and Warning System was not immune. In 1963, AAC reviewed the radar system and made recommendations that the Bethel, Middleton Island and Ohlson Mountain sited be closed. The Air Force concurred with this study, and the three sites were inactivated in May 1963. In addition, the manual AC&W system was upgraded to the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) automated system White Alice Communications System The White Alice Communications System (WACS) was built in the mid-1950s to provide improved communications for the United States Air Force Alaskan Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) radar stations. Communications were initially provided by a high frequency radio system which proved unreliable because of atmospheric disturbances in the high latitudes. AAC, after investigating various options, decided to build a system of Air Force-owned tropospheric scatter transmitters that bounced radio signals off the Troposphere, and microwave radio relay sites over short ranges of about 50 miles. The WACS provided these stations with reliable, quality telecommunications. The White Alice system was operated by civilian contractors, under the control of the Air Force Communications Service, although a few USAF-manned sites operated along the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line). It operated until the late 1970s, replaced by satellite communications technology. The White Alice sites and their antennas are now being torn down, nothing remaining but flattened mountain tops Distant Early Warning Line Alaskan Air Command's interest in the DEW Line started in the spring of 1953 when it was asked to logistically support the installation of several experimental radars built between Barter Island and Point Barrow. In 1954, once the experimental line of radars (called project Counterchange, then project Corrode, then Project 572) was proven, the USAF proceeded to install the rest of the DEW line. AAC operated two complete and one partial segments along Alaskan north coast from the Canada–US border westward and in the Aleutian Islands. Cape Lisburne AFS doubled as a DEW line site and an AAC radar surveillance site. All sites were equipped with the AN/FPS-23 continuous wave "fluttar" (Doppler Effect) radar. AN/FPS-19 search radars consisting of two identical radar sets feeding a dual (back to back) antenna were installed at Point Lay, Wainwright, Point Barrow (main station), Lonely, Oliktok, Barter Island (main station), and Flaxman Island. Construction started in 1955 and was completed in 1957. It tied into the AAC Aircraft Control and Warning System though the White Alice network of 33 troposcatter and