Today it is part of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS), designated by NORAD as Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) Ground Equipment Facility J-10.

In August 1942, the facility was requisitioned by the United States Army Air Forces, and construction began to convert the Civil Aeronautics Administration airport in Cross City to a dive bomber military training airfield.

The AAFTC training mission ended in late June 1944, when Cross City was officially reassigned to III Fighter Command.

Cross City AAF was initially assigned squadrons of the 2d and 3d Air Commando Groups training with North American P-51 Mustang fighters.

Instead, the liaison squadrons of the 2d Air Commando Group were moved to Cross City AAF from Lakeland Army Airfield in late June.

Equipped with Piper L-4 Grasshopper and Stinson L-5 Sentinel liaison planes and Noorduyn and Aeronca C-64 Norseman utility cargo aircraft, the pilots were schooled in low level flying, short field landings, tactical reconnaissance, and supply missions.

The 691st Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (691 AC&WS) moved from Dobbins AFB, Georgia[6] to Cross City AFS with an AN/FPS-20A search radar and a pair of AN/FPS-6A height-finder radar sets on 1 July 1958 and the station initially 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.

During 1959, Cross City AFS joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to Direction Center DC-09 at Gunter AFB, Alabama.

Many former Air Force buildings are now utilized by the prison while the radar site is still used as part of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS).