Fordland Air Force Station

 (1952-1961) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1952 near Fordland, Webster County, Missouri. Named Fordland Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-68. Abandoned in 1961.

History of Fordland Air Force Station
Established in 1952 and became operational in 1952 as Fordland Air Force Station manned by the 797th 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-4 height-finder radar. During 1954 a TPS-10D was placed in service but it was removed in 1955. In 1958 the FPS-4 was replaced by one FPS-6 height-finder radar.

As the implementation of the SAGE System took hold in 1960, Fordland AFS continued operation as a manual radar site passing manual track information to the Manual Direction Center at Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base, Kansas City Air Defense Sector (Manual). The site was not given a "Z" designation or classified as a "SAGE" Radar Squadron. The manual direction center (MCC-2) was closed down on 1 Jan 1962

Closure
Fordland AFS and the 797th were deactivated on 1 Jun 1961.

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 were two small housing areas for married personnel, one 9 unit and one 18 unit housing areas.

Separate receiver and transmitter radio sites housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Current Status
Now the Ozark Correctional Center (OCC), a minimum security (C-2) institution.

See Also:
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Richards-Gebaur Manual Direction Center MM-2

Sources:
 * , page 102.
 * , page 129.

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