Silver Lake Air Warning Station

Silver Lake Air Warning Station
Coordinates	47°53′37″N122°14′25″W / 47.89361°N 122.24028°W
Type	Air Warning Station
Site history
Built	1946
In use	1946-1953

Last updated February 22, 2019

Silver Lake AWS

Location of Silver Lake Air Warning Station, Washington

Silver Lake Air Warning Station is a closed United States Air Force facility. It was located 52.4 miles (84.3 km) north-northeast of McChord Field; 6.2 miles (10.0 km), south-southwest of Everett, Washington. It was closed in 1953.

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces, and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.

McChord Field is a United States Air Force base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington. South of Tacoma, McChord Field is the home of the 62d Airlift Wing, Air Mobility Command, the field's primary mission being worldwide strategic airlift.

Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located 25 miles (40 km) north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in Washington state and had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census. The city is located at the mouth of the Snohomish River along Port Gardner Bay, an inlet of Possession Sound.

It was the first postwar Air Warning Station under Air Defense Command.

History

The War Department acquired the 93.5-acre property between 1946 and 1948 and used it as a regional air defense headquarters, incorporating transmitter and receiver facilities, housing, administration and recreational buildings. The 25th Air Division was activated at the station on 25 October 1948. (HQ ADC GO No. 101, 6 October 1948) with an authorized strength of 18 officers and 31 enlisted men. It was commanded by Brig Gen Ned Schramm, a World War II commander of the San Francisco Fighter Wing.

The 25th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force intermediate echelon command and control organization. It was last assigned to First Air Force, Tactical Air Command (ADTAC). It was inactivated on 30 September 1990 at McChord Air Force Base, Washington.

Initially under the Fourth Air Force, the 25th AD transferred from Fourth Air Force to Headquarters Air Defense Command; it redesignated as the 25th Air Division (Defense) on 20 June 1949 (HQ CONAC GO No. 58, 3 May 49). On 10 November 1949 the division transferred to the Western Air Defense Force. The 25th AD moved to McChord AFB, Washington, on 14 September 1951.

The Fourth Air Force is a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). It is headquartered at March Air Reserve Base, California.

The Western Air Defense Force (WADF) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command being stationed at Hamilton Air Force Base, California. It was inactivated on July 1, 1960.

The Air Force declared the Silver Lake facility excess in 1953; it subsequently became residential and school property. Today, no evidence of the station remains, being part of the greater Seattle, Washington urban area.

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References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/ .

A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
Information for Silver Lake AWS, WA

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