The Minter Field Air Museum held a hangar dedication ceremony on Sept. 25 in Shafter which not only celebrated a new hangar for three aircraft, but also made the ceremony personal by announcing the creation of permanent memorial displays within the museum itself.
Inside the dedicated hangar, an original 48-star flag from 1920 hung from the ceiling by a system of pulleys. Steve Manning, who is a volunteer at the Air Museum, restored the flag.
“It’s stitched onto two pieces of drop cloth to support its weight and make it look good,” Manning said. “It was also done in the space of two days. It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.”
Several vehicles, both air and ground, were on display outside the hangar including the Fokker DR1 Tri-Wing aircraft, which is an exact replica of the plane the Red Baron flew during World War I.
An interview with the chairman of the board, retired Major General Jim Whitehead, revealed that the hangar dedication went better than expected.
“I’m happy with the number of people that showed up for this event,” Whitehead said. “There aren’t many of us left, and it’s good to know there are still people interested in things like this.”
He also gave a short history of Minter Field and how it came into existence.
“In 1938, they [Washington] knew there was going to be another war, so they started looking for training bases in the central California valley,” said Whitehead. “They settled here on Minter Field and pumped out 11,000 pilots from this base before World War II.”
Sentimental Journey, the B17 bomber scheduled to be at the dedication, was unable to remain at the field because of strict operational guidelines.
“The B17 departed early for two reasons. The first was because of temperatures exceeding 85 degrees and the second is because of our short 4,500-foot runway,” said Whitehead. “The B17 can’t take off on such a short runway in temperatures as high as we had which were approaching 100 degrees.”
Located inside the museum building is a permanent memorial display in memory of Staff Sergeant Larry S. Pierce who was not only awarded the only Medal of Honor a Kern County resident has received, he was also posthumously promoted.
Staff Sgt. Pierce was serving in the Army in Vietnam when he covered an anti-personnel mine with his own body, sacrificing himself for the safety of his fellow soldiers. Pierce was killed Sept. 20, 1965 and was laid to rest in Wasco Cemetery.
To close the ceremony, Whitehead requested assistance from people willing to volunteer their time at the museum. “There are only so many of us left and we need help from people who will be willing to take over when we’re gone.”
Anyone interested in volunteering or making a tax-deductible donation to the air museum can call 393-0291 or email [email protected].