China Lake Museum

I’ve always wanted to visit the Naval Air Weapons Station, at China Lake, in Ridgecrest, CA where my dad was stationed from 1948 to 1950, and we finally did it at the beginning of our trip.

Note: We went through Ridgecrest and the China Lake Museum back on April 11th after we left Lake Isabella and right before we drove into Death Valley.

The Beginning

I don’t know what dad did there but it’s clear from the museum displays that the base was used for rocket and missile development and training, so it seems like a logical stepping stone to the rest of his career. Click here to read about a part of my dad’s Navy career.

Blast from the Past

It was really neat to see all the artifacts from when he was there and as I walked through the museum and looked at all the pictures I kept hoping to find my dad in some candid shot, and even though that didn’t happen, just looking into the past that my father was a part of gave me a glimpse of his life and brought him a little closer.

I really must apologize for not getting many pictures of the descriptions of what is on display. I labeled everything that I could remember if I knew what it actually was, but most times I just didn’t think about taking a picture of the text. I promise to do better at the next museum!

April 11th ~ Day 6 of our 2014 Road Trip

Fat Man

F-18A Hornet

Intruder

Museum Entrance

Polaris

Polaris

The Exhibits

The Bat

The Bomb

Displays

Back in Time

Church

I think this may be the station on the base and it’s still there, just modernized a bit.

NOTS the Early Years

Ridgecrest and China Lake Blvds

No wonder we don’t have any Super Heros anymore–they took down all the phone booths

Arial view of the Base

Missiles and Gadgets

Missiles

Patches – The one on the bottom left was the one my dad had.

Missile room

Tomahawk

NOTS Soft Landing Vehicle

Tomahawk

The China Laker

I forgot to include this story I found in the China Laker Newsletter. I really enjoyed the newsletter, especially this story, hope you do too!