In Sept. 1991, Dunham, along with hundreds of workers, lined the runway listening to the control tower on handheld radios as the plane readied for flight. "When it came zooming down the runway, it kind of gave me a chill," he said. And it still does. Every time a new plane leaves the hangar, Dunham heads out to the tarmac. And he is not the only one beaming with pride.
Future concerns
After recent news reports lauding the C-17, sales of shirts, hats and sweatshirts with the plane's logo and image soared at the Boeing shop. But engineers and workers are concerned about the future. Boeing recently announced that because of the attacks, it would lay off 30,000, many in commercial aircraft production.
Some of those are likely to be in Long Beach. Boeing said this week that it was considering shutting down operations for the 717, a small commercial airplane. The Air Force, too, has yet to approve the production of 60 new C-17s.
"We are lobbying everyone," said Dunham, who is also president of the Southern California Professional Engineering Association. "Even with the reductions, we are going to fight. We are not going to go away."
That may be good news to Beverly O'Neill, Long Beach's mayor, who after watching the aerospace industry in town shrink to a shadow of its former self, has succeeded in encouraging other areas of growth -- helping tourism by expanding the convention center, shoring up the port for international trade and encouraging more retail stores and technology concerns.
"You can long for the past,'' she said, ``but you have to have a sense of reality." Still, she has an even greater appreciation for those aerospace workers who have lived here for 60 years. "I hate to say it, but I hadn't been talking about the defense industry before Sept. 11," she said. "It has changed my thinking. This is something we have to protect because it is, in a way, about protecting ourselves."
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