Crystal Springs Air Force Station

 (1959-1968) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1959 near Crystal Springs in Copiah County, Mississippi. Named Crystal Springs Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of TM-195, later a Sage ID of Z-195. Abandoned in 1968.

History
Construction began on 19 Nov 1956 by N.C. Morgan Construction Company of Tuscaloosa who was awarded the construction contract with their bid of $878,987.61. The site was completed in the summer of 1958 and became operational in late 1959 as Crystal Springs Air Force Station manned by the 627th AC&W Squadron. Initial equipment included the FPS-27 frequency diversity search radar, one FPS-6A height-finder radar and one FPS-90 height-finder radar. This site served as a test site for the Westinghouse FPS-27 program and the contractor facilities were located in a large Quonset hut next to the radar tower.

Crystal Springs was also near enough to the radar maintenance and FST-2 schools at Keesler Air Force Base to be used to supplement several courses with demonstrations of actual radar site operation.

SAGE System Operation


The FST-2 was installed between July and October 1959 by a Burroughs team including Tech Rep Charlie Haubrich. The site began operation as a SAGE site on 1 Nov 1959 initially feeding the Gunter SAGE Direction Center DC-09. On 1 Oct 1959, the unit was redesignated from 627th AC&W Squadron to 627th Radar Squadron (SAGE) to reflect the new SAGE System mission.

Gap Fillers
Crystal Springs AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The Crystal Springs AFS gap-filler radar was located at Summit, Mississippi.

Closure
Crystal Springs AFS and the 627th were deactivated 8 Sep 1968.

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 three 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 built in 1962 for married personnel. All of the housing units were 3 bedrooms and furnished with appliances. Five units were set aside for officers and twenty-two for enlisted. A small 10 unit trailer park supplemented the married personnel housing area. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Current Status
Now Mississippi Job Corps center in Crystal Springs, Copiah County, Mississippi. Many USAF buildings and about half of the housing units remain. The radar towers are gone.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Gunter SAGE Direction Center DC-09

Sources:
 * , page 154.
 * , page 128.

Links:
 * Radomes - Crystal Springs Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - Crystal Springs Air Force Station