission involved tracking and identifying all aircraft entering their airspace while the GCI mission involved guiding Air Force interceptors to any identified enemy aircraft. Controllers at the station vectored fighter aircraft at the correct course and speed to intercept enemy aircraft using voice commands via ground-to-air radio.

Initial equipment included the MPS-11 search radar and a TPS-10D height-finder radar. That equipment was upgraded in 1960 to an FPS-6 height-finder and an FPS-8 search radar.

The site remained a manual site until it closed, never integrating into the SAGE System. In the later years, it had only a surveillance role.

Closure
The Air Force discontinued the 867th AC&W Squadron and closed Flintstone AFS on 1 Jun 1961. Note: Various sources give conflicting dates of closure from 1960 to 1962, the date given here is from the Radomes website.

Physical Plant
The physical plant of the site was divided into the main site, a cantonment area, a housing area, and a radio site. The main site housed the operations buildings, the radar towers, and the backup generators. The cantonment area housed the enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the dining hall, the motor pool, and other support buildings. Apart from the main site was a small 27 unit housing area for married personnel. The roads inside the housing area were named for three of the commanders of Flintstone AFS. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Photographs of the site indicate that it had six of the old 1950s single story "hutment" style barracks buildings.

Current Status
The site is now Covenant College’s soccer fields, baseball fields, parking and maintenance buildings. The original road is still in use, providing access to the athletic facilities and parking. The only sign of the original Air Force buildings is a couple of foundations and a couple of steps beside what appears to have been a loading dock up on the main site.

See Also:
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets

Sources:
 * , page 103.
 * , page 111.
 * Cooper, Clint, Scanning the Skies: Lookout Mountain the former home to Cold War-era Flintstone Air Force Station, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Archives, Vol. 138, No.334, 13 Nov 2007, Section E, pages E1 & E6.

Links:
 * Radomes - Flintstone Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - Flintstone Air Force Station
 * Photobucket - Flinstone AFS