Finley Air Force Station

 (1952-1979) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1952 near Finley, Steele County, North Dakota. Named Finley Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-29, later a Sage ID of Z-29 and a JSS ID of J-75. Abandoned in 1979.

History
Established in 1952 and became operational in April 1952 as Finley Air Force Station manned by the 785th AC&W Squadron. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning mission. 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 FPS-3 search radar and an FPS-5 height-finder radar.

SAGE System Operation
The site began operation as a SAGE site in April 1959 initially feeding the Grand Forks SAGE Direction Center DC-11. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-20 and a second FPS-6 height-finder radar was installed in 1959. In 1962 an FPS-35 search radar replaced the FPS-20 and one of the FPS-6 height-finders was upgraded to an FPS-90. The remaining FPS-6 was later removed.

With the closure of the Grand Forks SAGE Direction Center DC-11 in 1963, SAGE control of Finley AFS switched to Duluth SAGE Direction Center DC-10 on 4 Sep 1963. Another realignment of sectors took place in 1969 and SAGE control of Finley AFS switched to Malmstrom SAGE Direction Center DC-20 on 15 Sep 1969 and remained there until the site closed in 1979.

In the early 1970s, the vacuum tube FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitter was replaced with the solid state FYQ-47 Common Digitizer.

Gap Fillers
Finley AFS was responsible for the maintenance of four remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The Finley AFS gap-filler radars were located at Sheyenne, Grafton and Valley City in North Dakota and Middle River in Minnesota.

Closure
Finley AFS and the 785th were deactivated on 30 Dec 1979. There is some evidence that there was an interim period of operation at the site after that point using FAA and USAF resources until the FAA completed the nearby Finley FAA Radar Site at the old location of the Finley AFS GATR site. That operation may have lasted until 1982.

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 adjacent 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 were two housing areas for married personnel. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts under the SAGE System.

Current Status
Abandoned and used as a land fill by the city of Finley in Steele County, North Dakota. The FPS-35 tower is still standing. The operations building is still standing but with one wall knocked down. A couple of other main site buildings remain. The housing areas have both been leveled. The GATR site building is still in place next to the Finley FAA Radar Site.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * JSS System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Grand Forks SAGE Direction Center DC-11
 * Duluth SAGE Direction Center DC-10
 * Malmstrom SAGE Direction Center DC-20

Sources:
 * , page 169.
 * , page 145.

Links:
 * Radomes - Finley Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - Finley Air Force Station