Vets get a preview as Heroes Hall museum prepares to open Wednesday
More than seven decades after he first set foot on what was then the Santa Ana Army Air Base, Skip Thrune returned as a guest of honor.
On Monday, during a special preview event, the former World War II pilot became the first official visitor to Heroes Hall, a veterans museum at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.
Wearing his Army jacket, the 95-year-old Fullerton resident said he was pleased that Heroes Hall will demonstrate to younger generations — those who don’t know the wartime significance of places such as Saipan, Okinawa and Iwo Jima — what his generation sacrificed for the country.
“So few people know what it was,” said Thrune, a captain who flew throughout the Pacific and witnessed the nuclear explosion at Nagasaki, Japan. “This wasn’t an easy process.”
Heroes Hall, which opens to the public Wednesday, is a former Santa Ana Army Air Base barracks. It was originally slated for demolition in 2013 but, after lobbying to the Fair Board from veterans and preservationists, it was saved, moved from its longtime home where the fairgrounds’ Plaza Pacifica is today and renovated to house the museum.
Outside the 4,800-square-foot building — originally called the Memorial Gardens Building because it was named after a since-removed veterans memorial garden — is a courtyard containing a large star based on the Congressional Medal of Honor. Around the star is the Walk of Honor, which includes plaques honoring Orange County service members who received top military honors. The plaques were originally on display at the Civic Center in Santa Ana.
For the next few months, the first floor of Heroes Hall will feature a temporary exhibit based on the Vietnam War book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. It also contains wartime memorabilia on loan — a field tent, boots, a 16mm camera — and looping video footage from the 2013 Los Angeles Times stories “Healing Sgt. Warren” and “A Soldier’s Wife.”
The subjects of those stories, Iraq War veterans Jonathan Warren and Tom Woods, were present at Monday’s event. Both Army vets said they appreciate having a space dedicated to veterans where they can share their stories with students.
“It’s not just a history book,” Woods said.
Heroes Hall will be used as an educational center for 11th-grade history curriculum. A class from Costa Mesa High School is scheduled to be at Wednesday’s grand opening, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Santa Ana Army Air Base’s activation.
The second level of Heroes Hall is home to a permanent exhibit on the air base and other topics such as the Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo code talkers and the Women’s Army Corps. Later, it also will contain a “story room” where veterans can record videos about their experiences for an archive.
As David Hayward walked around the second floor Monday, he had the realization that what he saw wasn’t some other person’s history. It was his.
Hayward arrived at the Santa Ana Army Air Base in 1942, the year it opened for cadets. He was among the first to train there. Seeing old photos of base life brought back memories.
During the rainy season in 1942, “we were marching in the mud, no pavement anywhere,” he recalled with a smile.
Heroes Hall will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except during the Orange County Fair from July 14 to Aug. 13, when it will have different operating hours. Admission is free.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
