810th AC&W Squadron *

This is my attempt to recount some personal stories of my time at the 810th that I found interesting or significant. These stories are mainly from my memory and as such are subject to contain some errors or omissions. If anyone reading these sees something they feel is incorrect or that could use clarification I'd love some feedback. It would be great to make this site as accurate as possible as well as entertaining. It's one way to preserve the history of these Cold War radar sites.

One evening the Refrigeration/Air Conditioning Shop received a concerned phone call from the AN/FPS-24 Search Radar technicians. One of the two transmitters had failed with a serious problem. The techs had discovered that somehow the electrical contacts to the water-cooled transmitter tube on that channel had burned up. The repair would require replacing the $50,000 tube and possibly the big copper container the tube mounted in. This could put the search radar out of commission for several weeks or even months. The radar techs thought maybe someone in the refrigeration department could come up with an alternative solution. My coworker and friend Norris Moore and I ran over to look at the damage to see if there was anything we could do.

The tube, a big triode, was the heart of the transmitter's power output stage. It was a big piece of hardware that looked nothing like what one would imagine a vacuum tube should look like. The tube was normally housed in a round steel, pressurized tank about ten feet high and six feet in diameter. Access to the tube and its support hardware was through a hatch on top of the tank which opened for maintenance. The power output tube weighed about 100 pounds. A hoist, the track of which was permanently mounted on the ceiling above the tank, was needed for installation or removal. The tube was water cooled, with four water lines, each about 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter. The tube's RF power was sent to the antenna feed horn through a 9-inch round waveguide.

I've looked but can not find a photo of this or even a similar tube on line. If anyone has access to a photo or drawing they can share, please contact me.

When we arrived on the scene we found the tube had already been pulled and was sitting on the floor next to the pressure tank. We could immediately see the damage. The beryllium copper finger stock on the the housing inside the tank had burned off and the area where it had been was blackened and pitted. The area of the tube where the finger stock made contact and that provided the electrical connection to the system was also pitted and burned.

We thought the damage might be repairable using our refrigeration soldering skills. We also figured with the damage that severe we couldn't make matters any worse. Fortunately they had quite a bit of the beryllium copper finger stock material on hand that we could work with. We ruined quite a bit of it before figuring out how to successfully apply it.

Norris and I worked through the night grinding off the burned and pitted areas of the tube and housing, then building them back up with solder. We were eventually able to get the finger stock back in place, more or less as it was supposed to be. Working for hours inside that drum, which as I recall wasn't much bigger than a 50 gallon drum, was quite a challenge, to say the least. Norris and I took turns working in there. It's good to be young and flexible. I can't imagine how we were able to work in that confined space.

After a couple of false starts, the system began functioning and it continued to operate properly with our makeshift repairs in place at least until I left.

Norris and I were awarded Air Force Commendation Medals for this.

The AN/FPS-8 Radar system was already gone when I arrived at the 810th, but the round metal building that once housed that old hardware was still present. We used it as a storage shed for maintenance equipment and supplies along with old out of service parts for the radar systems.

Among the items kept in there were drums of dry powered chlorine that we used for treating the water in the A/C cooling towers, the two water wells and the pool. A couple of times a week we would grab a bucket of the stuff and dump some in each cooling tower behind the security fence. Each of the well houses contained a plastic trash can filled with a strong water and chlorine mixture. We had to top that off from time to time, using that powered chlorine. An injector pump forced some of the mixture into the well water while the well pump was running. It was a simple and effective method of keeping the base's water supply safe.

One of the HVAC techs, a guy from Paducah, Ky named "Shorty Krosp" as I recall, claimed he could cure a cold by sticking his head in the chlorine drum and taking a deep breath. I tried it once. It didn't work and I thought I was gonna die! Don't ever do that kids!

The 810th was equipped with its own power plant and it got used quite a lot. We were at the end of a Duke Power line and just about every summer afternoon a thunderstorm would come through, knocking out the commercial power. Though I had no direct involvement with the power plant I did frequently hang out in the control room while it was in operation so I was fairly familiar with it.

The power plant only supplied electricity to the critical equipment behind the security fence so the off-duty folks sat in the dark a lot while the base (and the very popular NCO club which for some reason was also connected to the 810th emergency power) continued to perform their normal functions.

The power plant was equipped with four large diesel-powered generators that normally were not running. Anytime there was a threat of a power outage, or during periodic tests, one of more of those generators would be fired up and our power would be run in parallel with the commercial power. Bringing the generators on line involved starting one of those big diesels, then the operator would carefully throttle the engine up and down while watching a big meter called a synchroscope. This kind of looked a bit like a clock with one hand. The dial was marked "Slow" ^ "Fast". The goal was to get the generator exactly in synch with the commercial power. That was indicated when the synchroscope hand stopped spinning and pointed exactly straight up. Once that state was achieved the operator would throw a big switch and the generator would be running in parallel with the commercial power.

At least that was how it was supposed to go. It wasn't easy to get that synchroscope needle to point straight up and stay there. More than once the big switch would get thrown as the needle moved off center. In most cases the system would immediately disconnect the generators from the commercial power and the operator would be forced to try again. But sometimes there would be a lot of groaning of machinery and the lights would flicker until everything was forced to synch up properly. In a few cases the resulting power surge was so great that it would throw the radar equipment off line. We knew it was bad when we could hear the 24-Tower antenna shutting down. The sudden silence was not a good thing. I don't know the consequences to the operator when that happened, but I would imagine there would be paper work and explanations involved.

I recall one night when I wasn't around one of the big diesels decided to blow up, throwing pistons around in the building. Fortunately no one was in the generator room at the time so no one was harmed. It was months before that generator was back on line again. As I recall, the failure was due to a flaw in the engine, not some operator error. I can still see that big piston laying in a pool of oil on the floor and the hole in the side of the engine block.

One night (it's always in the middle of the night) we got an emergency call from the ops building. The cooling system for the T-2 wasn't working and alarms were going off. Norris Moore and I rushed up there to see what was going on. One of the two A/C compressors, the big Worthington, wasn't running and for some reason the backup wasn't doing it's job. Our first order of business was to figure out why the Worthington compressor's motor wasn't running.

Norris had his handy tool kit with. In that he had a simple but clever trouble shooting aid that would (normally) be perfect for this. It was a simple pigtail socket with a 240 volt light bulb in it. Yes, they make (or at least made) 240 volt incandecent bulbs. Touch the leads to what should be hot terminals and if there is 120 volts on them the bulb lights dim. If they have 240 volts on them the bulb lights normally. If the terminal is dead the bulb doesn't light.

We opened up the system's main electrical panel to gain access to the complex mass of wiring, relays, contractors and fuses inside. Norris grabbed his pigtail socket and stuck the leads across what should have been the main power.

There was a brilliant flash and a loud boom!

Norris was sitting there, his hands and face blackened from soot (he had eye protection thankfully) holding the remains of the pigtail socket. The bulb had vaporized. Only the base remained in the socket. Not a trace of glass or other material could be found. The leads on the pigtail were a few inches shorter than they were just a moment ago. Thankfully he was still holding the remains of the insulation. We both sat there in shock.

Seems we forgot a small detail. This compressor ran on 480 volts.

I can't recall much of the rest of the night other than that we did manage to get the system up and running and once again saved America from the evil Soviets.

Something I just thought of as I was writing this. We were both only 20 or 21 years old at the time. We were just a couple of kids working on some very sophisticated and complex equipment, learning our lessons the hard way.

Norris, if you are reading this (I believe he is still in Winston-Salem doing plumbing and refrigeration work), we both can be proud of what we accomplished at such a young age.

The AN/FPS-26 was another nodding height-finding radar similar to the AN/FPS-6. The difference was that while the 6 operated out in the open and used a very simple mechanical action to move the antenna, the 26 was protected inside an inflated radome and operated hydraulically. Access to the inside of the bubble was up a ladder and through an airlock. As a result that antenna was seen by only a handful of techs who had a need to go up there.

One day I was invited to go up and see the inside of the radome. Climbing up and through the air lock was an interesting experience. Once inside, the antenna sat there bathed in light from several flood lights located around the dome. It looked like something from the set of a science fiction movie, or maybe a planetarium projector. It was white in color or some shade of light grey, and unlike the mesh of the 6-Tower, needed to allow it to handle wind loads, this one was solid. Not much more to say except it was a cool experience to get up there.

The power amplifier tube in the 26 had to be replaced from time to time, and like the magnetron in the 6 tower, there was a strong demand for the dead tubes. I was fortunate to be able to get one before I left. You can see it superimposed over a photo of the AN/FPS-26 Tower that I got doing a double exposure in the Polaroid camera. I turned it into a very cool night light. It ended up going to my parents where, as to be expected, it got broken. It's really hard to hold on to these things through 50 plus years of life.

I was at the 810th at the time Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. President Johnson ordered all flags on government facilities, including military bases, to be flown at half staff. One of our civilian employees was livid over this. He went home and refused to return to work until the flag was back up.

I clearly remember the riots coming to Winston Salem after that. We had a black military policeman who lived with his family in town and he couldn't leave the base to check on them. I and one or two other guys offered to ride into town with him, figuring it would be safer going as a group. There was a curfew in place but we were all in uniform driving an Air Force vehicle so we were allowed into the city. I clearly remember the National Guard troops with rifles on all the street corners in town. We were stopped and questioned several times.

A day or two later we set out to pick up some refrigeration supplies in Winston Salem and I remember seeing burned out buildings and other destruction. The folks in the shop had some harrowing stories to tell, some of which may have been more urban legend than true.

Between the cold war, threats from the Soviet block, the war in Vietnam and the painful changes we were going through at home, these were very difficult times for our country.