PRESERVING EDWARDS' PAST GROUP WORKS TO SAVE HISTORIC SITES ON BASE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - For decades, a recreation room wall autographed by Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, Bob Hope and scores of other Air Force and civilian luminaries lay hidden beneath paint and a new partition built in front of it.

Then Major Sheryl Hutchison went looking for the long-forgotten wall in the basement of the old base commander's house, led there by old photographs.

When a work crew removed the newer partition, they found the ``signature wall'' - the autographs obscured by a layer of paint, but the outlines of pilot's wings and a propeller still visible above and below them.

``The game room was a popular hangout,'' Hutchison said. ``Famous people and pilots would come to party and they would sign the signature wall.''

Hutchison, commander of the 450th Test Squadron, and other Edwards history buffs are trying to restore the wall and save other relics of Edwards' aerospace past from being overtaken by age, neglect and the elements.

They formed the Edwards Historic Preservation Society, whose goal is to salvage and restore historic sites and relics at the base whose past contains America's first jet, the world's first supersonic flight, and the first landing of a reusable spacecraft - the space shuttle.

``There are so many historic sites at Edwards from the '30s, '40s, '50s and so many relics in the desert that have been neglected,'' said Maj. Joe Berte, maintenance supervisor of the 450th Test Squadron and society president. ``If someone doesn't stand up for them, they will be lost to the elements or bulldozed because no one knows they're there and lost forever.''

Another society goal is to convince more airmen to reenlist by connecting them with the history of Edwards and of the Air Force.

``We can't compete with what contractors are paying on the outside,'' Hutchison said. ``Air Force history is something that contractors can't compete with.''

Hutchison said she drove around Edwards' historic sites, then visited the base history office and looked up photographs from the days when those areas where in use.

``You could see what they used to look like in the '40s and '50s and compare it with what remains and it tore at your heart,'' Hutchison said.

The volunteers' first project was cleaning up an adobe revetment used for the history-making X-1 rocket plane, in which Yeager broke the sound barrier in October 1947. Built of mud and clay in the shape of a C, the revetment protected personnel from the rocket blast as the X-1's engines were tested on the ground.

``It was overrun by tumbleweeds and sand,'' Berte said. ``We cleaned it up and made it presentable.''

The cleanup took about three weekends of work. Some of the desert plants were so thick and embedded that they had to be cut down with saws.

Another project was the cleanup of the ``Yeager pit,'' where the X-1 was mounted to the B-29 bomber that carried it aloft. The volunteers cleaned up weeds, dirt and mud and erected a small fence.

The society's restoration plan for any project must be approved by three people - base historian Jim Young, base archaeologist Rick Norwood, and Flight Test Center Museum curator Doug Nelson. The three review the plan to see if the site is safe for restoration or if the volunteers might accidently do more harm than good.

Hutchison's pet project is the restoration of Muroc Manor, the old commander's house that sits off by itself on a hill between Lancaster Boulevard and Rogers Dry Lake.

The two-story, four-bedroom home was built in the early 1940s - a wartime ``can-do'' project built in part by enlisted men using adobe.

At one point the home boasted a swimming pool made from concrete a commander had diverted from the construction of the base's main runway. The officer was summarily reassigned before he ever got to use the pool, which is now filled with dirt.

The home stopped being the base commander's quarters in the late 1950s because the construction of the main base housing and aircraft facilities five miles north made it too remote.

Since the 1950s the building has filled a variety of functions, including serving as officers' and enlisted men's clubs, a radio communications operation, a Boy Scout meeting hall, and now as offices for a Civil Air Patrol unit.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the home's basement served as a recreation room. Old photographs show a wall adorned with drawings of pilot's wings at the top and a propeller on the bottom. In between are signatures from a Who's Who of Edwards and military aviation history, including Yeager, Doolittle, and Gen. Hap Arnold, the man responsible for Edwards being a military base, as well as special civilians like Hope and Pancho Barnes, the aviatrix who ran a dude ranch just off the base.

Hutchison is talking with a restoration expert referred to her by the Getty Institute about how to remove the paint to reveal the signatures. The expert will look at the wall this spring.

Another restoration effort for Muroc Manor is the rebuilding of a bathroom, in which Hutchison hopes to include a 1940s-style, claw-footed bathtub.

Although there is no evidence of such a tub being at the manor, it would be in keeping with the era in which it was built.

Through a former secretary, Hutchison learned of an airman in Wisconsin who has a 1940s home with a 300-pound claw-footed tub, which the airman dislikes intensely.

Hutchison is trying to arrange for the tub to be shipped to Edwards. She talked to the commander of the Wisconsin Air Natural Guard about possibly including the tub in a cargo flight to California.

``Once he got done laughing he was very serious about helping,'' Hutchison said.

Berte's pet project is the preservation of the jack pads used in the 1950s for the X-2 rocket plane, the first craft to reach the 100,000 foot altitude mark and Mach 3. The jacks were used to lift the B-50 mother ship up so the X-2 rocket plane could be slid underneath.

Among the other ideas the society is looking into include at the Edwards museum are an exhibit featuring the control room from the old base tower, and reinstalling a flagpole where the Army Air Corps first set up a tent camp to begin military operations at Edwards during the 1930s.

The society is open to anyone, including ofase civilians. Those with an interest in the society's efforts can call Berte at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Major Sheryl Hutchison, commander of the 450th Test Squadron, and other Edwards Air Force Base history buffs are trying to restore the Muroc Manor House.

(2 -- 3 -- color) At left, Major Sheryl Hutchison looks at a site dubbed the ``Yeager pit,'' that the Edwards Historic Preservation Society has restored. The society also hopes to restore the Muroc Manor House, above, keeping many touches such as window ledges made of bricks.

(4) Muroc Manor, shown here in earlier days, was a popular hangout for aviation legends such as Jimmy Doolittle and Chuck Yeager. It was built in the 1940s.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News