By Paul A. Donley

Paul Donley was stationed at Adair Air Force Station from 1967 until closing of station August 1969. Written approximately 2018

 I want to share the experiences I had in the Adair AFS blockhouse from late 1967-to the base closing in 1969.  Seven miles north of Corvallis, Oregon sits the relatively new City of Adair Village.  But roll back time 45 years ago and Adair Air Force Station was an obscure military base with 800 highly trained personnel.  Corvallis was home to DC-13, one of 23 Direction Centers built around the United States.  Each Center monitored the air traffic entering their air defense zones.  Adair’s air space was south of Seattle, west of Boise south to Monterey and 150 miles west off shore.

My story is not of the griping awareness each surveillance, identification & weapons controllers carried out every minute of every day of the cold war.  This is a story from outside looking in wonder at the daily operation shown by these heroic men.  I share the utmost respect for those airman & officers who devoted hundreds of thousands of tedious hours monitoring electronic scopes under dimly lit blue light in the “combat information center” that was affectionately called by locals as “the block house.”  Looking back 45 years ago it looked very much like science fiction.  The environment was highly stressed with 30 airmen sitting at information scopes that were more like large televisions than our modern computer screens.  They paid attention to every detail demanding a constant state of hightailed awareness.  Surveillance – “Incoming boggy direction altitude, speed, no squawk.”  Hand off to ID (Ident).  Scope time was one hour on 15 minutes off.  I found it funny the 15 minutes down time they would go to the 3rd floor coffee room and watch television.  Bless those beautiful and wonderful “SCOPE DOPES.”

My AFSC (job title) was still-camera photo specialist, later combat photographer.  I was one of the photographers stationed at Adair and the last photographer to leave when it closed on 1 September 1969.

In my secondary job I worked in the “block house battle staff”, plotting nuclear detonations “NU-DETS.”  My clearance was top secret.  The badge I wore would glow under the blue light to my authorized security level.

The other part of my battle staff job was to monitor radar conference loop” flash” reports.  The radar sites were in Bend, Baker, Burns, Condon, Portland, Boise, Klamath Falls, Point Arena, and several others I can’t recall.  Once reported I would then trace the fall out and warn the bases about the amount of radiation, “RADS”, they would receive and when the fall out would come their way.  The flash was a reported sighting from two stations of nuclear detonations.

One 72-hour mission I received a battle damage flash report:  The “whiskey alpha yankee” was code for “this is an exercise. Whiskey alpha yankee battle damage flash report” 44’ 40” 15N – 123’ 12” 55N. I plotted a 10 megaton direct hit on us at Adair along with a very weird feeling.  I always wondered if the people of Corvallis knew they were targeted by the Russians during that time. Adair’s call signs were RING DOVE/Whitewater.  The alert status board was usually “Normal with zero defects”, but it was still unnerving when you entered the building to find some joker had turned the sign upside down.

The 26th Air Division’s Commander was a full bird Col. Wayne “Fox” Rhynard.  He ran into battle staff and asked to see the flash report I sent.  The reason for his personal appearance became obvious when it was found out that some 2nd Lieutenant (2nd Lt), thinking my report was real and not an exercise, flushed (launched) 8 fighter jets from Kingsley AFB to a recovery field in Siskiyou, CA.  Thank goodness, as well as my new sergeant stripes, I had the right code.

One night while on the mission loop I had a lot of static in my headset and told an old sergeant on the other end of the line that I could barely hear him.  He told me to take off the head set and shake it.  I did and put it back on my head he asked if it was better I said No he said “well you must not have gotten all the birds off the line.  I could hear him breaking up in laughter.  Me the gullible airman fell for a prank from the old sergeant.  The only excuse I had was I was 22 years old and very tired after 48 hours.

One night I had 3 officers sleeping in my darkroom next door to the battle staff during another long mission.

Another part of my duties included giving tours of the Direction Center building DC-13, the computer areas, battle staff, as well as showing how the airmen used the scopes.  I did this without any electronics training, after all, I was just a base level photographer assigned to the PIO (Public Information Office).  One day I was showing my family from San Diego the “blue room” and asked a sergeant for permission to show them the scope.  He said it was fine with him “but don’t start any wars”.  I turned on the scope and showed them our area of responsibility then enlarged the screen area to show air activity into & out of San Francisco CA. There was plenty of aircraft in & out bound SAF.  Then I saw a path cleared inbound with only three “blips”, one primary with two trailers.  I asked the sergeant what that was and he said it was “Air Force One with President Nixon” coming into San Francisco the two other aircraft were USAF fighter escorts.  There was another time while escorting a tour I saw a blip moving really fast with a very long computer generated trail. I asked the sergeant what it was and he immediately reached over and turned my scope off and said it was classified.  After the tour,and I was in the 3rd floor coffee shop when the sergeant came over to me and told me the “blip” I saw was the SR-71 making a speed run up the west coast.  The sonic booms created by the SR-71 constantly brought letters to the PIO.  One mink farmer was suing the Air Force for $100,000 because he alleged that the booms frightened his minks causing the mother minks to eat their young.  Another letter came from a resident of the Oregon coast stating the booms were driving his A frame house into the ground.  My Captain asked me what I thought and I asked if the home owner had built the A frame with the pointed end in the ground.  Our division commander would tell civic groups that the sonic booms were the sound of freedom  Most people would respond with laughter.

I don’t know how I was lucky enough to get this assignment but I was happy I did.  I escorted 12 beautiful sorority girls from OSU through the world’s largest computer the IBM A/N FSQ-7.  My co-worker Vince was also to tour with another 10 girls.  While on tour, both groups wound up “lost” inside the computer room. Both Vince and I couldn’t find our way out of the computer room, that’s how massive the computer was.  It was  ¼ of a city block, 280 tons, estimated from $12-$230 million per total cost for SAGE system, 55,000 vacuum tubes.  Vince told me to keep the girls busy so he could find our way out.  He did and we both were invited to attend the next Friday night sorority dance at OSU.  Nice job the PIO.

The information office got a request from Paramount Pictures.  They were filming a western movie near Bend Oregon and needed male extras.  They were willing to pay “scale” and to provide meals.  We passed the word out by “word of mouth” nothing formal – Oh by the way – the movie was Paint Your Wagon, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin and Jean Seberg.  It was raining that day and I didn’t do it.  Damn.

I also had a chance to photograph Robert Kennedy on the Oregon coast – three days before he was killed in Los Angeles.  I didn’t go.  Missed history.  The following week I photographed Nelson Rockefeller in Albany Oregon at a parade.

I had the great privilege and honor to escort Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle from the DC building to the NCO club then to the officers club where a reception was held in his honor.  It was just him and I slowly walking and he was asking me where I was from and if I plan to make the Air Force a career.  I told him I was from a family with 91 years tradition in the Navy and that was enough.  I wish I never said that.  When we got to the NCO club I opened the door and he walked in, someone yelled ATTENTION, everyone in the room suddenly stood up and the club went silent.  He thanked everyone for their hard work and congratulated us for winning the Freddy Smith trophy for the best fighter interceptor division in the Air Force.  He looked at the bartender and asked him to ring the bell. He bought the house a round of drinks.  (I later found out the division commander paid the tab).  General Doolittle and I drank ginger ale.

Another VIP visiting the base was the Vice Commandant of the Marine Corps, four star general Lewis Walt in Corvallis to speak to the Rotary Club.  Just by chance his two Army ROTC sons from the University of Oregon and his angel flight daughter from Oregon State University were also there.  I photographed the meeting and left.  I was in the parking lot when all 4 came out and he asked if  I could take one more photograph, I did.  I told him I would send him the photos after we used them in the local papers, no charge.  Two weeks later my Captain, in an elevated voice. called my name – DONLEY!  I have a letter here on a four star general’s stationary with your name on it.  It was from General Walt thanking me for the photograph I took of his family outside the coffee shop.

Veterans Day OSU stadium, Corvallis, OSU vs USC.  The OSU cheer squad threw orange juice cartons into the crowd, I am sure to welcome OJ Simpson.  The ROTC fired a pre-game volley from a WWII howitzer causing a huge O smoke ring to rise high into the afternoon air.  It was taken by many to be an omen for Oregon State.  OSU-3, USC-0.  In the crowded stands were Governors for Oregon Tom McCall and California Governor Ronald Reagon. I went to where they were sitting and as I was focusing my huge 4 x 5 camera a reserve Captain came down and whispered in my ear to get out of here.  I left and in 5 minutes the Captain sheepishly came back and said at the request of Mr. Reagan I can take all the pictures I wanted.  I quickly regained my spot, focused my camera, then Mr. Reagan and my eyes locked for a split second and a slight smile was on his face and winked as he placed his arm around McCall and pointed to the field and I got the shot I wanted.  I thanked both men and left.  It wasn’t until 20 years later that I found out that Mr. Reagan was in the Armed Forces Radio Network but he also was a photographer.  That’s where the smile he gave me came from.  To this day 45 years later it is a wonderful memory of mine.

Some of you may remember and have pictures of the day the USAF Flight Demonstration Team “The Thunderbirds” came to town or I should say flew over much of Corvallis and Willamette Valley in F-100s  Four weeks before the show they requested aerial photographs of Adair AFS – North, East, South, West and oblique.  The operations office contacted Mountain Home AFB to send a Reconnaissance plane to do the aerials.  Three days later an RF-4 flew over the Willamette Valley and took the recon photos.  The Thunderbirds asked for N,E.S,W & oblique from 500 ft, 1000 ft, 2000 ft, 5000 ft.  The RF-4 recon photos were from 15,000 ft and were not usable.  So up I went in one of the two Air Force U3A’s that sat at Corvallis airport (Adair AFS Aero Club).  I was able to get the prints to them in plenty of time for the air show.  You’re welcome!  We flew to Portland to meet the Thunderbird’s the day before the show over Adair.  I photographed the pilots as well as one of the pilots with his grandmother.  After they were finished they got into Lincoln Continentals and drove off to the O club in formation while making maneuvers down the flight line.  WOW.

We did have a rivalry with the squadron from Kingsley AFB.  Some of their officers came to Adair and stole our O-Clubs bell.  When their commander flew into Adair to return it (all I can say is) a very overzealous 1st Lieutenant weapons controller by trade (name classified) snuck to the Corvallis airport and filled his plane with horse manure which landed the young LT in Toule, Greenland for six months.

We had a NAPE exercise that lasted two days.  The mission plot was a plane crash in a farmers field just two miles south of the base.  The farmer was paid to use his grass field.  The plane was carrying (simulated) nuclear weapons when it crashed.  The response to the exercise was graded and evaluated.  The air police and Oregon’s highway patrol blocked off highway 99 and told motorists it was only a military exercise.  Our base fire trucks, ambulance, medical team security personnel, were deployed in radiation suits.

The base fire department participated in a joint exercise of local fire departments from Corvallis, Albany and other volunteer fire departments and burned an abandoned farm house not far from the Adair site.  I caught poison ivy from the smoke to my face & arms while photographing the event.  It was the third time in two years I caught poison ivy twice while picking black berries.  I told the flight surgeon I could get it just by flying over a patch of the stuff.

Our base personnel hung Christmas lights in Albany one year.  In the huge snow storm where 33” of snow fell in three days we plowed the roads out of Albany to the base as well as highway 99 to Corvallis.  We were a good neighbor to all the communities in the Willamette Valley.

It was a sad day when Colonel Rhynard retired with a fly-over from Kingsley AFB and a parade.  That day signaled the closure of Adair Air Force Station and when it quietly slipped into history.  I had my orders and transferred a few months later to Ent AFB, Colorado Springs.  But it was never like the home town feeling I had that everyone stationed at Adair was saving the world from a little obscured Air Force base in Oregon.

Paul Donley and his wife Carol and daughter Dawn lived in Albany while assigned to Adair AFS.