Page 4 - Aerotech News and Review, April 3, 2020

High Desert Hangar Stories
Keeping a promise at the Pete Knight Veterans Home

by Bob Alvis of its inception. around by fine individuals to install a
special to Aerotech News This is exactly what has happened to representative aircraft display paying
a project that was promoted and con- tribute to the namesake of our Lancast-
Sometimes great, passion-filled ceived as a great gift to the residents er facility, Pete Knight — ideally, the
ideas can find themselves bogged down of the Pete Knight Veterans Home in aircraft that he flew on 253 missions
in the realities of logistics and bureau- Lancaster. over Vietnam in the 1960s. Knight, the
cracy. The passage of time can become Many things go into making a vet- great test pilot famous for his X-15 ex-
an adversary to whatever good inten- erans home a special place for its resi- ploits, is well-remembered for his years
tions were behind an idea at the time dents. Years ago, the idea was floated at Edwards AFB here in the Antelope
Valley. But when it comes to the Pete
Knight Veterans Home, the residents
want to feel akin to the military man
and his years of service that paralleled
theirs. That era of history is what they
were looking forward to recognizing,
with the placement of a North Ameri-
can F-100 Super Sabre on the grounds.
With a program and vision in place, Courtesy photograph
a plane was located and fundraising The pedestal that waits for an F-100 to keep that promise to those who served
began. The residents at the Veterans on our behalf, and are now living at the Pete Knight Veterans Home.
Home were all part of the ground-
breaking ceremony. Words were spo-
ken, looking forward to that one day at the Pete Knight Veterans Home. For an old Air Force wingnut and I’m also
in the future which would end with a almost a decade, I’ve come to know the an airplane guy, and I could just never
dedication and a promise kept to the residents and the staff very well. Over get my mind around why this “get” was
residents, with the gifting and installa- time, I have felt the pain of the loss of so difficult. To me, and many others,
tion of that F-100. But years went by, many of those veterans, whom I con- it seemed like a no-brainer and should
and the program and the jet ran into sider my friends, along with the staff have received massive support from the
more hurdles then its volunteer base of who have moved on to other assign- local citizens and the military commu-
activists could overcome. Before long, ments and posts. I attend many of the nity all the way to completion.
the idea became just a memory of what formal programs at the Veterans Home So here we are today, and a couple
Air Force photograph could have been, and the promise was and over the years I’ve felt a bit empty of recent conversations now have me
The F-100 in Vietnam: the first operational American jet in Vietnam in 1960; lost. when I look out on that courtyard, see in the position of trying to re-light that
the first American jet to engage in air-to-air combat in 1965, and the plane in Many of you know every month I that empty pedestal and think of the gift spark and make good on that promise
which Pete Knight flew 253 missions.
do a history program for the residents that was promised to the residents. I’m See HANGAR, Page 5

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