i heard that brac closed em. but what are they doing with em these days? got sent there summer of 85....was there a whole week before i knew that the brown smog in the distance was actually a mountain! lol
El Toro closed years ago... plans were to make it into a giant park....I think it is progressing but not sure of its current status... great memories there.... a few searches will turn up the latest..
Originally posted by sandidge: hey bob, are those huge hangers still standing or did they demo em?
If you mean the big hangars at El Toro that were occupied (in 1965 at least) by MWSG-37 and WMGR-352
I don't know if they are gone or not. If you do a search on 'el toro great park', all types of articles come up that indicate some things are happening with the base.
As far as Tustin, CHC posted alot of recent pics a few months back... still showed some of the big hangars
I was told when out there - (66-67 and then bck from Nam in 69) that Tusin and Hazelhurst New Jersey were the only places that could hold /service the Goodyear blimp. Wonder what they do now?
I know Akron, Ohio has at least one large hanger where a blimp would fit into, and I suspect there are a few others around the country, but I haven't researched it.
Originally posted by 8351020: Jersey were the only places that could hold /service the Goodyear blimp. Wonder what they do now?
Goodyear has their own hangers, in Akron and somewhere in Calif. if I'm not mistaken.
Hanger One: originally built for the Graf Zepplin-- Hindenberg, is still standing at NAS Lakeurst. But I don't think any civilian airships have been in it for a very long time.
When I was at Lakehurst in '73, there was a scale replica of a carrier deck inside for training the arresting gear students, and a few Army Reserve Huey Squadrons are in there too.
I was just discussing MCAS Tustin with my dad a couple of days ago. He was with H&MS-16 and was in charge of the Imrl Shop back in the 80s.
I live just down the street from the old base. The hangers are still there, but all other base housing and barracks have been demolished. They recently made the base into what is now known as "The District". They have a Target, Best Buy, AMC Theater, Costco and several other shops there. They also have about 20 different restaurants in there. The place is definately different than I'm sure you all remember it.
When I joined HMR-362 in May of 1957 the Hangars were roofed with tar paper. When it rained we'd go outside to dry off. Hangar One and Two had new roofs of Reynolds Aluminum put on about 1958. As I recall the story that was going around supposedly by the insurance people said, "there would be six deaths during the roofing process." Glad to report there were none.
I was discharged after 20 years in the marines from tustin, the hangars are a national historic site and were said to never be torn down. I was supprised to find out what they did to tustin seeing new barracks were being built in 85-86-87. New housing, I was stationed several times at el toro also.
In 1978, they flew two of us all the way from Cherry Point to El Toro for S-5 autopilot school -- two weeks of learning almost nothing except how much fun it was a Knotts Berry Farms! And then back to North Carolina...
Hey Earl, we where at the Point at the same time I was in VMA-231. I new a lot of the flight line folks in 252 but there names have left my brain housing group. I remember that there was a Harly riding, dope smoking SSgt in flight line with blond hair and glass'e about 5-6 who I think got popped on a drug test in 81 or 82 and got the hook.....
From what I've heard on some of the aviation sites is that El Toro has big yellow X's on the runway (means you can't land).
With the decline of aviation due to high fuel prices I doubt that we will ever see them used as airports or airport communities. Avgas is over $6 per gallon, and Jet Fuel is even higher.
Great times in El Toro. Some people, retired Wingers too, probably (fondly )miss the rumble of Phantoms, Skyhawks, Intruders, Sea Stallions, Sea Knights and all other great Marine aircraft.
I was at MCAS EL Toro 1985-1988 with VMFP-3. There was talk back then of closing down. I'm sure BRAC was the main influence. However, even back in the 80's the area was so heavily civilian populated that the air traffic noise was a major complaint.
If you look at El Toro in Google Earth, the yellow X's are quite obvious, all the way down the runways from one end to the other.
Isn't that the way they all go? This air station was built in 1942, and the nearest town -- El Toro, Ca -- at that time had a population of only 130! People moved in around the base, knowing full well that airplanes make noise, and then they have the nerve to complain. I think that's pretty selfish and conceited.
