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Show HILLTOP TIMES TIMES September 20, 2007 Layton couple remembers Hill 60 years ago, and before then the government got it," he recalled. Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau lbusselberg@standard.net Harris can talk about the abundance of water on the ground where the newest runAYTON — To some peoway was built, making it posple, 60 years seems like sible to typically grow a couple an eternity. To Ethel and alfalfa crops a year, back in the E. Harris Adams, the transforday. mation of the Army Air Corps "They had open cement to what is now today's Air waterlines, that are still there, Force, and even the creation of and the grasshoppers were so Hill Air Force Base, are all part bad that they filled the lines up of the Layton couple's memowith water and put in Rainbow ries. manager. trout," some that he motioned Ethel Adams was a senior at "I always wanted to live near were at least a foot long. Davis High School in 1947 and airplanes," said Harris Adams, The wind would blow sand was already a "veteran" with who grew up in Layton. He got — for which the area was experience working for the fed- his wish, living within a couple dubbed sand ridge, over the eral government. She rememof miles of the base airstrip for chain link fences. bers how there had been a fire 55 years. His family farmed several at the old Wendover Army DeAs a young man, he took $50 parcels, including about 120 pot that destroyed lots of World from the $100 he'd earned one War II records. acres where the Hubbard Golf summer and earned his "wings" Course sits today. from what is now the Skypark That meant summer work Reminiscing further, Harris in Woods Cross, flying small airfor young Ethel, who her husrecalled how Layton's Antecraft for about three years. band, Harris, remembers was lope Drive today was known flown to the Nevada border He also has an intimate conas Straw Street 60 years ago. town in a four-engine C-54. "I'm nection with the airstrips from That's because there was so surprised her parents let her which his beloved airplanes, or much clay in the ground that it go to Wendover," when she was jets, depart and land. was mixed with straw for duraonly 17, he said. "Even before Hill Field bility. came, my grandfather (Jesse After graduation, Ethel, like Harris) had a dry farm in the He did stick to farming, so many others from what had middle of the airfield," he said. earning an associate degree in been a sleepy farming comThat was in the late 1930s, munity, started a career workagriculture. He has been associwhen Harris was still a boy not ing for the old Clearfield Naval ated with the old Soil Consereven 10 years old. Depot and eventually Hill AFB vation Service and subsequent that would cover 35 years. agencies for years. He later Before that, he would occaearned a degree in banking, sionally saddle up a horse and "We were in kind of makeand worked as a loan manager take lunches prepared by his shift buildings," to begin with, and branch manager for First grandmother to the farm hands. Ethel said. During her career, National Bank. she took advantage of a part"The government didn't nership with then-Weber State purchase the ground from my Both Ethel and Harris have College to obtain a bachelor's grandpa, but it was through served terms on the Layton degree in logistics and, later, a Frank Browning (of Browning City Council and other civic master's in human resources. Arms) that the Ogden Chamber boards, with Hams being The Malad, Idaho, native ended of Commerce negotiated all the called Layton's "unofficial hisher career at HAFB as an item land deals (for the base), and torian." BY TOM BUSSELBERG L Courtesy photo Ethel and Harris Adams remember Hill Air Force Base through Harris' long history of association with the land before it was built and Ethel's work at the base. 'They had open cement waterlines, that are still there, and the grasshoppers were so bad that they filled the lines up with water and put in Rainbow trout." HARRIS ADAMS talking about his father's farm formerly located in the middle of where Hill AFB sits now Work And Serve — Seamlessly. Feeling the call of home, as well as the call to serve? In the Air Guard, your civilian career can take off while you continue to enjoy the benefits of military service. If you're ready to leave active duty and return to life in your hometown, the Air Guard can bring it all together.To learn more, visit GoANG.com today. AIR NATIONAL GUARD | For information call 1-800-T0-G0-ANG j GoANG.com o•o o o o o o•o |