Ridgecrest and the adjacent Navy base at China Lake were
within easy reach of Death Valley and a few days were split between both places
over the 2011 Thanksgiving holiday.I
was born on that Navy base when my dad was stationed there, but had never been
back, though I’d visited Ridgecrest a few times. While traipsing around town visiting a couple
of local museums and historic sites (nice ones), a fellow at the old USO building informed me that I could
get a visitor pass at the gate to get on the base and that they had a rocket
museum there that I should check out.So,
of course, I did.And as a
result, I learned far more than I thought possible about the top secret work
that was done to develop the Sidewinder missile and a sizeable portfolio of the
Navy’s rocketry.Fascinating place.I’ll have more to say about that when I
finish up my dad’s biography, which happens to be an interesting endeavor for a whole host
of reasons, at least to me anyway!But
more on that later.
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