REMEMBRANCE OF THE HIGHLANDS AIR FORCE STATION

The lower site portion set beside a shore view. It contained the administrative offices, barracks, a PX store and work sheds. A block west of the lower area contained a block long bunker with two drivable openings. The bunker had been built in W.W. II to house two long range guns for protection of the sea coast. A story goes that the first time the guns fired, so many town windows were destroyed they were never fired again. The guns had been removed long before I arrived. Inside the bunker, which stood two stories high, were a collection of storage rooms.

The road wound out of the lower area and lead to a higher plain. This is what we called the hill. It contained a work site with a complete radar site. The site had multiple towers and its coverage extended beyond New York City. We had the usual days of maintaining the equipment on the "hill". Most of us had been trained as electronic types. That meant a lot of work, study and some play. We were a combined Army and Air Force group. The "blues" and "greens" were usually in military work clothes, or in civvies off duty. The Air Force types started a tradition of wearing colored base ball work caps. Each had a logo labeled RADAR. The colors were blue for enlisted, green for NCOs and Officers wore Orange at work. Our work uniforms grew informal and we were an embarrassment to the Army`s dress code.

Some of us were able to travel home, occasionally. Of course, some also went to "town" when off duty. But, Town could be anywhere including New York City. We found people friendly, and even took on part-time jobs as needed. A lot of us simply kept busy with hobbies and the local NCO club visits.

We once had a visit by the local High School Science Club. They watched as we explained how things worked. We also pitched for education and the military. As a short airman, I passed by students while carrying supplies in a tower and drew stares. Finally someone said "I though all of you had to be big". The officer conducting the tour said "he`s just out of high school like you". Score points for us.

We had an interesting visit two years later. An engineer arrived at night and started running tests. He mentioned that the FAA was interested in taking over the site as a backup. He meant for the New York airports. After that we received calls to shut down for minutes at a time in line with more airport test. The rumor circulated that we might be removed and replaced by civilians. Or, offered jobs at the site later when we finished our tour of duty. I still don`t know if that happened. The group of new Air Force techs had a blessing that year. One of our sergeants took up a training plan to see how well he could train us. We spent hours on and off duty studying. A promotional test was passed by ninety-five percent from our site. There was a notice posted and the sergeant was transferred to a trainer group. Eventually all of us were assigned to the next "remote" stations.