932ND SQUADRON- -USAF- ICELAND -HISTORY- -1950 TO PRESENT-

During the 1950s, the Iceland Defense Force (IDF) arranged the construction of four aircraft control and warning stations, three of them remotely located.

            These stations were strategically place in the southwest, northeast, southeast, and northwest portions of Iceland.  The full complement of four Iceland Air Defense System (IADS) radar sites was operational by 1958.

            In May 1952, elements of the Ninth Air Force's 103d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, stationed at Camp Edwards, Falmouth, MA, combined to form the 932nd Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (ACWS).  The 932d ACWS deployed to Iceland on 1 October, and set up temporary air surveillance operations near Meeks Field, renamed the Keflavik Airfield Complex.  This temporary site served until October 1953, when operations were transferred to the freshly completed Master Direction Center (MDC) at the newly constructed Sandgerdi Station, about six miles away.

            The site, designated "H-1" (short for Remote Radar Head One, or RRH-1), officially became operational 28 October 1953, 1320Z.  Height Range Indicator equipment was added, and became operational by 15 December of the same year.  Sandgerdi Station was self-sufficient, boasting its own power plant, more than a dozen barracks, dining facility, post office, gymnasium, all-ranks club, shoppette, movie theater, and Chapel.

            Although the unit had lived and worked at the site since 1953, the 932nd ACWS was not officially transferred there until 1 August 1957.  The site, now designated Rockville Air Control & Warning Station, would remain the home of the 932nd until 1997.