Air Show Preview : Special Guests Visit the Corps

As soon as she stepped off the bus, PFC James Evenson said, he knew he’d found a date for Friday’s preview showing of the 1985 Navy Relief Air Show at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

He led Connie White to a front row seat, sat beside her all day and pointed out the high spots as the famous Blue Angels flight team and other aviator groups went through their demonstrations.

White, who is 91 and lives at Royale Convalescent Hospital in Santa Ana, later said she enjoyed the outing “very, very much.”

The preview show has become something of a tradition for the Marines, who, with a little help from Orange County businesses, on that day extend a hand to the handicapped, the elderly and disabled veterans who might stay away from the public weekend show to avoid the crowd.

It also is a great way for the Marines, through the press, to tell the paying public that the annual show is at hand. An estimated 450,000 people jammed the base for last year’s two-day event, with admission fees and all other proceeds going to Navy Relief, an emergency fund for Navy and Marine personnel in need.

Nearly 4,000 guests from about 180 nearby homes and hospitals came to the base Friday to be pampered and entertained for a day in the sun. The Orange County Transit District provided rides at no chargeon 26 buses, and corporate sponsors chipped in for the food and drink.

The Blue Angels flew their tight formations, rolled their rolls and provoked the usual oohs and aahs --but they weren’t the whole show.

Vintage aircraft performed a re-enactment of a World War II air battle, and there were also a mini-jet, aerobatics, parachutists, a demonstration of the new Northrop F-20 Tigershark fighter, and a Marine ground assault to “defend” the air show against a sinister force in a nearby bunker. The assault force, like those in the sky above, survived the day without a casualty.

The Blue Angels pilots came out of the clouds and mingled with the eager crowd of questioners and autograph-seekers after their 45-minute demonstration at the end of the show.

As he waited in line for an autograph, Gary Swain, a developmentally disabled young man from the Chapman Adult Center in Garden Grove, pronounced the day’s events “awesome.”

The Blue Angels weren’t his favorite, he confided. “The helicopters were the best.”