Tight security prevails at military bases for Sept. 11

Within hours of the Sept. 11 attacks, Edwards Air Force Base, Palmdale's Air Force Plant 42 and China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station jumped to their highest alert levels.

In the year since that day, a new norm has taken hold at military installations.

While alert levels have subsided, tighter security precautions prevail, especially in obtaining access to these facilities.

"The biggest change that we've seen is the attention to detail and the vigilance we apply," said Lt. Col. Celeo Wright, commander at Air Force Plant 42.

All of the installations' security procedures were reviewed, "to make sure we're doing the best we could to protect our resources here," he said.

"All in all, that's not really a bad thing," said Edwards spokesman John Haire of the greater awareness of security issues.

The changes mean it can take longer to get things done than a year ago, with more steps and security checkpoints to go through.

More documentation and longer lead-times are required for nonmilitary personnel to gain access to bases, and employees still experience some waits to get through the gates during busy times.

On Edwards itself, concrete barriers still prevent vehicles from parking near buildings and entrances to buildings are more closely guarded.

"People understand security is something for all of us to be concerned about," said Steve Boster, China Lake spokesman.

At Edwards and China Lake, the enterprises hardest hit by the security changes are those that rely on the general public.

At Edwards, attendance at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum dropped about 75% in the last year, said Doug Nelson, museum curator.

With the increase in security measures on the base, visitors without military credentials must be escorted while on base, which is a hardship because the museum does not have enough staff to individually escort visitors.

The security measures also meant the discontinuation of the popular public tours of the base flightline and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

The lack of access for the general public also forced the gift shop at Dryden to close at the end of November.

Run by the center's Exchange Council - an employee association - the gift shop relied on business provided by visitors for the center's public tours.

Before the tours ended, the gift shop brought in from $1,000 to $1,200 a day and employed four full-time employees.

Without the tours, business dropped by 80%. The council was able to keep the shop running for a time by tapping into emergency funds and cutting the staff, but it was not enough.

Although it is still open, the Flight Test Center Museum's gift shop, which is run by the Flight Test Historical Foundation, also has seen its sales drop off. Proceeds from the gift shop go to support the foundation's programs at the museum, such as restoring aircraft, events and educational programs.

China Lake's museum was only a year old when the attacks closed the base to the general public.

"It's definitely been hurt," Boster said.

China Lake's close proximity to the city of Ridgecrest meant that it was often visited by the general public. For example, the only golf course in that area is on base, Boster said. Those casual visits have become harder to arrange, although not impossible.

"If you have a need to go on base ... if you have a legitimate reason ... you can get a pass to go on board," Boster said.

Security concerns last fall also led to the cancellation of Edwards' annual open house and air show in October. That tradition, however, returns this year on Oct. 26.

Along with some changes for security reasons, this year's one-day show will have a slightly different focus with greater emphasis placed on the military hardware and less on pure entertainment acts such as aerobatics.

"We don't want it to be as much of a Hollywood production as it is a good, Air Force open house," Haire said.

At Plant 42, the annual Salute to Youth celebration also was canceled last year, but may return in the spring, Wright said.

"We still have to go through the process of risk analysis," he said.

Along with the greater attention to security has come a renewed sense of purpose and patriotism for those who work at the military installations.

A renewed dedication to the job and "the reason for what we're doing out here" has been apparent at China Lake, Boster said.

"We realize what we're doing out here is important to national security," he said.

Personnel at Edwards have exhibited a greater pride in "Ad Inexplorata," the Air Force Flight Test Center motto meaning "toward the unexplored," Haire said.

The base has received letters from warfighters in the field thanking base personnel for their work in developing the weapons systems now in use, he said.

Uploaded September 10, 2002