Texas Tower

The Texas Tower - one of three Air Force radar platforms located off the eastern seaboard as part of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line - is so called because of its resemblance to an oil rig. This tower was unfortunately placed on an unsteady mud bottom and in deep water where it experienced structural and stability problems from the start. It was decided that the tower would be abandoned but not before the radar equipment could be removed (in order to prevent it falling into the hands of Russian ships). As a precautionary measure the crew was reduced to an absolute minimum. Shortly before the tower collapsed the platform commander desperately requested that the tower be abandoned but was instructed to remain on the tower. The entire crew was subsequently lost (when the tower collapsed in a hurricane) and only two bodies were ever found.