It was early summer of 1962 when a WW2 Navy TBM bomber flew in from the west over the trough of Lone Pine Canyon, across from Clyde's Ranch. The aircraft shook with vibration as the pilot softly spoke through a radio transmitter on his wire earphones. He was first told to approach the fire from north to south, but the mountain ridge south of him warned him that it was the wrong thing to do. A survival alarm sounded in his mind, "Your not supposed to take orders from someone else when you're flying the plane. You do what you think is safest." While going west to east down the long valley of Lone Pine Canyon, the lone pilot noticed that the large fire still burned on the flats. The startled faces of firefighters looked up as he roared overhead. "Salvo drop releasing...", he mumbled, as his right thumb firmly pressed the red hopper release button on the flight wheel. The hydraulic-operated hopper opened and released 600 pounds of pink borate sludge on the hillside in front of the fire. Right on target, the sludge effectively made a make-shift fuel break that allowed firefighters to get a hold of the fire faster and safer. Going up and rolling to the right, the bomber headed for the flat country to turn around and head for base for more borate. The base was located at Grey Butte Airport, a place hardly heard of....a place that was barely a bleep on the scope.
Grey Butte airport was used in the relative new program of Initial Fire Attack through the use of Borate bombers. Because of the close proximity of Wrightwood, the aircraft provided swift assistance in stopping wildfire from endangering the town and the mountains around it. Several fires were stopped in Cajon Pass, Lytle Creek, Lone Pine Canyon and the slopes behind Pinon Hills. Grey Butte was built in 1959, under the supervision of the U.S. Forest Service. Thought the planes and crew were able to respond to any area, their response area covered San Bernardino National Forest, northeast Angeles National Forest and southern Sequoia National Forest. Air boss and manager in-charge was Pinon Hills resident Bill Morrow, who was under contract with the Forest Service. The two pilots were Wrightwood residents Al Adolph and Harry Bernier, both were so skilled that they were able to make borate drops without a spotter/observation plane. They used two navy TBM fighter planes that were converted for tanker operations. The planes were outfitted with tanks that held 600 pounds of borate, which could be used for two separate drops or one salvo drop. The borate sludge were applied in front of the fire and acted as a 'fire break" to stop and slow the fire so ground crews can get a quick handle on the flames before it could do much damage. Arial fire fighting greatly contributed in reducing watershed damage in the forest caused by wildfire.
In March of 1963, The USFS, Department of Agriculture, in an economy move, cut the number of borate bombers for fire fighting efforts. Despite their incredible success, 54 of the borate bombers in California were cut to just 21 aircraft. Grey Butte were one of the numbers that were cut from service. Eve though the base was beneficial to the local mountains, the people of Wrightwood and the surrounding forest had to depend on borate bases that were farther away. To add injury to insult, the closest base was in Van Nuys, which were limited in their capability to handle many types of tanker aircraft. After the cut, both Grey Butte aircraft and pilots went on to places unknown.
The borate fire operation at Grey Butte is just an echo of the past, having ended over forty years ago. On chilly desert mornings you might still hear the sounds of men racing to fill borate bombers with the liquid fire stopper. Or see a lone pilot attaching map and drop instructions to his right leg as he climbs into the cockpit. Or you might hear the cough of engines as props start up, and then the soft crackling sounds as the moving treads of aircraft tires rolled up the runaway. Then the building thrust of engine as the bomber lifts off and begins to bank to gain altitude to attack the fire that is starting to spread in the forest near Wrightwood. Grey Butte Airport is barely a bleep on the scope now. Silently it sits...and the only attention it gets these days are UFO enthusiasts who sit and wait for the next strange aircraft to patrol the skies above an 'abandoned" airport.
From The History of Big Pines, "Bits' & Pieces"
Terry Graham, Wrightwood, Ca
Resources:
Wrightwood Mountaineer, Nov. 23, 1961 issue
Abandoned and Little known Airfields of California, by Paul Freeman-2002
