Site of Texas Tower 3

 military, place with historical importance, radar station, Cold War 1947-1991, historical layer / disappeared object, United States Air Force

Built from 1955-56 at Portsmouth Maine, Texas Tower 3 began operaitions in October 1956 at this location, anchored in 80ft of water. Forming a chain of early warning stations known as the SAGE line, Texas Tower 3 and her two sister stations were modeled on the offshore oil drilling platforms and housed advanced radar surveillance equipment used by the US Air Force to scan for and track Soviet nuclear bombers during the early stages of the Cold War.

Known to the crew that served on her as "The Friendly Tower", Texas Tower 3 operated for seven years before advancing Soviet Missile technology made her purpose moot, and the diasterous collapse of neighboring Texas Tower 4 with all hands in 1961 led to the US Air Force's deactivating of the tower in early 1963. The structure was stripped of its radar systems and scrapped during the summer and fall of 1963.

www.radomes.org/museum/documents/TexasTower.html