Museum Plan Not Viable, Study Argues

A proposed Museum of American Military History, to be housed in a blimp hangar on the former Tustin Marine base, would cost $262 million to create and more than $6 million a year to operate, according to a feasibility study conducted for the Orange County Planning Department.

The study, which is to be presented to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, recommends narrowing the museum’s focus from general U.S. military history to exploring the U.S. role in the Pacific during World War II, and expanding the center’s appeal by including the role of the military in establishing human rights.

As proposed, the study said, the museum would appeal largely to older white males and would not draw enough visitors to be successful.

If the focus is not changed, the study said, organizers should consider a smaller facility that would be cheaper to build and operate.

The study also said the museum -- like most others -- would require outside support, either from local governments, established groups or the military itself.

As the project is proposed, that would translate into an annual subsidy of $2.6 million to $2.9 million, the study said.

Museum backers dismissed the study’s financial estimates as too high, and said the center could be launched with only “a couple of million” dollars.

“It’s going to cost $2.5 million to $3.5 million to build it as we operate it,” said Jeff Sharp, an archivist for the Orange County Veterans Service Office, which is coordinating the project.

Under the plan, he said, the museum would be built in about 15 stages, each corresponding with a fiscal year. But the feasibility study broke the project into three phases costing $138.3 million for the first and $62 million for the second and third.

Sharp also said the museum would cost about $2 million a year to run, and would support itself in its third year.

The idea arose four years ago as the federal government closed operations at the one-time blimp base. Veterans groups have said they want to convert the 18-story northern hangar -- one of two such landmark structures at the base -- into a facility showcasing life in wartime and recognizing the experiences of the county’s 250,000 veterans.

Plans call for displays developed from items donated by more than 40 private collectors, and would include planes, tanks, trucks, Jeeps, uniforms and photographs.

Organizers have already received $2 million worth of vintage tanks, landing craft, uniforms and other equipment restored for the movie “Windtalkers,” about Navajo “code-talkers” in the Pacific during World War II.