Eastern Air Defense Force

EADF was an intermediate-level command and control organization of Air Defense Command. Its origins date to 1 March 1949 when Continental Air Command (ConAC) reorganized Air Defense Command when it became an operating agency. Air defense units within the Continental United States (CONUS) were given to the Eastern and Western Air Defense Liaison Groups, with Western and Eastern Air Defense Forces activated on 1 September 1949.

The command was originally assigned the region within the Continental United States (CONUS) to the east of the 102d degree of longitude, along the Canada–US border to the most easternmost point of Maine; the southern boundary being the 102d degree of longitude along the Rio Grande boundary with Mexico, east to the southernmost point of Texas and along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean coastlines.

This was adjusted in 1951 with the activation of Central Air Defense Force (CADF) with the region being adjusted to the area east of the 90th degree of longitude south to the point of the Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee state boundaries, and eastward to the Atlantic Ocean coastline along the Tennessee/Kentucky and Virginia/North Carolina border, with all areas north and east of those boundaries. Organizations stationed west and south of that delineation were transferred to CADF.

The delineation was again adjusted in March 1956 to the region generally to the east of the 90th degree of longitude south to the point of the Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee state boundaries, then south along the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico in the south. CADF organizations in the southeast were reassigned to the EADF.

Eastern Air Defense Force was inactivated on 1 July 1960, with its assigned units reassigned either to 26th, 30th or 32d Air Divisions, or to the new Air Defense Sectors created with the advent of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system.

• Established as Eastern Air Defense Force and organized 1 September 1949.

Discontinued 1 July 1960

• Continental Air Command, 1 September 1949 – 1 January 1951
• Air Defense Command, 1 January 1951 – 1 July 1960

• Mitchel Air Force Base, New York, 1 September 1949 – 1 August 1950
• Stewart Air Force Base, New York, 1 August 1950 – 1 July 1960

• 152d Aircraft Control and Warning Group

Federalized New Hampshire Air National Guard, 1 September 1951

Stationed at Grenier Air Force Base, New Hampshire

Assigned to Eastern Air Defense Force

Re-assigned to 32d Air Division, 6 February 1952

• 156th Aircraft Control and Warning Group

Federalized Michigan Air National Guard, 16 September 1951

Stationed at Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan

Headquarters remained at Selfridge Air Force Base, personnel deployed to locations in the Chicago, Illinois area

Inactivated and returned to state control, 6 February 1952

• 4700th Air Defense Group

Stationed at Stewart Air Force Base, New York

Re-assigned to Eastern Air Defense Force from Air Defense Command, 1 January 1951

Re-assigned to 4709th Air Defense Wing, 20 September 1954

• 614th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron

Stationed at: Grenier Air Force Base, New Hampshire. 1 July 1952 – 1 December 1952

• Central Air Defense Force
• Western Air Defense Force

  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Aerospace Defense Command, The Interceptor, January 1979, United States Air Force (Volume 21, Number 1)
• Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4
• Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947–1977. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-12-9
• A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
• Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.