Kirsten Bergin is proof that you don’t have to have ties to a cause to get involved. You just have to care enough to want to make a difference.
Growing up in Northbrook, Bergin gave little thought to the history of the nearby Naval Air Station (NASG), originally located in the heart of Glenview and now the site of The Glen. She certainly had no idea that without the efforts of the some 17,000 pilots trained there, the outcome of WWII in the Pacific may have been very different.
That changed in 2009 when Bergin, now a Glenview resident, took her father-in-law (a former Naval officer) to the Hangar One Museum, located in the back of a series of warehouse buildings dotting Lehigh Avenue. There she met 86-year-old WWII veteran and museum volunteer Eric Lundahl. Bergin was struck not only by Lundahl’s personal history—at age 16, he hid his age to join the Navy, serving in the Pacific—but also by how a simple one-room museum assembled solely by area veterans housed such a vitally important part of Glenview’s history. Bergin was equally moved by the veterans’ goal of building an aviation-based learning center for kids.
“While speaking to Eric, I had two revelations: first, of the importance of the airbase, and second, how little we had done as a community to help,” Bergin says. “I couldn’t imagine why we wouldn’t rally around preserving this history.”
For more than 50 years, the Glenview airbase served as a critical training ground for pilots and other personnel, including Presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford, as well as naval pilots-cum-astronauts Neil Armstrong and James Lovell. Prior to WWII, the Glenview airport was a cradle of aviation where pioneers such as Edward “Butch” O’Hare, Wiley Post and Amelia Earhart often flew. It also served as the U.S. headquarters for both Naval and Marine reserves during the Cold War, and it was a landing site for returning Vietnam POWs.
In 1995, the Navy closed the airbase and transferred the land to the city of Glenview, which developed it into a shopping and housing development now known as The Glen.
Bergin, a mother of two, seemed an unlikely spokesperson for a group of veterans, but that didn’t stop her from making it her mission to commemorate the contributions of these men and women to their country.
“I don’t think I’m better qualified to do this than anyone else,” Bergin says. “As a society, we function at our best when people share their thoughts and ideas and get involved to solve problems.”
Bergin’s first plan of action was to write her Congressman and Glenview village officials urging them to do more to preserve NASG history. She then started her own grass roots organization and petition site, Bring It Home, Glenview. Bergin founded Bring It Home, Glenview, to garner support from her community to convince village officials to set aside civic land on the former airbase for use as a permanent NASG museum and interactive STEM learning center.
“When (our community) became stewards of the land, the Navy did not ask for payment, but it did ask our community to preserve the rich history of NASG,” Bergin says. “Unfortunately, while some buildings remain, the substantive history is being lost.”
Bergin thinks a new museum would be a worthy solution for the village as well, particularly for The Glen, which has suffered greatly from the economic downturn, leaving many of its retail spaces empty and the Town Center in foreclosure. Bergin feels the draw of a museum of such caliber, similar to Glenview’s Kohl Children’s Museum or the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, would bring more revenue into The Glen’s isolated retail location.
Several residents, mostly area moms, have joined Bergin’s organization in an effort to raise awareness of NASG’s history, inspiring youth in the areas of aviation and aeronautics though fun, hands-on math- and science-based educational programs. This fall, BIHG teamed up with Glenview Park District to launch a new program, Jr. Flight Academy – Lake Michigan Carriers, designed for grades 3-5, and received an encouraging response, nearly selling out its first session. In the two-hour class, kids discovered local history while “earning their wings” by constructing aircraft carriers, creating catapults and learning aviation alphabet and landing signals.
“I think people are more inspired to learn when something hits closer to home,” Bergin says. “WWII can seem like a distant thing, but it happened right here on our doorstep.”
To date, BIHG has received more than 800 signatures to the petition from all over the U.S. and even six foreign countries, as well as letters of support from the Boards of Education for both Glenview School Districts (34 and 225), and momentum for the effort is building.
“My hope is that we can secure a location in The Glen for this museum and learning center, which will then spur private funding and allow us to fulfill our promise to the heroes who served here, as well as prepare our children for the technological future they face,” Bergin says.
Here are some great ways to support BIHG and celebrate Veteran’s Day (November 11):
- Help the Glenview community gather support to establish a NASG museum by signing the online petition.
- Visit the Hangar One Museum in Glenview, or make a donation to the Hangar One Foundation.
- Register your Jr. Aviator (grades 3-5) for the winter session of Glenview Park District’s Jr. Flight Academy.
- Encourage your kids to meet community service goals by starting their own awareness project for NASG history or by starting a funding drive to help Hangar One Foundation.
- Send a care package to a deployed soldier through Any Soldier.
- Attend your local Veteran’s Day Observance ceremony.
