WaADS was established in December 1956 as the 4625th Air Defense Wing.

[3] The organization provided command and control over several aircraft, missile and radar squadrons.

On 1 February 1959 the new Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Direction Center (DC-04) became operational.

The day-to-day operations of the command were to train and maintain tactical units flying jet interceptor aircraft (F-101 Voodoo; F-102 Delta Dagger; F-106 Delta Dart) or interceptor missiles (CIM-10 Bomarc) in a state of readiness with training missions and series of exercises with Strategic Air Command and other units simulating interceptions of incoming enemy aircraft.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency