The Nome Nugget

Air Force and Army Build Secret Radar Base On Inaccessible Alaska Mountain In Heart of Wilderness

SEATTLE, (AP)--A secret radar base, plugging a gap in the far north's air raid warning network, has been carved out by airlift in the inaccessible wilds of Alaska, the Post-Intelligencer said today.

Quoting the Alaska Air Command, the newspaper said the base on an interior Alaska mountain peak was built entirely by Air Force and Army workers at a cost of $275,000, without electronics equipment.

The exact site of the new base remains undisclosed, but the Air Force said it is in the heart of the Alaska mountain wilderness 100 miles from the nearest trail or navigable river.

The newspaper said the Alaska Air Command told this story about the new radar installation:

A hole in the Arctic radar "fence" was discovered in mid-1951. Air reconnaissance showed the remote peak to be the best location for a new installation.

The next question was "how to build it?"

Maj. Gen. William D. Olds, head of the Alaska Air Command, said "Go ahead, regardless." although there were no funds to pay for the job and no time to wait for estimates and bids by civilian contractors.

Capt. Frederick D. R. Spaarvohn, of the 10th Air Rescue Squadron, was the first man to there by helicopter in July 1951 after first frightening away four defiant bears.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Fred A. Deyo, commander of the 531st Aircraft Control and Warning Group, ransacked every base and post in Alaska for used machinery, spare parts and other needed material. The only money available was the small surplus from several other completed projects.

Work went ahead. Five men were ferried by helicopter to the site of the new, lofty base, given

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Secret Radar Base Built
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the code name "Spaarvohn" in honor of the 'copter pilot.

The next day, 20 more men were flown there, along with a tractor frame and tracks. Within the next 20 days, 130,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, including three tractors and bulldozers were dropped by parachute.

An airstrip was scraped out of the muskeg on a 7 per cent grade in the valley at the foot of the mountain. C-82 Flying Boxcars were able to make the risky landings. But so dangerous is the letdown and landing that replacement pilots must make 12 trips from a central supply base to the strip before handling the controls themselves.

The radar base was put into operation last December, and permanent buildings and barracks were completed this summer.

Weather conditions are extremely severe and hazardous.

Twice last December the radar towers blew down.

Later, in the dead of winter with the thermometer down to 60 below zero, two officers were blown off the mountain by a 120-mile an hour wind. It took them 26 hours to walk back to the base on the other side.

The station was put up by men of the 531st and an Army Aviation construction battalion.

Men now stationed there receive double credit toward rotation. The normal Alaska tour of duty now is two years.

It has been calculated that there are 10 billion tons of gold in the sea water of the world.