[1] Located in Nantucket Shoals, Texas Tower 3 was one in a series of crewed radar stations that were so named because they resembled the oil-drilling platforms of the Gulf of Mexico.

Air Defense Command (ADC) estimated that the Texas Towers would help extend contiguous East Coast radar coverage some 300 to 500 miles seaward.

In terms of Soviet military capabilities, this would provide the United States with an extra 30 minutes of warning time in the event of an incoming bomber attack.

Texas Tower 3 was constructed in 1956 at the former WWII New England Shipbuilding Corp. East Yard "basin" in South Portland, Maine.

In August, 1964 Texas Tower 3 was blown off of its supports and towed to the Federal Yards of the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers Inc in Kearny, NJ.