AFFTC chief historian retires after 30 years documenting history of Edwards

  • Published
  • By Diane Betzler
  • Staff writer
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  After more than 30 years of serving the Air Force Flight Test Center as historian, Dr. Jim Young will leave his career documenting Edwards' history.

Young, who holds a doctorate in history, became chief historian in 1986. He not only spent his career probing the past, but actually witnessed much of Edwards' history in the making.

"Throughout the years the most interesting part of my job was that I got to meet and got to know some of the extraordinary people who made that history," he said.

Dr. Young describes himself as a historian who was fortunate enough to be working at a place that continues to make history, almost on a daily basis.

"I witnessed the first shuttle landing, I met the man who was the first to fly faster than the speed of sound," he says, still marveling about it all.

Young said when he first accepted a position here he wasn't sure what he was getting himself into.

"When I first got here in 1980 I didn't know anything about airplanes. I wasn't even sure where Edwards was, I only knew it was somewhere north of where I lived," laughing about that now.

Young said throughout the years at Edwards he got to do things he never thought he would.

"I made friends throughout the country as I traveled around the nation talking about this place."

"There were large audiences everywhere I went because people were interested in Edwards."

Young saw a lot of changes here throughout the years. "When I first arrived here the entire flight test center archives comprised of three file cabinets," he recalls.

Today the history of Edwards is told through photographs, films, audio files and documents, and fills three huge rooms. Young said the base archive is considered the most unique collection of history documentation in the Air Force.

"Thanks to the number of people who have worked for me all these years, it's all extremely well organized," he said of the collected histories. Young considers that a major accomplishment, because as he puts it, "Information is only useful if you can find it."

The base historian didn't just write about base history, he often had a chance to live it as well.

"I helped start and worked toward the effort to build the [Air Force Flight Test Center] museum," he said.

He worked closely with many Air Force giants of the past; including famous test pilot William J. Pete Knight who was president of the Flight Test Center Historical Foundation and went on to become a California assemblyman and later a state senator.

Young said friends who had visited the Air Force museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, later asked to visit Edwards' museum.

"When I informed them we didn't have one they were surprised and said if any base has a history to preserve, it's Edwards."

"It was a long process to build a museum here that can tell the history of Edwards," he said.

Young also had the opportunity to build exhibits, some of which are still on display around the base, such as the three-level display of flight test history in the Test Wing headquarters building.

When asked to describe the most historical event he witnessed at Edwards, he couldn't name just one.

"I could not single out any one event, there have been so many. I've witnessed so many things and I've gotten to know so many people who were involved in those things."

Considering the exciting career Young was fortunate enough to enjoy throughout the years, some wondered if they will someday be able to read about Young's life in an autobiography, but Young says that's not likely.

"I think it would be a bit presumptuous of me to consider my life important enough to record in an autobiography."

Young says modestly that he only witnessed the many history-making events, "I haven't done those things. I've simply been a witness to them."

A good friend of Young's, retired Air Force Col. James H. Doolittle III, recently asked him the same question. "I told my long-time friend that if I were ever to write an autobiography I would steal the title for it from his grandfather's autobiography, "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again." When asked how he managed to be so lucky, Young says simply, "I just happened to be at the right place at the right time."

Dr. Young says many of the opportunities he had, just happened.

The retiring historian doesn't know who will be appointed to replace him, but says he's sure it will be someone extremely well qualified. "This place deserves the best. It's a wonderful opportunity for any historian."

Young has not yet planned out his retirement years, "I've been gainfully employed for the past 50 years, the whole concept of retirement is really, really new to me," he said.

"The only thing I know for sure is that I won't be driving 90 miles one way every day," he said about his commute from his home in Burbank, Calif.

At 67, Young considers himself a dinosaur at Edwards and says he's been here three times longer than any other historian.

"I've been here a long time. I‟ve worked for 11 of the 22 center commanders, so it is time for a change, time for some new blood," he says as he packs his things for the last time at Edwards.

Young and his wife, Angie, have retired together and Young says all he knows for sure is that, as they get ready to celebrate their 47th wedding anniversary, they are finally going to have some time to get to know each other a little better.