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For our opening segment of the Metrology Story we have chosen DAFD - "The Beginning". This, the first of five segments will present a pictorial journey of an installation first known as the Dayton Signal Corps. Depot, which eventually became Gentile Air Force Station and then Dayton Air Force Depot.
During the early 40's until its demise in the 1990's the depots involvement in defense electronics hadn't changed a great deal. However, authority for its use, as well as the real estate, transitioned at various times and for various reasons.
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The United States Air Force Metrology and Calibration Program, often referred to as the "METCAL" , got its start here in the early 1950s. Just a few years prior the installation had been initially constructed and served as a storage center for radio and radar equipment purchased by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Then on January 1st 1962 the property welcomed still another permanent landlord when it was transferred to the Defense Supply Agency to become the Defense Electronics Supply Center. In this role the Center was responsible for providing electrical and electronic material commonly utilized by all of the services. This action in turn precipitated relocation of the METCAL program along with over 400 engineers and skilled technicians and their associated equipment to a new home less than 100 miles away in Heath, Ohio.
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What attracted the Air Force to the area was a huge unoccupied industrial plant with unusual construction features built in the 1950s to house large forging presses. The presses were to be used to stamp out complete wing and fuselage sections for aircraft as a part as a part of the governments heavy press program. The plant was never used for its intended purpose due to a fast emerging missile program and a lesser need for an expanded aircraft production.
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FIRST, we will attempt to provide you with a thumbnail sketch of how and when Dayton AFD got its early start. In segments to follow you will progressively learn about how this early organization excelled in such areas as crystal fabrication and electronic equipment repair. Also, how the METCAL program got its early start and how Dayton AFD became the Air Force program manager. Finally, you will learn more about how DAFD outgrew its laboratory facilities and discovered an unused Air Force Plant would satisfy its special requirements. In later segments you will be shown and learn more about the transformation of the Heath Facility into one of the most modern laboratories in the free world. Why the location was often referred to as the "Quietest Place in the World". You will learn more about the Air Force METCAL program, how it operated and matured and about its many accomplishments throughout the years. FINALLY, you will learn what is being done today by a Major Laboratory Management Firm, The Wyle Labs., to carry on the 50 Year Legacy of the former Directorate of Metrology. So we suggest you log-on or tune in frequently as the various chapters of our Metrology story unfolds. By the way, if you have any suggestions or additional material we have overlooked from time to time you can notify us by clicking on the Webmaster ICON.
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