Yaak Air Force Station was an Air Defense Command general surveillance radar station in

Lincoln County, Montana Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,677. Its county seat is Libby. The county was founded in 1909 and named for President Abraham Lincoln. The county lies on Montana's ...

. Built as one of twenty-eight stations in the second segment of the Permanent System radar network, the

680th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron The 680th Radar Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 20th Air Division, Aerospace Defense Command, stationed at Palermo Air Force Station, New Jersey. It was inactivated on 30 May 1970. The unit was a ...

was activated at the installation on 1 March 1951 for

ground-controlled interception Ground-controlled interception (GCI) is an air defence tactic whereby one or more radar stations or other observational stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic was ...

operating

AN/FPS-3 The AN/FPS-20 was a widely used L band early warning and ground-controlled interception radar system employed by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command, the NORAD Pinetree Line in Canada, the USAF CONAD in the continental United States ...

and

AN/FPS-4 The AN/FPS-4 Radar was a Height-Finder Radar used by the United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight unifor ...

radars in April 1952. An

AN/FPS-6 The AN/FPS-6 Radar was a long-range height finding radar used by the United States Air Force's Air Defense Command. The AN/FPS-6 radar was introduced into service in the late 1950s and served as the principal height-finder radar for the United Stat ...

was added in 1956, and the AN/FPS-4 was replaced by an AN/GPS-3 in 1957. The station included living quarters for 172 people (including a 3-story barracks),http://www.theyaak.com/yaak-names.html 24 concrete trailer pads, motor pool building, plumbing/carpenter shop, paint house, mess hall, officers' club, office buildings, and dispensary. The "Dirty Shame Saloon" was established in a metal hut during 1951 just outside the main gate. Captain Robert Rice was the commander in 1954, and a recreation building, base exchange, and NCO club were available in 1955. A Rod and Gun Club was established in 1956. The 680th AC&W Squadron was inactivated on 1 July 1960. The station was converted into an unmanned gap-filler radar site in 1960, and redesignated SM-151E, first operated by the 823d Radar Squadron at Mica Peak AFS, Washington, then the 716th Radar Squadron at Kalispell AFS, Montana (TM-179B). The radar station was declared excess by the Air Force to GSA in 1960–61. In early 1962, to allow access to the Yaak Mountain Lookout Tower, an observation tower not actually located on the site, a 90-acre portion of the former base was transferred by special use permit to the U.S. Forest Service. The main portion of the station was transferred by the Corps of Engineers to the Forest Service in 1965. In 2014 a small parcel of "Yaak Air Force Base" surrounded by land of a single landowner was transferred.

References

{{Reflist , refs= compiled by {{Cite book , last1=Johnson , first1=Mildred W , date=31 December 1980 , orig-year=February 1973 original by Cornett, Lloyd H. Jr , title=A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980 , url=http://www.usafpatches.com/pubs/handbookofadcorg.pdf , publisher=Office of History,

Aerospace Defense Center The Aerospace Defense Center (ADC) was a unit of the United States Air Force. It was under the command of the general that also commanded both North American Aerospace Defense Command and Aerospace Defense Command (ADCOM). The center included the ...

, location=

Peterson Air Force Base Peterson Space Force Base, previously Peterson Air Force Base, Peterson Field, and Army Air Base, Colorado Springs, is a U.S. Space Force Base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport and is home to the N ...

, page={{Verify source, date=April 2012 , access-date=2012-03-26 {{Cite report , last1=Winkler , first1=David F , last2=Webster , first2=Julie L , date=June 1997 , title=Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program , url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA331231.pdf , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201202922/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231 , url-status=live , archive-date=December 1, 2012 , location=Champaign, IL , lccn=97020912 , publisher=U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories , access-date=2013-04-23 Installations of the United States Air Force in Montana 1951 establishments in Montana 1960 disestablishments in Montana Air Defense Command radar stations Stations of the United States Air Force Permanent System radar stations Military installations established in 1951 Military installations closed in 1960