The squadron was first activated as an Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (AC&W Sq) in 1947 at McChord Field, WA[1][2] with a mission to detect and warn of aircraft and defend an area to the west of the Cascade Mountains.[3] To accomplish its mission, it had detachments at Arlington, WA (WW II Site F-50), Neah Bay, WA (Det E, WW II Site J-55), Bellingham, WA, Spokane AFB, WA (WW II 4 AF Site 129), Coleville, WA, Pacific Beach, WA (Det D, WW II Site B-61, Lashup Site L-35), Sequim, WA (Det F), Everett, WA (Det B, Lashup Site L-31) and Fort Stevens, OR (Lashup Site L-36, Det C), located on World War II Sites.[4][5] Its main search radar to perform this mission at this time was the AN/CPS-5.[4] In the early 1950s, most of its detachments were replaced by separate squadrons.[6] The squadron moved to Fort Lawton, WA in 1960.[7] It joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system and was redesignated as a Radar Squadron in 1960.[7] It was inactivated in 1963.[7]
The Squadron was activated again in 1973 to replace Operating Location G of the 630th Radar Squadron at Dauphin Island AFS[7] as part of the Southern Air Defense System (SADS).[8] SADS had been established because of the inadequacy of the radar coverage to the south of the United States that had been dramatically illustrated whan a Cuban MiG-17 went undetected before it landed at Homestead AFB,[8] and two years later, an An-24 similarly arrived unannounced at New Orleans International Airport.[8] As a result, ADC established SADS with the squadron operating a manual control center at the Houston ARTCC and added radars to supplement the existing Federal Aviation Administration coverage in the area.[8] However, the squadron was inactivated little more than a year later.[7]
Lineage
Constituted as the 635th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron
Activated 21 May 1947
Redesignated 635th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 11 June 1960
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