North Bend Air Force Station

 (1951-1980) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 near North Bend, Coos County, Oregon. Named North Bend Air Force Station on 1 Dec 1953 after the nearby town. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-12 and later a Sage ID of Z-12. Abandoned in 1980 and turned over to the State of Oregon.

History
Established in 1951 with the 761st AC&W Squadron assigned to the newly constructed radar station. Initial equipment included the FPS-8 search radar and an FPS-4 height-finder radar. The radar equipment evolved into one FPS-3 search radar with two FPS-6 height-finder radars while the site was still a manual Ground Control Intercept (GCI) site.

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.

SAGE System Operation
The site began operation as a SAGE site March 1960 initially feeding the Adair SAGE Direction Center DC-13 at Adair AFS. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-7, one FPS-26A height-finder radar and one FPS-90 height-finder. With the closure of the Adair SAGE Direction Center in 1969, the site was connected to the McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 at McChord AFB near Seattle.

Closure
The public announcement of the closure of North Bend AFS came in April 1978. North Bend AFS and the 761st Radar Squadron were deactivated on 11 Feb 1980 and the site was subsequently turned over to the State of Oregon.

Gap Filler Radars
North Bend AFS was responsible for the maintenance of three remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The gap-fillers maintained by North Bend AFS were located at Port Orford, Disston, and Placer, Oregon.

Physical Plant
The physical plant of the site was divided into the main site, a housing area, and a radio site. The main site housed the operations building, the radar towers, the enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the chow hall, the motor pool, and the backup generators. Apart from the main site was a small, 27 unit, housing area for critical married personnel.

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



Current Status
Currently operated by the State of Oregon as the Shutter Creek Correctional Institution (minimum-security prison) in North Bend, Coos County, Oregon. Some buildings remain, no public access.

See Also:
 * Adair SAGE Direction Center DC-13
 * McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * SAGE System

Sources:
 * , page 165.
 * , page 149.

Links:
 * Radomes - North Bend Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - North Bend Air Force Station