LAST BIG PARADE? When the El Toro...

LAST BIG PARADE? When the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station closes before the turn of the century, it will mean the end of four decades of its annual air show. Speculation was rampant that this year’s 45th show--April 29-30--would be the last. Not so, says spokesman Sgt. Barry Pawelek. . . . But he notes: “This one will probably be the biggest and the best. We just don’t know how big it’s going to be next year. We keep losing squadrons, so I suspect it’s going to be downsized.”

HERO TO HERO: It was 50 years ago Thursday that Japanese fighter pilot Yoichiro Sonoda was killed in Okinawa after his plane crash-landed. Taken from his body was his knee message pad. It later fell into the hands of Marine fighter pilot Ken Walsh, a Medal of Honor winner who now lives in Santa Ana. . . . Walsh, who kept it all these years as a war memento, recently returned it to Japan, where it will be displayed in the Hall of Peace in Chiran. Says Walsh: “We were enemies then, but Sonoda was a brave man. It should be in his homeland.”

EYE ON THE PAST: Today, as he has for three years, Laguna Hills ophthalmologist Roger Ohanesian leaves to provide emergency eye care in embattled Armenia--where his grandparents escaped the country’s Turkish rule 90 years ago. “It’s a way of paying back,” says Ohanesian, 54. . . . He notes about his grandparents: “They were lucky. Walking through the villages and meeting people my age, I often wondered what my life would have been like if they hadn’t been so lucky.”

EASTER VACATION? You think your congressmen hit the beaches when they’re back on Easter break from Washington? U.S. Rep. Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach), has made a dozen public appearances since he returned on Monday. . . . Thursday, it was the Newport Foundation. Today, he’s luncheon speaker at the Orange County Forum in Irvine. Monday, it’s the county medical association. But there’s no problem mixing up his speeches. The topic is the same each stop: The Republicans’ “contract with America.”

TONIGHT: Iron Butterfly plays rock at 8, the Coach House, San Juan Capistrano. (714) 496-8930.