and hangars remained, although abandoned. Air Defense Radar Station In April 1958, the base was reopened as Pyote Air Force Station (TM-186), a radar installation acting as one link in a chain of installations that were part of an early-warning network in case of Soviet air attack during the Cold War. The 697th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, an Air Defense Command 34th Air Division unit, operated a radar site about southwest of the main containment area . The 697th ACWS operated a Bendix AN/FPS-3 search radar with a range around 200 miles; it also operated a General Electric AN/FPS-6 height-finder radar with a range around 300 miles. The station functioned as a ground-control intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. In addition to the radar station, the Air Force built base housing and several support buildings. The NW/SE runway was also activated and used to fly crews in and out of the base and for logistical support. In March 1963, the Air Force ordered the site to close. Operations at Pyote ceased on 1 August 1963. With the ADC facility closed, Pyote AFB was declared surplus, and turned over to the General Services Administration (GSA) for disposal. Current status Following the deactivation of the site in 1963, the facilities were disposed of by the GSA. The Air Defense Command support buildings along with the base family housing were provided to the West Texas Children's Home, and the land and remaining buildings were turned over to the University of Texas at Austin. The Confederate Air Force used the runway and some of the remaining buildings on the flightline in the early 1960s, but the remoteness of the base led to it being closed by 1965 as uneconomical. The last of the original World War II support buildings on the base were gone by 1977. Six huge hangars once fronted the concrete ramp. Five are visible in an aerial photo dated 1977. At some point after 1980, four of the hangars were apparently removed or destroyed. At least one of them was evidently intentionally destroyed in 1979 in the course of filming the movie Hangar 18 (1980). By 1985, a single large hangar (the former 3d Echelon Maintenance Hangar) remained and slowly deteriorating runways and taxiways were all that marked the