Currently I am retired and enjoying the pleasure of my grand children.
Got tired of sitting at home so I have gone back to work part-time as a delivery driver for Advance Auto Parts working approximately 24-25 hours per week. I have now retired permantly due to medical problems. After 47+ years, good old Agent Orange reared its ugly head in the form of a cancerous tumor in the lower lobe of my left lung. We think we caught it in time and before it had a chance to spread. I am now minus the lower lobe of my left lung,The lower lobe of left lung was remove in July of 2015 and since it was still in stage one when removed it was decided that it was safe to just be monitored by CT Scan. On my scheduled CT Scan follow up in December of 201, it was discovered I had several tumors in the middle lobe of my left lung and surgery was again performed. Thoracic Surgeon was afraid that if he completely removed the lung it might kill me or else cause me to be an invalid for the rest of my life so he cut as-many-as he could of the tumors and put me on Radiation treatment M-F with Chemo on Thursdays. I am currently being treated at the James A. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa, FL.
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.
