(PBEM)Operation Sky Shield:The ATABE Simulation, 1961

In 1951, 30 radars—the Pinetree Line—were constructed along the U. S.-Canada border. By 1954 Pinetree provided early warning of threats and control of friendly aircraft. In 1953, the first station of the more capable Distant Early Warning Line opened at Barter Island, Alaska. By 1957, nearly 60 DEW Line radars were installed 100 to 500 miles apart, within two degrees of the 69th parallel from Cape Lisburne, Alaska, to Cape Dyer, Baffin Island. The new Mid-Canada Line, which ran along the 55th parallel from British Columbia to the Labrador Sea, employed 90 unmanned stations consisting of an electronic "trip wire," an application of the Doppler effect, to detect aircraft. Continental air defense seemed technically capable, but, untested by war, its true reliability was unclear. General Earle Partridge, commander-in-chief of North American Air Defense Command, hatched a plan for the first live test of the entire continental air defense force. Operation Sky Hawk was set for September 1959 but canceled days before, under the new NORAD commander, General Laurence S. Kuter. Would-be participants were advised to destroy all records. Representatives of the U. S. President, the Air Defense Commands of the United States and Canada, and the Canadian Chiefs of Staff Committee revisited the plan at Camp David, Maryland, on November 7, 1959, agreeing to the first (new and improved) joint exercise. The Department of Defense announced in late July 1960 that on September 10 it would mobilize an unprecedented number of combat aircraft in a training exercise so vast that it could succeed only if civil aircraft did not interfere. "Airlines will have about eight weeks notice to adjust their schedules and notify their reservation holders," read the DOD news release. "Sky Shield differs from earlier exercises in that it will involve the whole radar and electronics system used in air defense. However perfect any system may be, it cannot be relied upon until it has been thoroughly exercised. O