With the outbreak of the Korean War in
1950, the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force began reestablishing air
defenses to protect the Continental United States against a feared
manned bomber attack from the Soviet Union. Several air defense
radar sites that were used in World War II were reactivated as
was the establishment of several new sites. Many of these were
temporary emergency sites, or in military parlance, “lashups”.
(radomes.com)
One of the new lashup sites was located
Northeast of the farming community of Madera, California. In
late 1950, the U.S. Air Force began leasing farmland and constructing
the station facilities. On 11 January 1951, the lead elements
of the 774th Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) Squadron
arrived at Madera to begin preparing for the arrival of the rest
of the unit from Hamilton Air Force Base (AFB). By 24 January
1951, the entire squadron had arrived at the Site and began the
task to install the station’s radar. By March 1951, the
site was operational as Site LP-74. (774th AC&W Squadron
Histories)
The site was originally equipped with
the AN/TPS-1B search radar. This system was a portable system
that made up the backbone of the U.S. Army’s radar defenses
during the second half of World War II. However, this system
was obsolete and only served as a stopgap measure until newer
systems became available. At this same time was the development
of the site into a more permanent installation. In 1951, construction
began on several concrete and wood frame buildings to house the
squadron’s radar and support equipment as well as its eight
officers and 108 enlisted airmen and noncommissioned officers
(NCO).
In January 1952, the Site was made a permanent
site with the arrival of then state-of-the-art equipment and
the formal naming of the Site as Madera Air Force Station (AFS)
and its identifier was changed to P-74. The World War II era
radar systems were replaced by new search (AN/FPS-3) and height
finder (AN/FPS-4) radar sets.
The rest of the 1950s saw a steady improvement
of the station’s operational, support and recreation facilities
as the Site took on a more permanent nature. In 1956 the height
finder radar set was upgraded to the AN-FPS-6A with the search
radar being replaced by the AN/FPS-20 system in 1959. (radomes.com)
In 1955, the U.S. Air Force began the
processes of purchasing the leased lands. The acreage that made
up the sewage plant’s oxidation ponds were conveyed by direct
purchase while the remainder of the station had to be acquired
through the Federal condemnation process in 1956.
1956 saw the building of nine two and
three-bedroom family housing units for married officers and NCOs.
In 1960, 17 more three-bedroom and one four-bedroom housing units
were added to the family housing area. Moral, Welfare and Recreation
facilities at Madera AFS included a swimming pool, skeet range,
athletic court and field, base exchange, and a three-hole golf
course which contributed to the station’s unofficial nickname,
“Country Club of the Air Force” (GSA records and radome.com)
In 1960, the Site was integrated into
the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) command and control
system. Data from Madera AFS's radar began to be fed directly
into the SAGE system which allowed for headquarters at various
levels of the North American Air Defense Command to receive senor
inputs from multiple and widely dispersed stations in order detect,
identify, and track targets and to provide interceptor direction.
SAGE removed the Ground Control Intercept function from the station
and reduced its manpower requirements. With this change, the
774th AC&W Squadron became the 774th Radar Squadron (SAGE)
and the Site’s identifier changed to Z-74.
The integration into SAGE coincided with
the further upgrading of the station’s radar systems. The
AN/FPS-66 replaced the older AN/FPS-20 search radar. By 1963,
the AN/FPS-90 height finder radar set was added to the station’s
systems.
On 25 June 1966, the Madera AFS and the
774th Radar Squadron were both inactivated. On 30 December of
that same year the U.S. Air Force issued a permit to the Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA), Department of the Interior to use the
site as a school and vocational training center pending formal
transfer of the site to that agency. On 3 April the former Madera
AFS was formally transferred by the Headquarters, 78th Combat
Support Group, Hamilton AFB, California to the BIA.
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