Notes contributed by Bil Turner

[Bil was a good friend of the webmaster while on the BMEWS project at Thule in 1961-62, hence the Thule and BMEWS references below. He just surfaced after more than 35 years - Gene]

Lake City was one of the very few AC&Wrons to utilize an aerial tramway (a gondola, actually) to facilitate access to the site proper from the housing/admin area. About a 40 min trip each way, up or down. Except on some winter shifts when rime ice would accrue on the cable causing it to slip on the traction drum. Then the trip up was slow and jerky, and the trip down was, shall we say , exHILLerating. (little play on words there). I must have played at least a hundred thousand games of hearts on those trips. Don`t like playing card games to this day.

The place is, of course, long gone. The search and control radar was an AN/CPS-6B. A late WWII monstrosity with 3 reflectors, 10 individual transmitters/receivers and waveguide/feed horn assemblies, with V-beam height finding... all rotating on the same platform. 22 tons was the all-up rotating mass I seem to recall. Almost prepared me a little for BMEWS. The big pig had only about 275 mile range, though the height finder would reach 90 thousand feet. when the AN/FPS-20s were installed at neighboring sites, we were completely blanketed. They even had overlapping cover with each other, so we were yesterday`s news.

Incidentally, or maybe not so, that`s where I saw the first sign of a U-2. I was in the control room idly looking at the height finder display (which was seldom manned) and saw something at 80 thou. I ran the online test. All ok. (AOK, remember?) Calling over the ops controller, to a lieutenant Turner (no relation), I pointed out the bogie. It was too high to be detected by the search Radar. His opinion was "weather balloon." (Now where have I heard that?) "Sir, that weather balloon is making about 300 knots." Well, that bit of news got his attention. He brought up the fine range markers and verified. "Damn, 325 knots." He, right now, got on the horn to Division flight ops. They were unnaturally mum for a while, then gave the thing`s call sign. By this time a goodly crowd had gathered. T/Sgt Matthews (Ops. NCOIC, pushed me (rather rudely, I still think) aside with "It`s the equipment" and ran the self-same test as I. He was quiet for a very long time, switching ranges and elevations about a jillion times. The good Lieutenant got on the blower and called as advised by Division. There was an immediate reply. I will NEVER forget the Georgia drawl. "Angel two niner, Go." He was asked what type aircraft he was operating. "U2, sir". "What is a U2, sir?" "It means Utility, type 2, sir." "What is the mission of a Utility type 2, sir." Lomg, long silence. "Please advise your altitude, sir." Another period of silence before Angel 29er came back, "None of your business, SIR!" The pilot answered no more calls, and we watched without comment as the return disappeared off the top of the Height Finder display. 90 thousand feet! We`re talking about the middle of 1958 here. So much for the notion that U2s operate at 60 thousand feet. I wonder how high (and fast) the SR-71 "Blackbird" REALLY flies?

I got a 3 month early out when they shut down the old antique in Oct `59. It was part of the old 32nd Air Division based at Dobbins AFB, Marietta, GA. Talk about government waste. Thay had just built an addition on the ops building and installed the SAGE equipment less than a year before.

That was my ONLY USAF assignment right outta tech scool at Keesler AFB. I ended up 250 miles from home and couldn`t BLAST my way out. Even volunteered for THULE. All the married guys were gettin` shipped all over Hell and Creation. Hadta get out to get my Thule station. Oh, well. If you want something done right, do it yourself.