Wreck of Texas Tower 4 | military, scuba diving facility / area, radar station, hurricane, disaster site, Cold War 1947-1991

USA / New York / Mastic Beach /
 military, scuba diving facility / area, radar station, hurricane, disaster site, Cold War 1947-1991, invisible
Built in 1956-57 in Portland Maine, Texas Tower 4 was the final Texas Tower radar structure built for the US Air Force. Unlike its two sister platforms to the North, Texas Tower 4 was assigned to a station which required it to be anchored to a shoal in 185ft deep water, some 70 miles off the coast of New Jersey. This remote location and extreme depth required that Tower 4 be built with increased bracing and a separate leg extension structure which its sisters did not require.

Commencing operations in April 1960, Texas Tower 4 and her sister stations formed the SAGE line, a radar surveillance line tasked with providing early warning to the mainland US of approaching Soviet nuclear bombers during the early stages of the Cold War. Shortly after it began operations, the tower earned the nickname "Old Shakey" due to its tendency to shake and sway in the moderate and heavy seas which frequently lashed the remote station. Despite this, the tower and its crew operated without incident until September 1960, when Hurricane Donna ran up the US East Coast and passed directly over Tower 4. Attempts to evacuate the crew before the storm were abandoned when ocean swells grew too large, and the tower was pounded with 60ft waves and winds sometimes in excess of 140 knots for over 24 hours. When the storm passed, divers were sent to inspect Tower 4's legs and vital braces and found that many of the braces had been seriously damaged, and some were missing entirely. Urgent calls for repairs went out, but the worsening fall and winter weather as 1960 drew to a close made repairs difficult in the best of situations, and often would destroy any small stop-gap repairs made to the braces during fair weather.

By December 1960 the famous shaking and swaying of Tower 4 had reached the point that half the crew were evacuated. Those that remained onboard told loved ones of hearing grinding and shearing metal day and night, heavy bangs and popping sounds in addition to the Tower itself swinging wildly from side to side like a ship floating on a rough sea. In January 1961, divers discovered that a vital collar installed on the joint between the leg extensions and tower legs had begun to fracture, and another vital brace had broken. The crew onboard began making near-daily requests for evacuation until the Tower could be repaired, only to be told by US Air Force Brass that repairs were going to be put off until February. With the forecast of a severe winter storm issued on January 13th, the commander of Tower 4 again requested that his crew be removed from the tower, a request which was finally taken under serious consideration by US Air Force command. The small Navy cargo ship USS New Bedford (AKL-17) was dispatched with supplies for Tower 4 and with orders to stand by the Tower in case the Air Force ordered it to be abandoned.

Arriving in the morning of January 14th, the Navy ship put her supplies onboard the Tower and moved into position alongside the rocking structure and awaited further orders. As the weather rapidly worsened overnight into the morning of the 15th, the crew aboard Tower 4 maintained radio contact with the Navy ship and the mainland, awaiting the order from the Air Force whether to abandon their post or not. At approximately 10:30am, a loud bang was heard on the Tower which immediately began a new circular motion as it was slammed by huge waves, indicating another brace had failed on its legs. At 3pm another loud bang was heard, followed by a heavy booming noise from deep within the Tower. Visual inspection of the Tower's legs by the Commander and Chief Engineer revealed that numerous braces were beginning to separate from the Towers legs, leaving the structure with no lateral support and putting it in immediate danger of collapse. At 4pm, the Air Force ordered the station abandoned and asked the US Navy to vector the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-18) to Tower 4 to assist. By 7pm the entire crew had made the station ready to be abandoned, which included disposing of secret material and clearing the helicopter landing pad of construction materials for their rescuers. At 7:10pm the commander of Tower 4 radioed the New Bedford, which was struggling through the huge waves to reach the tower "I think we can hold on until daylight". This was the last anyone heard from Texas Tower 4 or her crew, and as the New Bedford closed on the Tower, its image suddenly disappeared from her radar screen.

Texas Tower 4 sank with all 28 hands at 7:20pm on January 15th, 1961. Rescue efforts by US Navy personnel were unable to recover any of the crew alive, despite reports of sonar crews hearing morse code tapping and voices from the wreckage. In the end, only two of the 28 crew were recovered from the wreckage, which had broken off its support legs only 10ft below the ocean's surface.

Today the wreck of Texas Tower 4 is a popular dive site with local deep water divers, and rises to within 70ft of the ocean's surface.

www.radomes.org/cgi-bin/museum/acwrons2x.cgi?city=Texas...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Tower
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   39°48'1"N   72°39'57"W

Comments

  • I remember that day as an Aerographer's Mate serving aboard the Wasp. It was a sobering day for all of us when light dawned to an empty sea. Our job, as I recall, was to search for survivors, but there were none. The night before had seen very tough weather and very high seas. God Bless them all.
  • Horrible tragedy that sadly not many people know or remember. It's odd how many like me growing up in the East coast know of or are taught about the Edmond Fitzgerald or the Andrea Dora disasters but not Texas Tower 4. A terrible tragedy that could of been easily prevented then, and a forgotten tragedy today. I will never forget the sacrifice of the Brave 28.
  • My father was the lead diver in the rescue attempt. He went into the tower and almost didn't make it out.
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