decided to build the White Alice Communications System, a system of Air Force-owned tropospheric scatter and microwave radio relay sites operated by the Air Force Communications Service (AFCS). The Fort Yukon site was activated in 1957. It was inactivated in 1979, and replaced by an Alascom owned and operated satellite earth terminal as part of an Air Force plan to divest itself of the obsolete White Alice Communications System and transfer the responsibility to a commercial firm. Over the years, the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars. In 1983, Fort Yukon AFS received a new AN/FPS-117 minimally attended radar under Alaskan Air Command's SEEK IGLOO program. It was designed to transmit aircraft tracking data via satellite to the Alaskan NORAD Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) at Elmendorf AFB. No longer needed, the 709th AC&W Sq was inactivated on l November 1983 and the station re-designated as a Long Range Radar (LRR) Site. In 1990, jurisdiction of the Fort Yukon LRR Site was transferred to Eleventh Air Force with the re-designation of AAC. In 1998 Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) initiated "Operation Clean Sweep", in which abandoned Cold War stations in Alaska were remediated and the land restored to its previous state. After years of neglect the facilities at the station had lost any value they had when the site was closed. The site remediation of the radar, support and White Alice communication station was carried out by the 611th Civil Engineering Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, and remediation work was completed by 2005. Current status Today very little of the former Fort Yukon Air Force Station remains. The site is controlled by the PACAF's 611th Air Support Group, based at Elmendorf AFB. The site is supported by a few civilian contractors who access the site by the Fort Yukon Airport and monitor the system. Air Force units and assignments Units 709th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron Activated, ca. 1 Nov 1957 Inactivated, 1 Nov 1983 Assignments 5060th Aircraft Control and Warning Group, 1 November 1957 11th Air Division, ca. 1 July 1959 5070th Air Defense Wing, 1 August 1960 Alaskan Air Command, 1 November 1961 531st Aircraft Control and Warning Group (later 11th Tactical Control Group, 11th Tactical Control Wing, 11th Air Control Wing, 611th Air Operations Group, 611th Air and Space Operations Center) 15 July 1977