Rockport Air Force Station: Cold War Radar on the Texas Coast

From 1958 to 1963, a classified U.S. Air Force radar station operated on the edge of the Aransas County Airport — and almost nobody in Rockport knew what happened inside the fence. The 813th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron watched the Gulf of Mexico for Soviet bombers capable of reaching Texas from Cuba. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, they weren't running drills. The clubs were restricted to one shot of whiskey per hour per man. No one was told why. This episode covers the full story: the SAGE surveillance network, the Cuban Missile Crisis on the Texas coast, the outhouse delivery drivers who told city officials they were transporting missiles, the security guard who scrambled a response team to catch a man photographing a long-billed curlew, and the station's quiet closure in August 1963.

Available July 31, 2026