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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.