A connection with history: Exhibits, volunteers bring aging military aircraft to life at McChord Air Museum

Published April 19, 2011
By Lorin T. Smith
McChord Airfield

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Randy Getz remembers when the F-106 flight simulator on display at the McChord Air Museum on Joint Base Lewis-McChord wasn't a museum piece, but a fully functioning simulator that he spent hours and hours climbing in and out of, practicing for missions.

Mr. Getz flew the Convair F-106 Delta Dart with the 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, a McChord Air Force Base staple from the early 1960s until the all-weather interceptor jet was retired to make way for the F-15 Eagle fighter jet in the 1980s.

Still wearing an orange flight suit that alerted friendly forces to not shoot at him if he had to eject from his fighter in the skies above North America, Mr. Getz is now the docent and resident historian at the McChord Air Museum, providing visitors information that goes beyond the placard next to the artifact; he details the people behind the airplane, the clothing and the wars.

The museum is divided into three parts: the small museum is the main facility, located at Building 517; Heritage Hill Airpark, where 14 aircraft sit ready to be inspected, touched and admired; and the restoration hangar, a large space for vintage aircraft, waiting to be restored to its condition the day it first soared into the skies.

All three parts of the museum are free to the general public, though the restoration park is available only after coordinating a tour through the 62nd Airlift Wing public affairs office.

Restoration hangar
The part of the museum that only tour members see, the restoration hangar, is a large, unassuming hangar near the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron. McChord Air Museum Foundation volunteers restore aircraft with historical ties to the base. Chuck Bowen, Jim Bernethy, Sherri Jenne and other volunteers, currently work on a Lockheed C-130E Hercules airplane that provided airlift to 62nd Military Airlift Wing's predecessor unit from 1975 to 1988. The aircraft was the transportation workhorse during the Vietnam War.

"When the Air Force decided to retire the 'E' model, we were the first ones on the list to get one," Mr. Bernethy said.

The C-130E awaits go-ahead from the 62nd Airlift Wing to be painted by the active-duty Air Force paint shop. Whenever the shop doesn't have jobs scheduled to paint operational C-17 aircraft for the wing, it offers to paint the museum's planes.

"It's great practice for the active duty," Mr. Bernethy said. "They don't get to paint old aircraft everyday; it's something different."

Once the paint has dried, volunteers will stage the aircraft for permanent display -- shine the giant coffee pots stored in the plane's aft, place an Army jeep in the cargo hold, and install the jumper platform and static line.

"With just a little cleaning, she'll be ready for the hill," Mr. Bernethy said. Until the day the C-130E embarks on her final trip to Heritage Hill, she shares space with the half-plane, half-boat SA-10A Catalina aircraft, usually found parked outside the hangar, with a memorable view of the McChord Field runways.

According to the museum, the OA-10A is the U.S. Army Air Force version of the PBY-series seaplanes and amphibians, flown extensively by the Navy during World War II. It is a twin-engine, parasol-mounted monoplane equipped with a flying boat hull, retractable tricycle landing gear and wing-tip floats. Mr. Bowen said that during World War II, bombardiers sitting in the nose of the aircraft would open the Plexiglas bubble window to wipe off water after the plane's takeoff from the ocean.

They also opened the window to throw out the plane's anchor.

"It's a flying boat more than a plane," said Mr. Bowen, 76, the museum's longest-serving volunteer at 26 years.

Heritage Hill
The final products of the work done in the restoration hangar finally find homes near McChord's runways in Heritage Hill, which shelters 14 aircraft covering more than 50 years of military history, dating back to pre-World War II and the Army Air Corps.

The F-106A Delta Dart would have been the fastest-ever aircraft of its type, Getz said, except for a mechanical issue at the test facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Maj. Joe Rogers was to use the F-106 sitting at Heritage Hill to break the World Absolute Speed Record in 1959 until mechanical problems forced test administrators to scrap the flight. Rogers jumped in another F-106 and broke the record at 1,526 mph, a mark that still stands for a production turbojet aircraft.

The prized possession of the airpark for Mr. Bowen is his favorite aircraft, the Douglas C-124C Globemaster II -- "Old Shakey." This giant cargo-carrying airplane featured "clamshell" loading doors and hydraulic ramps in the nose, an elevator under the aft fuselage and two overhead cranes that could traverse the entire 77-foot-long cargo compartment. Just about anything could be hauled in it -- tanks, field guns, bulldozers, trucks, up to 200 Soldiers or 127 litter patients and their attendants, as it did during the Korean and Vietnam wars, according to the museum's website.

Mr. Bowen spent a great deal of his military career as a C-124C flight engineer, handling the plane's power management. He still wears the blue hat denoting the C-124C.

"We like to open aircraft up for special occasions on the weekend," Bowen said.

Mr. Bowen recommends visitors go to the back of the old aircraft and touch the flaps, made of Irish linen fabric, instead of the aluminum of later planes. To test the flaps' integrity, Mr. Bowen described the Mullins' Test -- "push down on the fabric, and if your finger goes through, time for new flaps," he said.

Museum
McChord Field shares the rich history of Tacoma and Pierce County. Several years before its dedication as McChord Field on July 3, 1940, it was the site of a Pierce County airport by virtue of its terrain and location. Before the county built its airstrip, the 900 acres was nothing but swamp land. The history of McChord Field, Tacoma and the Air Force can be found at the McChord Air Museum.

The museum moved several times since it opened in 1983. Volunteers have attached the old McChord control tower to the building, giving visitors perspective into how 1960's-era tower operators did their job. Everything the museum offers, from the model airplane kits to the commemorative coins in the gift shop, is designed to provide historical context to McChord. That's why Mr. Getz has invited active-duty Air Force personnel and their families to come to the museum to see how McChord and the Air Force began.

"(Getting to know the history) gives a sense of purpose and continuing on the work that people long ago started, it builds a connection with history, and hindsight gives you a little meaning to your current job," Mr. Getz said.

Volunteers
Mr. Bowen and dozens of others volunteer at the restoration hangar and the museum, finding a unique camaraderie in sharing the histories of airplanes from the past, and telling the stories of the people who flew and maintained them.

"When I come in first thing in the morning, I make some coffee, tell war stories, and try to one-up the next guy," Mr. Bowen said.

The museum's foundation seeks volunteers and helps secure funding to acquire more aircraft. The volunteer core of the foundation is shrinking, though, as the members age. Preparing docents like Getz takes hours of training on each exhibit in the museum. It's tough, Bernethy said, but the need to recruit volunteers is always there.

"We've never turned down a potential volunteer, and we can find something to do for anyone," Mr. Bernethy said.

Despite the volunteer challenge, the future looks bright for the museum. Curator Ray Jordan expects two new aircraft to arrive soon at the airpark after a restorative touch-up and predicts donations will increase when summer visitors and servicemembers arrive with their families.

Allowing the general public access to the base for museum visits helps too. Jordan is working with Washington state to get billboards advertising the museum on Interstate-5. When the visitors come, museum volunteers make a point to greet them. Mr. Jordan said visitors and volunteers combine to form the lifeblood of the facility.

"We are a heritage center," he said, "and the volunteers bring McChord's heritage alive."