Remembering Duncanville Airfield

At the end of Main Street in Duncanville, you will find Armstrong Park, Duncanville City Hall and the City Library. But, something else used to be there as well - an airfield.

It's hard to beleive now, but in 1950, people truly thought that the United States could be attacked by the then Soviet Union at any moment.

Government propoganda films taught people how to survive a nuclear attack - even kids - and spies could be among us.

Following World War II, and as the new Cold War began, the military began setting up missile launch sites and radar stations across the country.

The headquarters for the guard system in North Texas was in Duncanville, on an old air field, used for training during World War II.

As it turns out, the ground based radar wasn't just used to watch out for Soviet planes. It was also used to track was is considered to be one of the more credible UFO sightings.

In 1957, a six man crew of an RB-47 reported picking up indications of not one but two UFOs and seeing a bright blue light. The information was classified for decades. When it was declassified, the official word form the government was that the pilots had seen a plane.

The guarding and tracking operations started to slow down as the United States became more involved in Vietnam and by 1969, the station in Duncanville was shut down.

The city was larger than it had been during World War two - and a park was in order, and a library, which is right in the middle of where the military instillation was. There's a marker out front that tells the story.

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