Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 136

4 Section 2 Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, September 8, 1998 'Preserving this has a meaning for myself and everybody who ever served here. If we forget our past, we will have no John Witten, Navy veteran Saving old hangar is no flight of fancy ii unlit'-- v. JOkl 1 4 Historians, vets want Glenview site to hold museum, memorial By LeAnn Spencer Tribune Staff Writer For much of the last century, the Glenview Naval Air Station has held a key place in U.S. military history, not the least of which was as an important training center' for thousands of aircraft-carrier pilots who served in World War II. Yet, as the concrete runways are excavated and crushed into gravel while the base is transformed into a civilian development, historians fear that memories of the patriotic era also will be ground into obscurity.

That fear has galvanized a small but energetic band of historians and veterans who are working hard to preserve at least some evidence of the station's former glory. The group, the Hangar One Foundation, wants to turn the cavernous main hangar into a veterans memorial and aviation and science museum, complete with programs for teaching science. As noble as that dream might seem, the 'Hangar One Foundation, a genteel group of roughly 450 historians and veterans, is missing a couple of key ingredients: political clout and money. The Village of Glenview, the local redevelopment authority for the base, has not endorsed the group's plan, but it did invite the group to apply to take over the hangar, along with a host of other would-be developers who have made proposals to buy parcels at the old base. The village received the base from the Navy for free and is selling off parcels to developers.

Money paid by developers will be used to reimburse the village for the millions of dollars in infrastructure costs and other expenses associated with converting the base to civilian use, which will include new housing, a new town center, as well as light industry. Village consultants are wading through 60 development proposals for the base. Some of them include the hangar, but officials won't know for several weeks if Tribune photos by Jose M. Osono Navy veteran John Witten displays artifacts, including an approach light, from Glenview Naval Air Station. Witten and others hope to turn a hangar at the closed base into a museum and veterans memorial.

1A -v f- Elizabeth Dinsmore. Village officials also say that while the group's goals are laudable, a museum might not be the best use of the building. The village's redevelopment plan for the base calls for the hangar, with its photogenic control tower, to be the centerpiece for a 45-acre retail center, a collection of stores, restaurants, sports facilities and entertainment venues overlooking a park. "The village is very proud of that past and we don't want to lose that," said Dan Walsh, marketing director for the base. "The hangar is a great landmark to connect that past and future.

The question is can the museum be a part of the hangar renovation or does it have to be the whole hangar?" And indeed, with 188,000 square feet of space, including a number of wide-open bays that were used for storing aircraft, the old hangar might seem big enough to accommodate everyone's dream. Unveiled in 1929, the hangar Old photos trace the air station's history. Former President George Bush (middle photo, center) trained at the base decades ago. any of them are economically feasible. And while nobody is threatening to demolish the base's historic hangar, nobody is making any guarantees over its future either.

The formidable cost of renovation and asbestos removal makes it hard to ensure its preservation, officials say, even though the village signed an agreement with the Illinois State Historic Preservation Agency to market the building aggressively and try to find a developer who will preserve it. An estimated $7 million to $15 million is needed for renovations, which include bringing the building up to code and removing asbestos. It's a big price tag even for developers, but especially for a fledgling foundation with only about $25,000 in the bank. "It is a historically significant and quite an attractive building, but getting funds is a real problem when you don't own the facility it is hard to get funding for something that is not yet concrete," said foundation president "We just took men right out of civilian life and said, 'Go fight a war for said John Witten, a former Navy man and retired TWA pilot who trained at Glenview. "Preserving this has a meaning for myself and everybody who ever served here.

If we forget our past, we will have no future," said Witten, a Glenview resident and member of the Hangar One Foundation, which would like to see the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. "We feature the hangar prominently as part of our redevelopment project and want to give it every effort and opportunity to survive," said Matt Carlson, assistant village manager. "But it's going to take some financial horsepower and some creative thinking to physically save that building." drew spectators from all over the region. By 1940, the Navy had condemned and purchased the land to supplement its facilities at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago, and the Cur-tiss airfield became a training ground for pilots being sent to war. In all, roughly 15,000 carrier pilots and 350,000 enlisted men were trained at Glenview.

During the war, the inside of the main hangar was set up to resemble the deck of an aircraft carrier, so when the newly trained pilots and crew walked onto the deck of a real carrier, they knew where everything would be. The pilots in training also practiced carrier-style landings and takeoffs on the decks of two converted lake steamers renamed the USS Wolverine and the USS Sable on rolling Lake Michigan. was one of the nation's largest and most advanced. It was the showpiece of the Curtiss-Reynolds Airfield, a modern network of takeoff and landing strips that developers thought would serve all of Chicagoland. The location of the airfield was considered ideal, say historians, who note that the skies in Chicago were often fouled with black smoke and pollution from coal.

The clean, clear air of Glenview was considered terrific for take- offs and landings. But the vision of a big, north suburban airport died with the economy. "It was dedicated about 10 days before the stock market crashed and never really recovered from that," said Beverly Dawson, a local historian and member of Hangar One. Instead, the airfield at Glenview became a destination for show pilots in the 1930s who raced their planes on a circuit from Glenview to Wilmette to Northbrook and back to Glenview. The air races LAWN! Ex-suspect in murder now busy being a boy NOW OPEN IN GENEVA AND OAK vP FvL- XL.

JLy. ELtn A35 ir- mti' mmm ijmiiiiiihhi.ii,ii 7 By Maurice Possley Tribune Staff Writer Like ducklings poised to wade into a lake for their first swim, the gnggle of kids stood on the platform of the back yard pool Monday afternoon, waiting for an adult to scoop out dead leaves. "What are the rules?" she asked the fidgety boys and girls. "I know the rules," piped up a 7-year-old boy, clad in blue shorts, white T-shirt and blue tank top. "No fighting and no cussing," he declared.

Then he smiled, revealing the gap where his two top baby teeth once were. It was a typical Labor Day barbecue on Chicago's South Side. But this was not a typical gathering and this was not just an ordinary 7-year-old leading the charge into the water, coming up sputtering and splashing. The boy and an 8-year-old friend were the two boys charged on Aug. 9 with the murder of 11-year-old Ryan Harris and, in a stunning reversal Friday, were cleared after prosecutors announced that the state crime lab had discovered semen on the girl's underwear.

That the boys could have been responsible for the semen was so highly remote that prosecutors announced they were dropping a case that had been based almost solely on alleged confessions from the two boys. On Monday, Chicago police homicide detectives continued to reinvestigate the murder. Sources familiar with the investigation said police picked up a man identified by defense lawyers as the "toy guy" and were questioning him. The man, according to the parents of the 7-year-old, began giving their son toys almost immediately after Ryan's body was found on July 28 in a weed-choked yard behind 6636 S. Parnell Ave.

The parents believe that their son may have seen Ryan's murder and that the "toy guy" was attempting to keep the boy quiet. Detectives were attempting to arrange 'for the family to view a photo spread and possibly a lineup. Assistant Public Defender Catherine Ferguson, one of the lawyers for the 7-year-old, said police came Monday to her home where the family was gatheredand that the matter was to be discussed on Tuesday. After the detectives left, as the 7-year-old and his two sisters and a brother, as well as several neighborhood children, frolicked in the pool, the boy's parents gathered in Ferguson's kitchen to sip champagne. Ferguson's supervisor, Darren Bowden, lifted his glass.

"This is a time of mixed emotions," he said. "We are celebrating a family back together that was devastated for almost 30 days. "And we must remember that there is still a family that's missing a little girL" he said, referring to the Harris family. "Bless them and keep them in peace." Ferguson gestured toward the 7-year-old's mother. "Here's to a woman who has impressed me more than anyone with her strength and how she protected her child." That child, fortified with Pixy Stix and soda, was oblivious to the celebration indoors, preferring instead to go about the business of being a 7-year-old.

Dripping water, he stood on the back stoop, a stick of red licorice hanging from his mouth, and in deliberate fashion and with an air of importance, dispensed lollipops one by one to the crowd of children on the sidewalk. The next moment, he was leading the pack, running through the back-yard sprinkler. "He's had his sugar, watch out now," chuckled his father, a 30-year-old chef for a fast-food restaurant. He smiled, but clearly was tired partly from working a 10-hour shift on Sunday, but mostly because the ordeal has left him on edge. "I got in the car the other night and I just drove around," he said.

"I just keep thinking about it all. I wound up driving almost to Milwaukee before I got turned around." The 7-year-old's mother, a chef-supervisor at a fast-food restaurant, has begun to acknowledge that the surprise announcement on Friday was not a dream. "It's for real," she said. "I'm so happy for my little son, for all my kids. I want to thank my lawyers.

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