Albuquerque Air Defense Sector

The Albuquerque Air Defense Sector was activated on 1 January 1960 as a manual sector, lacking a SAGE Computer, at Kirtland Air Force Base (AFB), assigned to the simultaneously redesignated 33rd Air Division (SAGE);^[1] it replaced the 34th Air Division (Defense), inactivated on the same date.^[2] 34th Air Division commander Colonel Lewis W. Stocking took command of the sector, leading it until September.^[3][4]

The mission of the AADS was to provide air defense for New Mexico, most of Texas, southern Colorado, and the Oklahoma Panhandle.^[5] The organization provided command and control over three fighter-interceptor squadrons: the 58th at Walker AFB,^[6] the 93d at Kirtland,^[7] and the 331st at Webb AFB;^[8] as well as nine aircraft control and warning squadrons: the 683d, 685th, 686th, 687th, 688th, 697th, 732d, 768th, and 769th, which operated radar stations in New Mexico and Texas.^[9][10][11]

The sector operated Manual Air-Defense Control Center (ADCC) (P-41), inherited from the 34th Air Division. A SAGE Direction Center was planned but never built.^[12] On 1 November 1960 the Albuquerque ADS was inactivated^[1] without gaining operational status when ADC ended command and control operations at Kirtland,^[13] part of a reorganization of Air Defense Command against the new ballistic missile threat.^[14]

The organizations under AADS were inactivated or transferred to the Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector before its inactivation, on 15 September. The 58th and 331st Fighter-Interceptor Squadrons were transferred to the Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector,^[6][8] along with all of the Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons.^[9][10][11] The 260 AADS headquarters personnel were also moved to Oklahoma City.^[14] The 93d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron had been inactivated on 8 July as its North American F-86 Sabre fighters were phased out.^[7]

• Established as Albuquerque Air Defense Sector on 1 January 1960

Inactivated on 1 November 1960^[1]

• 33d Air Division, 1 January 1960 – 1 November 1960^[1]

• Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, 1 January 1960 – 1 November 1960^[1]

• 58th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

Walker AFB, New Mexico, 1 January – 15 September 1960^[6]

• 93d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, 1 January – 8 July 1960^[7]

• 331st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

Webb AFB, Texas, 1 January – 15 September 1960^[8]

• List of USAF Aerospace Defense Command General Surveillance Radar Stations
• Aerospace Defense Command Fighter Squadrons

  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Cornett, Lloyd H.; Johnson, Mildred W. (1980). A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization, 1946 – 1980 (PDF). Peterson AFB, CO: Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.