Wadena Air Force Station

 (1950-1970) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station. Located near Wadena in Wadena County, Minnesota. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-17 and later a Sage ID of Z-17. Closed in 1970.

History
Established in 1950 during the Korean War and activated on 20 May 1950 as Leaf River Radar Site operated by the 132nd Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron of the Minnesota Air National Guard as a Ground Control Intercept (GCI) radar site. Reassigned to the Air Defense Command (ADC) on 1 Jun 1951. The 132nd was deactivated on 1 Feb 1953 and reactivated as the 739th AC&W Squadron on the same day. On 1 Dec 1953 the site was redesignated Wadena Air Force Station manned by the 739th AC&W Squadron.

Initial equipment included one FPS-3 search radar and one FPS-4 height-finder radar. The FPS-4 was replaced by a FPS-6 height-finder in 1956. By 1958 the FPS-3 search radar had been replaced with a FPS-20 search radar. In 1959 a second height-finder radar, a FPS-6A was added. This configuration met the requirements for the transition to SAGE System operation.

SAGE System Operation


The site began operation as a SAGE site in 1959 initially feeding the Grand Forks SAGE Direction Center DC-11. With the closure of the Grand Forks SAGE Direction Center DC-11, contol of Wadena AFS shifted to Duluth SAGE Direction Center DC-10 where it remained until Wadena AFS closed in 1970.

The FPS-20 search radar was upgraded to the FPS-64 configuration in 1962 and then to the FPS-64A configuration in 1967. The FPS-6A height-finder was upgraded to the FPS-90 configuration in 1963 and was removed in 1969.

Closure
Wadena AFS and the 739th were deactivated on 30 Sep 1970.

Gap Fillers
Wadena AFS was responsible for the maintenance of two remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The Wadena AFS gap-filler radars were located at Elbow Lake, MN and Bagley, MN. Two additional gap-filler sites were contemplated but were not built.

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 (originally only 9 units built in 1954 with the remainder built in 1958) for married personnel.

A separate radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Current Status
Now part of Bell Hill Recovery Center.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Grand Forks SAGE Direction Center DC-11

Sources:
 * , page 163.
 * , page 126.
 * Radar Site at Wadena once an Air Guard unit, Duluth IAP Patriot, 28 Sep 1979, Radomes

Links:
 * Radomes - Wadena Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - Wadena Air Force Station
 * Wadena County Historical Society