El Toro Will No Longer Be Squadron’s Base
Capt. John Koury will ease the wheels of his KC-130 Hercules off the runway at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station today for its final flight from Orange County as the base’s last active-duty squadron leaves the base for good.
Koury’s entourage consists of 10 of the Marines’ workhorse aircraft and a squadron of 300 pilots, mechanics and support crews heading to their new home at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.
Two small reserve helicopter squadrons remaining at the base will be transferred later this month as the Marines approach the July deadline for shuttering El Toro, in its heyday one of the nation’s most active military bases.
The 10:30 a.m. flight today will be bittersweet for Koury, 34, a Mission Viejo resident who has flown KC-130s for five years. “[Leaving] was one of those things we’ve been told for years was going to happen but we always hoped it wouldn’t,” he said. “It’s sad it’s finally here.”
Flying too from El Toro will be 56 years of tradition for Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352, formed at the base in 1943. The base got its first KC-130 in 1961.
A Vietnam War-vintage, propeller-driven aircraft, its primary mission is in-flight and ground refueling, and it can transport up to 150 troops or a belly full of cargo. Though nearly 100 feet long, the plane is capable of taking off from and landing on short, dirt airfields.
Its reliability and size has led some to call the plane as the Volkswagen bus of aircraft. But Koury said it’s more like a Chevy Suburban--large but maneuverable. The four-engine craft is considered among the most durable in the fleet.
It’s a plane that has been flown daily in the skies of Orange County for 38 years. In that time, it has become a favorite at the base’s annual air shows.”All the kids love to climb on them,” Koury said.
Every December, Santa Claus would emerge in a festooned sleigh from the back of a KC-130, which had a painted red “nose,” for the annual base Christmas party.
Last month, singer Trisha Yearwood rode in an El Toro KC-130 during filming for the television series “JAG.” And several El Toro KC-130s were featured in the Clint Eastwood film “Heartbreak Ridge.”
The planes have seen more somber missions: In 1992, they refueled helicopters used to bring food as part of humanitarian aid to Somalia.
During the Persian Gulf war, 13 KC-130s left El Toro for Bahrain in August 1990. They ultimately pumped 29 million gallons of fuel into Navy and Marine jets involved in the conflict.
Chief Warrant Officer Jim Kikta of Lake Forest said his most memorable moment in 26 years as a navigator in the planes was returning home to El Toro after eight months in Operation Desert Storm.
“To bring it back around [over El Toro] after all that time was something,” said Kikta, who has logged 10,000 flying hours in the KC-130. “It seems like I grew up in these hangars. To see it all come down and packed up, it’s such a final thing.”
About 260 planes and helicopters will be transferred to Miramar, which is about five times larger than El Toro and has twice the military personnel; 49 other Marine helicopters will go to Camp Pendleton.
The planes will depart today in three formations, taking off to the east, then turning right and continuing over the San Diego Freeway.
The base was commissioned in March 1943 as headquarters for Marine Corps pilots’ fleet operations training. In 1950, it was selected as a master jet air station and center for West Coast Marine aviation operations. It housed the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
El Toro crews have been preparing for final departure since 1991 when the base was put on the list of those to be closed as a concession to the end of the Cold War.
“This is the last fixed-wing squadron to leave, and that’s really what El Toro has always been known for,” said the base’s information officer, Lt. Adrianne Dewey.
