The tragedy of TT-4, as much as anything else, sealed the fate of TT-2 and TT-3. While both remaining towers were immediately checked for safety and structural strength, and pronounced sound in this regard, their days were numbered. This was first hinted in March 1961, when Lieutenant General Robert M. Lee, ADC commander wrote:
At this time there is
no valid reason for abandonment of Texas Towers No. 2 and 3. However, in
view of the inherent danger and the current inability to evacuate safely
during storm conditions, this headquarters, in conjunction with Headquarters
NORAD, will continue to consider the operational requirement for these towers.
There is a possibility that, after the ALRI (Automatic Long Range Input)
System becomes operational in AEW&Con aircraft, sufficient reliable coverage
may be achieved so that the contribution of Texas Towers 2 and 3 to the
air defense system will be reduced. In this event, shutdown of the towers,
with a resultant elimination of the inherent risk, and saving in money and
manpower, may be possible. On the basis of technical advice now available
there is no concern for the stability of the towers, but should the result
of the engineering survey indicate the existence of any deficiencies, immediate
action will be taken to discontinue their operation.
Ultimately, it was decided
to do just that: phase out TT-2 and TT-3 when ALRI equipment became operational
in the AEW aircraft wing based at Otis AFB, Massachusetts. ALRI, in essence,
would automate much more of the off-shore surveillance and weapons control
functions along the Atlantic seaboard, and with ALRI-equipped aircraft covering
virtually the same area as TT-2 and TT-3, the two towers would become expendable
commodities. Until ALRI became operational. However, the command sought
to implement the best of all possible escape methods aboard the surviving
towers, so that the TT-4 episode would not be repeated. Several experimental
methods were considered and all but one were ruled out a — watertight escape
capsule. Just such a survival capsule, capable of accommodating seven persons,
with food and oxygen enough to last 15 days, was designed by the Electric
Boat Division of General Dynamics. Two were made, one for each tower, and
they were installed in October 1962. Meantime, tower evacuation criteria
were revised, so that all would depart except a seven-man emergency stand-by
crew whenever 50-knot winds or 35-foot waves were forecast. A seven-man
standby crew was necessitated because of a complication occasioned by Soviet
trawlers, which often loitered close by
the towers. Without a standby crew to keep guard, Soviet sailors
might try to board a fully evacuated tower, then claim possession on grounds
of salvage rights. If worse came to worse as regards tower stability during
a storm, the seven-man standby crew could scramble into the survival capsule
for protection. Even the seven-man crew would evacuate when 70-knot winds,
or more, were in the offing. The Coast Guard, in an on-again, off-again
commitment, promised to position a vessel, if available, near completely
evacuated towers to prevent unauthorized boarding by Soviet mariners.
All this, while the Atlantic
Ocean, as if impatient to rid it of the troublesome towers, attacked them
from above and below. A succession of storms struck during 1962 and 1963
that forced abandonment of the towers a number of times. Between October
1961 and March 1962, for instance, the towers were evacuated ten times,
resulting in loss of the equivalent of 120 operational days. Still later
that same year, TT-2 and TT-3 experienced many more evacuations. Also, TT-3
lost at least two inflatable radomes, one of which was blown off the FPS-67
search set in the summer of 1962, and the other of which collapsed over
a FPS-6 height-finder in January 1963. Simultaneous with these forces working
above, strong ocean currents worked steadily beneath to undermine the foundation
of the two towers. Scouring of serious proportions resulted, flushing away
rock fill supporting the three legs of each tower down to a depth of 10
feet. Even rock-fill replacement leveled around them in November 1961 failed
to stay the action of these underwater forces. The towers, consequently,
became far more susceptible to being uprooted by storms of hurricane strength.18
At last, in 1963, ALRI stations became operational in the Atlantic AEW&C aircraft fleet. The JCS, in January 1963, authorized the inactivation of the towers. No longer having a need for TT-2 and TT-3, and still mindful of the catastrophe at TT-4, ADC ordered the two towers dismantled. TT-2 was first to go, being decommissioned 15 January 1963, then stripped of its communications and electronics equipment. Its three legs were dynamited; but the platform, rather than float to shore, plunged to the bottom, denying one salvage company the fruits of its preparations. It was as if the capricious Atlantic, vindictive to the last, pulled down another victim to its murky bottom.
TT-3 was decommissioned 25
March 1963, and shortly relieved of its radars and communications equipment.
Special care was taken in mid-1964 to save TT-3’s platform, the bottom deck
was pumped full of urethane foam, then sealed, to insure floatation. On
6 August 1964, the three legs were blasted out from beneath it, whereupon
TT-3 platform plunged into the ocean; cork-like, it then rose to the surface,
enabling salvage crews to drag it shoreward. Once and for all, the episode
of Texas Towers in air defense was brought to a close.19