EL TORO AIR SHOW : Flying Colors : With Patriotism Sky-High, the Show Is Expected to Draw a Record Crowd

Each year, the tightly guarded El Toro Marine Corps Air Station throws open its gates to hundreds of thousands of civilian aviation buffs who come to sit in the sun and stare skyward at screeching fighter jets and small stunt planes performing dangerous, exotic loops.

Wing walkers will amble high above the crowds. An AV-8 Harrier plane will hover above the runway. A team of fliers will execute aerobatics high over the base. And topping off each show, Blue Angels will zip through the air, barely missing each other as they perform precision formations.

The El Toro Air Show this Saturday and Sunday is the largest of its kind in the United States. Referred to as the Paris Air Show of the West by some and a “military Disneyland” by others, the show will feature the B-1 bomber, Patriot missiles, the latest supersonic military jets and the most advanced Marine Corps and Army helicopters.

But it almost did not happen. The air show was called off in January because of the Gulf War, then hurriedly reinstated when the cease-fire was announced in late February. And despite the fits and starts, it is expected to draw the biggest crowd in its 41-year history.

“The country is in an upswing in patriotism,” said special projects officer Lt. Col. Barbara Ellen Hamann. “People are enjoying the fact that the war is over and the troops are coming home.”

People who have never been to an air show before will be able “to see firsthand the military equipment and the planes they had watched on the television during the Persian Gulf War,” she added.

Much of the planning for this year’s show has been done by reserve Marine officers because the regular organizers were in the Middle East.

More than 52,000 men and women from Orange County and nearby Camp Pendleton in northern San Diego County served in the Persian Gulf campaign. About 8,000 of them were from the air stations at El Toro and Tustin. Although they played a major role in the intense bombing of Iraq and occupied Kuwait and later in the 100-hour ground war, not one Marine from El Toro or Tustin was killed. Seven infantry Marines from Camp Pendleton died in combat or related accidents between the start of the war in January and the Feb. 28 cease-fire.

Planes from the El Toro and Tustin-based 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing under the command of Maj. Gen. Royal N. Moore Jr. dropped some of the first bombs on enemy targets in predawn attacks Jan. 17, and helicopters from the wing were first into Kuwait when the ground war began Feb. 24.

Most of the Marine aviators are home, but some infantrymen from Pendleton are still in Saudi Arabia.

Last year, the air show drew 810,000 people over two days, but this year, coming on the heels of the Persian Gulf victory, military officials anticipate more.

“We are hoping more than a million people will come out and help us celebrate,” said Maj. John Hill, who heads the air show. “While they are here, they can give our victorious warriors a great big welcome home.”

As in the past, the main attraction on Saturday and Sunday will be the “Navy/Marine Corps flight demonstration team,” better known as the Blue Angels. The six blue-and-yellow F/A-18 Hornets will dazzle the crowds with their precision maneuvers in delta formations and the four-plane diamond formations. Since 1946, 230 million have seen the team perform, and this year alone it will appear 68 times at 39 locations across the country, El Toro’s show being the largest.

Another favorite is the AV-8 Harrier, a plane that proved itself in the Persian Gulf as both a bomber and a support aircraft that shielded advancing troops from attack. The aircraft has the unique capability of taking off and landing vertically.

Also appearing will be the Holiday Inn Aerobatic Team performing aerial maneuvers; Patty Wagstaff in her “Super Bandit,” doing world class aerobatics; Jim Franklin executing unique stunts in his 1940 Waco biplane, joined by his daredevil wing walkers; and John Collver and his “Warbird” demonstrating World War II maneuvers high above the El Toro airfield.

In addition, many aircraft will be on display, ranging from the large B-52 bomber to the small, deadly Cobra gunship helicopter that gained considerable attention for its feats in the Gulf War. The famed Patriot missile may be there, as will be aircraft, tanks, jeeps and hand-held rocket launchers. Filling out the grounds of the air show will be concession stands serving hamburgers, hot dogs, soda and beer, as well as hawkers selling Desert Storm memorabilia, T-shirts, hats and patches.

But while they are festive in nature, air shows are filled with tension because of the danger involved in many of the performances. Pilots, crew members, sky divers and spectators have been killed in flaming crashes before hundreds of thousands of onlookers.

The worst air show disaster happened in West Germany. In 1988, three Italian stunt jets collided, one of them falling into the crowd and killing 70 people at Ramstein Air Base. Six years earlier, also in West Germany, an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in Mannheim, killing 39 sky divers and five Army helicopter crew members.

And the Paris Air Show has been the scene of a number of serious accidents over the years, including the 1973 crash of a supersonic Soviet Tupolev 144 that killed 13 people. American B-58 “Hustler” bombers crashed in Paris in 1961 and again in 1965, each time killing the three-member crew.

A crash involving the Air Force’s Thunderbirds in the Nevada desert killed four of their pilots in 1982. Their planes slammed into the ground, one after the other, as they practiced a giant loop. In 1985, two members of the Blue Angels collided at an air show in Niagara Falls, N.Y., before 22,000 onlookers. One of the fliers ejected safely, but the other one was killed in the crash.

In the El Toro Air Show that same year, the pilot of a World War II vintage plane miscalculated a maneuver and plowed into the base chapel. The pilot, a civilian, and his passenger, a Navy hospitalman, were killed as 200,000 horrified spectators looked on.

Three years later, a Marine pilot doing a precision dogfight loop stunned an El Toro crowd of 300,000--among them his wife and mother-in-law--when he plowed his F/A-18 Hornet into the ground.

Miraculously, Col. Jerry Cadick survived the impact. Rescue team members found him slumped over in the cockpit, alive but suffering critical injuries to the face, chest and legs. Investigators said the crash hurled his head into the control panel with an impact 75 times greater than the force of gravity.

He suffered rib fractures, broken facial bones, a collapsed lung, compound fracture of his left ankle, broken bones in his right leg, and several broken vertebra. He was quickly transported to nearby Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, where he remained in intensive care for more than two weeks. Three months later he emerged from the hospital with metal plates in his lower back, metal rings to replace crushed eye sockets and pins to hold his splintered ankle. After the crash and after 26 years service, the Marine Corps retired Cadick.

Although he declined to be interviewed, Cadick said he is flying civilian planes and is also planning to start his own aviation-related business. Last year, he was featured on the television series Rescue 911 that re-created the April 24, 1988, accident.

“I kind of felt like a failure,” he said on the television show. “What in the world have I done to get to this point? . . . One of the things that I think kept me going was the overwhelming desire to fly jets again. That’s all I could think about.”

Cadick told the Rescue 911 reporter: “I have no idea why I survived this accident. Of course I always felt very embarrassed . . . . Any Marine fighter pilot hates to make a mistake. And it has taken me a long time to come to grips with that.”

Despite the danger that the pilots face, the air show is staged for a good cause. Proceeds from the concessions go to the Navy Relief Society, which provides financial aid to Marines, sailors and their families in times of personal and financial crisis.

In years past, as much as $500,000 has been raised at the two-day show.

Because of the expected record crowd, officials are urging people to come early and allow plenty of time to get off the base after the show ends. Only 70,000 parking places are available, so military officials suggest that the public use the Orange County Transit District’s shuttle service. The public is encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, sun screen and brimmed hats. There are 22 acts each day, ranging from the Budweiser Clydesdale horses to the Blue Angels at 3:15 p.m. both days.

A show will be presented Friday for the handicapped and other special guests.

The regular shows on Saturday and Sunday will begin at 8 a.m., with the gates opening at 7 a.m.