Assigned to Air Defense Command (ADC) for most of its existence, the 32d organized, administered, equipped, trained, and prepared for operation, all of its assigned units. The division participated in exercises such as Creek Brave, Top Rung and Natchez Echo. Initially, it assumed responsibility for an area including Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and part of New York. During the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962), the division controlled numerous deployments and aerial sorties.
Inactivated in November 1969 as ADC phased down its interceptor mission as the chances of a Soviet bomber attack on the United States seemed remote, its mission being consolidated into the 23d Air Division.
Lineage
Established as 32 Air Division (Defense) on 8 November 1949
Activated on 8 December 1949
Inactivated on 1 February 1952
Organized on 1 February 1952
Inactivated on 15 August 1958
Redesignated 32 Air Division (SAGE) on 21 October 1958
Activated on 15 November 1958
Discontinued, and inactivated, on 4 September 1963
Redesignated 32d NORAD Region/Air Division, and activated, on 20 January 1966
Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
Aerospace Defense Command publication, The Interceptor, January 1979 (Volume 21, Number 1)