The 634th Radar Squadron is an inactive

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

unit. It was last assigned to the 20th Air Division,

Aerospace Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly ina ...

, stationed at Lake Charles Air Force Station, Louisiana. It was inactivated on 1 July 1974.

History

The unit was a General Surveillance Radar squadron providing for the air defense of the United States. It was first activated at

McChord AFB McChord Field is a United States Air Force base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington. South of Tacoma, McChord Field is the home of the 62d Airlift Wing, Air Mobility Command, the field's primary mission being worldwi ...

, WA as an aircraft control squadron to operate the 505th Aircraft Control & Warning Group's Air Defense Control Center for the Provisional Northwestern Air Defense Sector. Abstract, History of 505 AC&W Gp Jul-Dec 1948
(accessed 3 Apr 48) It soon moved to the Lashup radar site L-31 at Everett, WA (later

Paine Field Paine Field , also known as Snohomish County Airport, is a commercial and general aviation airport serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located in unincorporated Snohomish County, Washington, between the ...

) and added the detection and control mission as well. It was inactivated in the general reorganization of

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was est ...

(ADC) in February 1952. It was soon reactivated and performed the same mission at the mobile site M-118 at

Burns AFS Burns Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located west-southwest of Burns, Oregon. It was closed in 1974. Burns Air Force Station was established as part of the planned deployment ...

, OR. Became part of the

Semi Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. SA ...

system in 1962. Inactivated in 1970. The Squadron was activated again in 1973 to replace Operating Location F of the

630th Radar Squadron 63 may refer to: * 63 (number) * one of the years 63 BC, AD 63, 1963, 2063 * +63, telephone country code in the Philippines * Flight 63 (disambiguation) * ''63'' (album), by Tree63 * ''63'' (mixtape), by Kool A.D. * "Sixty Three", a song by Karm ...

at Lake Charles AFS as part of the Southern Air Defense System (SADS). SADS had been established because of the inadequacy of the radar coverage to the south of the United States that had been dramatically illustrated whan a Cuban

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 w ...

went undetected before it landed at

Homestead AFB Homestead Air Reserve Base (Homestead ARB), previously known as Homestead Air Force Base (Homestead AFB) is located in Miami–Dade County, Florida to the northeast of the city of Homestead. It is home to the 482nd Fighter Wing (482 FW) of th ...

,Leonard, p. 172 and two years later, an

An-24 The Antonov An-24 (Russian/Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) ( NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by Kyiv, Ir ...

similarly arrived unannounced at

New Orleans International Airport Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport ( French: ''Aéroport international Louis Armstrong de La Nouvelle-Orléans'') is an international airport under Class B airspace in Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is ...

. As a result, ADC established SADS with the squadron operating a manual control center at the Houston ARTCC and added radars to supplement the existing

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

coverage in the area. However, the squadron was inactivated little more than a year later.

Lineage

* Constituted 1947 as 634th Aircraft Control Squadron : Activated on 21 May 1947 : Redesignated 634th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron on 8 December 1949 : Inactivated on 6 February 1952Cornett & Johnson, p. 155 * Activated on 20 June 1953 : Redesignated as 634th Radar Squadron (SAGE), 1 March 1961 : Inactivated on 30 September 1970 * Redesignated as 634th Radar Squadron : Activated on 1 January 1973 : Inactivated on 1 July 1974 Assignments * 505th Aircraft Control and Warning Group, 21 May 1947 - 6 February 1952 * 25th Air Division, 20 June 1953 * 9th Air Division, 1 October 1954 * 25th Air Division, 15 August 1958 * 4700th Air Defense Wing, 1 September 1958 * 25th Air Division, 15 May 1960 *

San Francisco Air Defense Sector The San Francisco Air Defense Sector (SFADS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the 28th Air Division, being stationed at Beale Air Force Base, California. The sector was established in February 19 ...

, 1 July 1960 *

Reno Air Defense Sector The Reno Air Defense Sector (ReADS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the 28th Air Division, being stationed at Stead Air Force Base, Nevada. History ReADS was established in February 1959 assumi ...

, 15 September 1960 * 26th Air Division, 1 April 1966 * 25th Air Division, 15 September 1969 – 30 September 1970 * 20th Air Division, 1 January 1973 – 1 July 1974 Stations *

, Washington, 21 May 1947 - 4 September 1948 * Everett (Later Paine Field), Washington, 4 September 1948 - 14 September 1951 * McChord AFB, Washington, 14 September 1951 - 6 February 1952 * McChord AFB, Washington, 20 June 1953 *

Geiger Field Spokane International Airport is a commercial airport located approximately west-southwest of downtown Spokane, Washington, United States. It is the primary airport serving the Inland Northwest, which consists of 30 counties and includes are ...

, Washington, 1 October 1954 *

, Oregon, 8 June 1955 – 30 September 1970 * Lake Charles AFS, Louisiana, 1 January 1973 – 1 July 1974

References

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External links

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Radar squadrons of the United States Air Force Aerospace Defense Command units