July-August - Air Defense Artillery

stands, and slate status boards, a system
of vertical illuminated plexiglass boards
is used. All personnel work behind the
boards; all \\'fiting and plotting are accomplished
by reverse writing using
grease pencils to place information on
the boards. By using this system: (1)
No personnel block the view of the
personnel working on the bridge, (2)
The time required to place the information
on the boards is cut considerably
and (3) The tellers can start sending information
as it is being placed on the
boards instead of having to wait until
the entire raid is made up, as is the case
with the horizontal plotting board.
The horizontal board now issued with
the AN/ITQ-1 set is eight feet by eight
feet square. The size of this board creates
a problem which can also be eliminated
by the vertical board. For instance,
when only one man is used to receive
information from the surveillance radar,
he will find it practically impossible to
reach across the board to place the
marker in the proper positions without
the use of special extension equipment.
Without this equipment, the man will
have to walk around the board, necessitating
the usage of a long cord which
may become tangled with other cords,
boards, or other personnel. On the other
hand, he may have to remove his cord
from the junction box, walk around the
board and plug into a junction box on
the other side, during which time he
will lose communications. The other
alternative is to have one man on each
side of the board receiving information
from the same source. Due to the small
number of men in an operations detachment,
this is an added burden. In contrast
to the horizontal board and its
problems, using the vertical plexiglass
system, a plotter receiving information
can easily move to any position behind
the board and plot without any delay in
time.
This system of illuminated vertical
plexiglass is actually a hand hewed copy
of methods currently in use by most air
force GCI stations. Materials needed for
the construction of an operations room
utilizing vertical plexiglass are:
56
(1) Plexiglass
(2) Fluorescent tubes and fixtures
(3) Lumber
(4) Building easily adapted to
blacking out
To meet the desires of the antiaircraft
commander, changes can be made as to
the size of the boards and the information
carried thereon. The scheme now in
use by the 503d Antiaircraft Operations
Detachment includes a situation or earlv
warning board, operations board, raid
information board, status of equipment
board, and a miscellaneous board. The
operations board, eight feet by eight feet
square, is the largest board in the scheme.
The boards are illuminated by encasing
fluorescent lights on both sides of the
boards. Plexiglass has a tendency to act
as a lens so that when the fluorescent
tubes are encased on the ends of the
boards the light is reflected and is distributed
evenly through the plexiglass.
THE Situation or Early Warning
Board is marked off with the world geographic
grid system, covering a radius of
200 miles. This board has three circles
superimposed upon it. The smallest circle
covers a radius of 50 miles from the center
of the defended area. This circle corresponds
with the large circle on the
operations board. The middle circle has
a radius of 100 miles and the outside circle
is 200 miles in radius. At a glance,
by interpolation, the distance the aircraft
is from the defended area can be readily
determined. The plotter behind the
situation board plots all targets reported
to him by the Aircraft Warning Service.
The Operations Board is large because
of the large number of tracks that must
be handled. In conjunction with the
early warning plots from the GCI station
it must also carry those of our Own
radars. The operations board is also
marked with the world geographic grid
system which shows all the positions of
the firing units within the antiaircraft
defense and covers a radius of 50 miles.
All plots received by the plotters behind
the board are placed upon the board with
grease pencils. These plots or tracks
show the number of the raid, direction of
flight and time plot was received. All
other information pertaining to the raid
is carried on the information board.
The Raid lnformation Board carries all
additional information pertaining to all
raids plotted on the situation and operations
boards. This information will include
raid numbers, identification of the
aircraft (friendly, unidentified, or hostile),
altitude in thousands of feet, and
the identity of the station reporting the
raid.
The Status of Equipment Board shows
the operating status of all units in an
antiaircraft defense and is kept current.
It also shows the present state of equipment
and communications within the
antiaircraft defense. This allows the defense
commander to tell at a glance the
condition of readiness of his entire command.
The Miscellaneous Board shows the
latest weather report, times of sunrise,
sunset, moonrise, moonset, daily identification
friend or foe code, schedule of
duty, and standby radars and friendly
flights expected in the area. Any other
data pertinent to the operations of the
operations center will be noted on this
board.
The grid and all permanent markings
are placed on the front of the boards by
grease pencil. All plots and information
that continues to change are written in
reverse on the rear of the boards and
can be removed easily by cotton waste.
When the operations center is in a
building, commercial power may be used
to light the boards and when this power
is not available or the unit is in the field.
the generators issued with the AN I
TTQ- I set are sufficient to supply the
needed power to light the boards. The
construction and use of this type of operations
center, now used by the 503d
AAA Operations Detachment, has greatly
increased the effectiveness of this unit.
There are many ways that an operations
center can be set up and operated, and
thev can be undergoing constant revision
and improvement by the ingenuity and
aggressiveness of the staff and officers of
the detachment.
ANTIAIRCRAFT JOURNAL