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Photos from the Cold War

CaddmannQ

.50 BMG
These photos are all from about 1957. We didn't have very good radar in those days and there were no communications satellites. To spot Russian bombers as they came across the North Atlantic, the USAF planned 6 off-shore radar platforms commonly called the Texas Towers. This was #2, about 50 miles due east off Cape Cod Mass.

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They relayed radar data line-of-sight to North Truro AFS on Cape Cod Massachusetts, with the 3 microwave dishes you can see hanging from the side of the "hull". This was part of the first network-linked and computerized nation-wide radar system. Dad worked on the system and it's descendants for over 20 years.

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My dad's station was the backup unit: radar computer B on Texas Tower #2, and that's his computer with big pull-out drawers full of boards and vacuum tubes. Transistors were still in their infancy.

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Men worked 30 days on and then had 30 days R&R on shore, because the duty was terrible. Dad had been in the Navy, but this was worse. The motors and engines and generators and boilers were going 24/7/365, inside a big steel box on concrete-filled legs. It was like living on the engine of a running truck, and sleep was tough.

Workers went out by boat & were hoisted aboard in this basket. Dad, being a techie, flew by helicopter from Otis AFB..

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When the weather was bad it was worse, and those things moved in a storm.This was #4, which was felt to be unstable, so they added the extra braces you see on the legs. They didn't help. Tower #4 went down in a storm with all hands lost. About 40 men, in a steel tomb, still sitting on the ocean floor.

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Advances in radar made the towers quickly obsolete, and the 6 planned towers were never all built.

I believe #3 sank during salvage, and only #2 was ever towed back to port, and only after dynamiting the legs off.
 
Nice photos and story. Thanks for sharing.
 
My pleasure, John. I have a few more I'll dig up later.
Dad was stationed at 18 different bases, stations, schools and ships over the 30 years he served.
I was with him for 20 of those. It was a very "moving" experience. :rolleyes:
 
This is my dad and his Navy buddies from 1944.
My dad is on the left with the bloody lip.
He was just 17 when that was taken.

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All his brothers ran off and joined the Army, but they wouldn't take Dad as he was too young.
He lied to the Navy and they put him on a ship in the Pacific, delivering food and ammo to the fleet.
Anyhow, this fake jail was on the Long Beach amusement pier.
 
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Nice pictures Cadd. I vaguely remember those days. We lived in the Midwest at the time and about all I remember was the early days of B-47s and B-52s flying over, and the occasional sonic boom from a fighter. Nice to keep the history alive. I reckon in another generation the powers that be will try to bury it all, or use it as proof of what a bad country we have been.
 
Awesome history and family story...thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
 
A christmas card from the men on #2, circa 1957

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They never built all the towers, but this was the plan in the early '50s. Dad was on TT-2, the farthest one out. The one closest to DC, was #4 which went down in a storm with all hands lost.

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Snow Mt KY, was where Dad trained in radar. The old tower pic from '57 is the only photo I have there.
He was there before Cape Cod, and before my birth.
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DUADS was in Duluth MN. We went there after Dad got home from Vietnam.
this was the blockhouse where he worked.
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UMD bought the one of the old buildings, and added those red towers to it.
The old hangars were looking pretty bad by the time these were shot in the 2000's.

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The 692 was in Baudette MN. We went there in 1970 & the cold war was still going. It was deactivated in '79.
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