Finished the work: China Lake cuts the ribbon on final recovery project

Seven years ago in 2019, nearly to the day, two earthquakes changed the face of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake forever.

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s facilities took the brunt of the damage, with cracks running through labs, office buildings, and magazines. In a blow to the community at large, NAWS China Lake lost its chapel, where people had worshiped and wed for decades.

The chapel was one of the first to rise from the rubble. The headquarters building is one of the last.
On June 23, more than 200 people gathered on the lawn of the NAWCWD/NAWS headquarters building, colloquially called the “White House,” to mark the end of an era: the final ribbon cutting on a nearly $4 billion recovery effort.

“For years, the shared goal and rallying cry across this installation has been to ‘Finish the Work,’” said Capt. Ben Wainwright, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest executive officer, who helped lead the reconstruction effort as part of the Officer in Charge of Construction China Lake. “Today, standing before this fully restored facility, I can proudly say that together, we have done exactly that.”

And while the joint OICC, NAWS, and NAWCWD team rebuilt the bricks and mortar, it’s up to those who repopulate the joint headquarters building to rebuild something even more important: the connection and culture that make China Lake special, said retired Capt. Jeremy Vaughan, former installation commander who now serves as NAWCWD’s chief strategy officer.

The China Lake Way.

Military and civilians working together. Scientists and administrators. Uniforms and dress shirts. Co-located, collaborating, “casual collisions” in the halls becoming breakthroughs.

The earthquakes scattered the center; the restoration begins the work of rebuilding something more.
“The White House gives us the opportunity – and the responsibility … to rebuild the relationships that made this place extraordinary in the first place,” he said. The China Lake Way, the culture, this is our true strategic advantage.”

More than 80 years of history are baked into the facility, the nerve center of a community once characterized as “Rocket Town.” Life magazine sent a photographer to the remote base then known as the Naval Ordnance Test Station to capture the spirit of the community conducting the “secret research” and developing the weapons of tomorrow.

Though focused on warfare, the purpose of the work is the opposite, said Dr. L.T.E. Thompson, then the NOTS technical director on site.

“He stressed that the ultimate goal is to never have to fight again,” said Rear Adm. Keith Hash, NAWCWD commander. “Because we’re here to build strength that will maintain peace for our friends, neighbors, and families.”

The photographer left with images of military work coupled with family life. Rockets and cosmic ray development alongside children at play and families at church.

“In short, a community built on love of family and love of country,” Hash said, noting that although much has changed in the intervening decades, many things – important things – remain the same. “Generations of families continue the tradition of building the nation’s defenses and keeping the men and women in harm’s way returning home to their own families.”

And now that tradition, mission, and collaborative way of innovating expands beyond the community tucked into the high desert in Ridgecrest, California. The work continues on the Southern California coast, in Maryland and Arizona, in Florida and Japan. All tracing their threads back to this single building.

To the civilian and military partnership that ensures the nation’s defenders maintain the decisive advantage in managing the rapidly changing character of war.

“Here in the headquarters building, leaders today and tomorrow will continue to keep the nerve center alive,” Hash promised. “We will hold the center.”