By Maj. William Carraway
Historian,
Georgia Army National Guard
Georgia
Air National Guard pilots and plotters supported Air Defense Command during an
exercise Dec. 14, 1952.[1]
The purpose of the mission was to test the effectiveness of the Ground Observer
Corps, a volunteer program of the Office of Civil Defense which organized and
trained citizens to spot and report enemy aircraft activity.
Pilots
of the 128th Fighter Bomber Squadron were tasked with flying
specific courses over north and central Georgia. The pilots were briefed on
their specific flight patterns by Capt. Glenn Herd, operations officer of the
128th FBS. Lieutenant William Tennent was assigned to fly the
northwest mission corridor in a T-6 while Captains Doug Embry and Merrill Nuss
flew a second T-6 on a course over southwest Georgia. Lieutenant Robert W.
Carmichael, piloting an F-51 H Mustang flew over northeast Georgia.
With the exact flight paths known, Guardsmen of the 129th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, commanded by Capt. W. H. Thomason, plotted the positions of the aircraft as they were reported through the Atlanta Filter Center by Observer Corps volunteers across the state. Capt. W. W. Lee, a controller with the 129th supervised ten Guardsmen who tracked the aircraft and plotted their positions. In remarks following the exercise, Lee concluded that the Guardsmen demonstrated capability and skill in performing their assigned mission and was confident that they would be able to carry out their duties in the event of a real emergency.
Organized
in World War II to facilitate early detection of enemy aircraft, the Ground
Observer Corps was reorganized in Georgia in January 1951 with a call for
15,000 volunteers.[2] The
Atlanta Air Defense Filter Center was located at 2939 Peachtree Road Northeast.
Staffed by U.S. Air Force personnel and Ground Observer Corps volunteers, the
Filter Center was capable of conducting 24-hour operations to supplement radar
networks in receiving and transmitting information for interception of hostile
aircraft.[3]
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