Pacific Beach Lashup Radar Site
Pacific Beach Lashup Radar Site (1948-1952) - A Cold War Air Force Lashup Radar Site first established in 1948 near Pacific Beach, Grays Harbor County, Washington. Named Pacific Beach Lashup Radar Site after the location. Assigned a Lashup ID of L-35. Abandoned in 1952.
Established in September 1948 and became operational in October 1948 as Pacific Beach Lashup Radar Site manned by a detachment of the 635th AC&W Squadron. The detachment occupied a large hotel formerly used by the Navy as a training facility. The station initially had an early warning mission and later a Ground Control Intercept (GCI) mission. The early warning mission involved tracking and identifying all aircraft entering their airspace while the GCI mission included guiding fighter aircraft to their targets. The site was established to provide radar coverage of a gap between the sites at Fort Stevens and the Neah Bay.
Initial equipment included the TPS-10 height-finder and came to include a CPS-5 search radar from Fort Stevens and a TPS-1B radar capable of both search and height-finder modes. The site was deactivated in February 1952 with coverage assumed by the Permanent System radar site P-57 at Naselle Air Force Station.
No remains of the lashup radar site. The site is still Navy property, now a part of the Pacific Beach Resort and Recreation Center at Pacific Beach, Grays Harbor County, Washington. The site now houses six, 4-bedroom cottages belonging to the resort and recreation center. Museum of North Beach has information on the lashup site.
Visited: 15 Sep 2015