Topsham Air Force Station is a closed

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 ...

station. It is located north of

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

. It was closed in 1969.

History

Topsham AFS was initially the headquarters of the

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 ...

Bangor Air Defense Sector The Bangor Air Defense Sector (BaADS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the Air Defense Command 26th Air Division, being stationed at Topsham Air Force Station, Maine. It was inactivated on 1 ...

(BaADS), which was activated on 8 January 1957. In 1958 a

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. S ...

(SAGE) Data Center (DC-05) was established at Topsham AFS. The SAGE system was a network linking Air Force (and later FAA) General Surveillance Radar stations into a centralized center for Air Defense, intended to provide early warning and response for a Soviet nuclear attack. A GATR site (R-25) was also constructed at Topsham as part of the 654th Radar Squadron at

Brunswick AFS Brunswick Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located east-southeast of Brunswick, Maine. It was closed in 1965. Brunswick AFS was one of the first of twenty-four stations of the 1 ...

, but was reassigned to the BaADS at Topsham AFS when the 654th RADS was inactivated in 1965. The BaADS was absorbed by the 36th Air Division, being moved to Topsham from

Davis Monthan AFB Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gre ...

, Arizona on 1 April 1966. DC-02 with its

AN/FSQ-7 The AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central, referred to as the Q7 for short, was a computerized command and control system for Cold War ground-controlled interception used in the USAF Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense network. The ...

computer remained under the 34th AD until it, and the Air Division was inactivated on 30 September 1969 when technology advances allowed the Air Force to shut down many SAGE Data Centers. With the inactivation of the 36th AD, the station and GATR site were closed. The former Topsham AFS is now an annex of the now-closed

Naval Air Station Brunswick Naval Air Station Brunswick , also known as NAS Brunswick, was a military airport located southeast of Brunswick, Maine, with a number of Navy-operated maritime patrol aircraft. As of November 28, 2009, the last aircraft ( P-3 Orions) left. The ...

. The SAGE DC blockhouse was demolished in August 1985 and is now a recreation field.

Known ADCOM units assigned

* 36th Air Division, 1 April 1966 – 30 September 1969 *

, 8 January 1957 – 1 April 1966

References

* A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado * Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
Information for Topsham AFS, ME

External links

{{Navboxes , list = {{Aerospace Defense Command {{Cumberland County, Maine {{FmrMEMilitary Installations of the United States Air Force in Maine Semi-Automatic Ground Environment sites Aerospace Defense Command military installations Military installations closed in 1969 Buildings and structures in Topsham, Maine 1957 establishments in Maine 1969 disestablishments in Maine Military installations established in 1957

History

Known ADCOM units assigned

See also

References

External links