This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CMSgt Walter M. Stolpa, Jr. (Bud)
to remember
Arrington, Joe Lamar, CMSgt USAF(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Airman and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Clio
Last Address Chickamauga, Georgia
Date of Passing May 18, 2004
Location of Interment Chattanooga National Cemetery (VA) - Chattanooga, Tennessee
When Joe retired he and Trudy relocated to historical National Battlefield town of Chickamauga, Georgia. Trudy says they were driving through this town and decided they liked it enough to retire there. They bought an old dilapidated home and renovated it into a beautiful home. When Joe retired he went to work at the nuclear power plant outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. Just as I did during my nuclear power security job he became disallusioned with the program. Being an IG inspector I am sure he detected vulnerabilities and management just didn't want to hear about them. After that Joe went to work as a corrections officer in a penal institution and ended up running the prison store......
Other Comments:
Joe Arrington was our Chief at Zaragoza Air Base in Spain. He eventually left us for a position with the USAFE IG Team and later to the 16th AF SP at Torrejon AB, Spain. He and Trudy were wonderful people and many years after retirement we remained in contact. Joe passed away in 2004 but his spirit lives on. Trudy his widow hosted a mini reunion at their home in Chickamauga, Georgia in 2008 and again in 2010. Joe's military marker says it all "Faithful to God and his Country". Rest in Peace Joe and keep me in mind when you have a vacancy on your duty roster.
1974-1977, 81190, Air Defense Command (ADC)
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The SAGE system was a network linking Air Force (and later FAA) General Surveillance Radar stations into a centralized center for Air Defense, intended to provide early warning and response for a Soviet nuclear attack. The Ground Air Transmitting Receiving (GATR) Site (R-18) for communications was located at approximately 1.1 miles souh-southwest from the SAGE building. Normally the GATR site was connected by a pair of buried telephone cables, with a backup connection of dual telephone cables overhead.
DC-18 was initially under the San Francisco Air Defense Sector (SFADS), established on 15 February 1959. DC-18 and the SFADS was inactivated on 1 August 1963 as part of an ADC consolidation and reorganization, with its assigned units assigned to other ADC Sectors. The GATR was reassigned to Mill Valley AFS (Z-38) as an annex designated OL-A, 666th Radar Squadron. Today the large SAGE building is now building 2145, housing the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron; the GATR was inactivated in 1980 and the building is now part of a Skeet-shooting range.
