Hangars at NAS Lakehurst

These are the three hangars we saw daily when we were station in Squadron HU-4, Lakehurst, NJ..  If I remember correctly our hangar is the far right one.

To give you an idea how huge the hangars are/were, here are some pictures of me and other humans with a hanger behind us.

In front of the hangars, where the huge doors opens is a very big paved area for aviation use.  I found it amusing that the winds coming across the huge paved area into the opened doors.  On the other end there is a normal size door.  If one should open the regular size door when the huge doors are opened with strong winds I found that if you jump the wind will carry you a few feet. 

You may have heard of the largest hangar on the left.  A visiting German passenger  on a goodwill mission, exploded there May 6, 1937, killing over 30 people.  Thirty-six of the ninety-seven people on board were killed.

This is a postcard of the back of the hangars.  That is where we parked our cars.  I had a PV544 Volvo which did not have brakes.  It had brakes but we wore them out.  I developed the art of slowing down by gearing it down.  When we went out in the evening, to drive in I had to gear down and creep and hope the guard at the gate would wave me on, which they did.

But once in the parking lot the SP put a traffic ticket on my car.  The reason it was past due for inspection.  We knew it would not past inspection with no brakes, so I ignored the ticket.

About a week after the ticket was issued when I was getting into the car two SP popped up from nowhere and wanted to know what was I going to do about the ticket.  One of the SPs threatened me with his billy stick brig(another time I will tell you about the base's brig).

This time I talked myself out of any punishment temporarily, if I get the inspection fixed.  I took the car into Lakehurst and the brakes  cost was not as expensive as I feared.  I had the brakes fixed and got an inspection.

I think I did have to park outside the gate for about a week until I got my brakes fixed and re-inspected but I'm not sure.  Time blurs a lot.