Warbird Information Exchange

From The Las Vegas Sun



Today: March 10, 2006 at 8:27:15 PST

Grant to fund documentary and plans for Wendover Airfield

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A $75,393 grant has been approved to create a documentary and plan restoration of training grounds at the Wendover Airfield, where crews trained to drop the atomic bombs on Japan during World War II.

The grant by the nonprofit group Preserve America will be matched by Tooele County, which owns the site.

The Air Corps base along the Utah-Nevada border was instrumental in perfecting the missions to drop the two bombs, called Little Boy and Fat Man.

The aircraft Enola Gay, which was used to drop Little Boy on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 people, was hangered at the 1.8 million-acre airfield.

"The story of the training in Utah is just not well-known," said Jim Peterson, founder of Historic Wendover Airfield Foundation and manager of the airfield. Peterson started the foundation in 2002 after visiting the airfield and making it his crusade to preserve the historic place. Currently, the airfield has a small museum and working terminal.

Peterson has ambitious plans, hoping for a living history attraction like Colonial Williamsburg, in Virginia. The foundation estimates it would cost $80 million to restore the 1940s training base.

Tooele County officials hope it will become a tourist hot spot.

"We get a lot of tourists through there, obviously to the Nevada side, but there's another story besides the casinos," said Nicole Cline, Tooele County planning and economic development division adviser, who wrote the grant proposal.

"There's a critical part of the nation's history sitting there and so few people know what that is or what role that played," she said.

The documentary that the grant will help finance includes interviews with veterans who trained at the base and a detailed background. The master plan for restoring the airfield includes bringing back some of the old planes to their original Wendover hangars.

"It's a matter of funding," Peterson said. "As we get the funding, we can bring more vintage aircraft in."

As for the Enola Gay, which now resides in the Smithsonian's Steven F. Uder-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport in Virginia, "We'll obviously never get that plane back," he said. "But our hope is to at least find a B-29."

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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com

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Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

Thanks Robbie!

We are excited about this one! With 6 original hangars including the B-29 hangar, and more than 3 dozen original base buildings this will help a lot to get a master plan together to take to possible contributors in the future. We are also excitied to get the film going.

Just a reminder - if anyone is in the area May 19-21 we are hosting a regional Classic Jet Aircraft Association meeting - the CJAA contact says he thinks that 20+ jets, including a number of Korean/Vietnam era birds will be coming out.

Thanks again !

Tom P.

Col. Rohr - Thanks! As for the Navy stuff - nope never have heard anything - I got a nice letter saying that there is nothing available for display or loan at this time I'll keep pestering them and see if anything comes of it.

Thanks,

Tom P.

China Lake still has a B-29 there. The US Avation Museum pulled Doc and another one when Doc went to Witchia. China Lake took it back when they closed the museum at Ridgecrest. Heard of one in a mine shaft at CL

Also one at Dugan (sp) but that one is still "hot".

Too bad you can't work something out with Hill and their 29.

Thanks Rob - can you PM me Buddys # again? Also, have you been in contact with the guys auctioning the H&P stuff about their KC-97s?

I have to display my ignorance here - where is ridgecrest and what B-29 was there? is the Dugan airframe the one that was used to test underground explosions effect on aircraft on the surface? Seems I remember seeing a white B-29 with a B-50 style greenhouse on it - buckled a bit just aft of the waist gunners bubbles.

Thanks,

Tom P.

The 29 at CL was scheduled to be put on display. She isn't complete but they just thought it would be nice to put her with the other planes. I will check with a friend who works at CL and see if she is on display or where she's at.

The one at Dugan is supposed to be pretty good. Doc's manager went there a couple years ago. He could only stay for a few minutes.

I will look for info that I have on CL and Dugan.