4620th Air Defense Wing

The 4620th Air Defense Wing (Air Def Wg) is a discontinued United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command (ADC), stationed at Santa Monica, California. It was discontinued on 1 February 1961.

History

The 4620th Air Def Wg was established to implement the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense system. It was responsible to insure that SAGE computer systems were based on approved operational concepts for Air Defense and provided guidance to operational units concerning the implementation, installation, testing, and utilization of SAGE computer programs.^[1] Until December 1958, the wing also provided training on the existing manual air defense control systems that were being replaced by SAGE.^[1] The 4620th Air Def Wg was originally located with Lincoln Laboratories to permit close coordination with the organization developing SAGE.^[2] In 1957, the 4620th Air Defense Group was organized at Richards-Gebaur AFB, MO to manage programming and training for the SAGE system and was assigned to the wing.^[3] Moved to Santa Monica, CA in 1958^[4] Anticipating the wing move to Santa Monica, the 4620th Group was reassigned directly to ADC.^[3] On 15 September the 4620th Group was renumbered as the 4606th Air Defense Group, and continued with that designation until discontinued on 25 June 1962.^[3] Prepared operational employment plan for integration of IM-99 Bomarc Missiles into SAGE system.^[5] As the SAGE system was becoming fully operational in 1961,^[6], the 4620th wing was discontinued.^[2]

Lineage

• Designated and organized as 4620th Air Defense Wing (SAGE Experimental) on 1 June 1955

Discontinued on 1 February 1961

Assignments

• Air Defense Command, 1 June 1955 - 1 February 1961

Components

• 4620th Air Defense Group (SAGE Programming and Training), 8 May 1957 - 1 July 1958

Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri

Stations

• Lexington, Massachusetts, 1 June 1955 - 8 August 1958
• Santa Monica, California, 8 Aug 1958 - 1 February 1961

Commanders

• Col. Robert J. Stevenson, by July 1958 - 24 June 1959^[4]
• Lt Col. George R. Kauffman, 24 June 1959 - 1 Jul 1959^[7]
• Col. Samuel C. Galbreath, 1 July 1959 - 1 February 1961^[7]

See also

	Military of the United States portal
	United States Air Force portal

• List of MAJCOM wings

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Redmond, Kent C.; Smith, Thomas M. (2000). From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of The SAGE Air Defense Computer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-18201-0. 
• Winkler, David F; Webster, Julie L (1997). Searching the skies : the legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program. Champaign, IL: US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories. LCCN 9720912. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bn/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231. 

External links

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