Restored Control Tower Returns to Wildwood Naval Air Station

ERMA — Over a year ago, the former control tower from Atlantic City’s Bader Field Airport arrived at Naval Air Station Wildwood (NASW) here needing restoration. The tower arrived disassembled with steel girders and a catwalk in a stack and the control section sitting on a flatbed trailer.
On Monday, Jan. 11, the tower returned to the museum restored and was reassembled.
Dr. Joseph E. Salvatore, founder and chairman of NASW Foundation, said the tower underwent $50,000 of restoration paid for by an anonymous grant and a donation from a local bank.
Shaw Crane Service carefully set the control section on top of its newly restored base equipped with steel castors that will allow the tower to be rolled inside the museum as an indoor display.
Salvatore said Bill’s Truck Service of Rio Grande handled the restoration.
The tower will allow museum visitors to play air traffic controller. Radios will be installed in airplanes on display on the hangar floor allowing visitors to communicate with the tower, he said.
Bruce Fournier, NASW education manager told the Herald the tower will also get a satellite tracker and real time radar.
The tower suffered from corrosion problems before restoration. It sits at its original height of 30 feet.
Fournier said the museum hoped to have a grand opening of the tower in spring or early summer.
Bader Field closed in September 2006 and was purchased by a casino development company. Use of the control tower ended in 1987 but it remained at the field.
Salvatore said his wife saw the tower on a television news report and the museum contacted Atlantic City and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to see if the tower could be donated to NASW.
The age of the tower in unknown. It may date back to World War II when the field was used by the military.
Bader Field has an impressive history. According the FAA, every U.S. President from Theodore Roosevelt to Gerald Ford flew into Bader Field. Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis landed at the field.
Bader was the first field to be called an airport and was the birthplace of the Civil Air Patrol.