Aurora was interesting. I helped install the site with Western Electric engineers. We had a lot of trouble calibrating the site and always had a 1 mile range error. After months of trouble shooting we discovered the site was calibrated on the wrong hilltop location. As a result we had a permanent blind spot for about 39 degrees of coverage caused by a higher hill about a mile away where the site should have been built. I think Western Electric was quite embarrased by this boo-boo.

The site was also used by SAC to run and score low level bombing missions in the area.

Fluctuating power was always a problem at these sites expecially the FPS-18 as it was newer and more sensitive than the FPS-14. Remember these were the days of the vacumn tubes which in themselves were a lot of problems, caused mainily by heat.

Getting into the site after a heavy snowfall at night after an outage was another problem. A guy in the area with a Jeep and snowplow installed had the contract to keep the windy remote road into the site open in the winter. Hunting him up at midnight at some local tavern at 30 below zero to come out and plow was quite a feat.

Also, driving to the site (100 miles) through the Superior National Forest in a weapons carrier was also a challenge. This was the life of a radar tech taking care of a gap fiiler. It was, I suppose, sometimes like comparing flying by the seat of your pants.

Working at 30 below on an antenna outage was also a challenge as the sites did not have a radome. Many times to keep warm we would hoist up a steel drum, light a fire to keep warm while we were working. Remember the low level threat was very real at this time and all outages were taken very seriously.

I hope this gives you some idea as to how things were done in those days. Gosh, I miss them and I am so proud to have served as I know you are.

S/SGT Don Bringman, Finland AFS (Gap Fillers)
1959-1963