Countywide : Cloudy Skies Don’t Spoil Air Show

Low-hanging clouds forced a change in the program, but the 45th annual El Toro Air Show concluded Sunday with more precision flying by the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels and an emotional tribute to troops who fought the battle of Iwo Jima.

Maj. Gen. P. Drax Williams, commander of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, put the day’s audience at 600,000 during remarks in which he thanked the crowd for attending. Official attendance figures won’t be given until later in the week.

Until the sun finally broke through in mid-afternoon, the air performers contended with a persistently gray cloud cover they estimated at 900 to 1,200 feet. The weather forced the cancellation of a jump by a Navy parachute team that needed at least 2,000 feet of clear sky to perform, the disappointed crowd was told.

But the weather had little effect on the rest of the day’s events, especially the well-received demonstrations by various Marine Corps infantry, artillery, helicopters and jet fighters, who turned a grassy area between the runways into a mock battlefield complete with bomb bursts, gunfire and small but loud explosions.

The idea, Williams said, was “showing as much . . . equipment and tactics to you as possible.”

At the end of the exercise, Marines re-enacted the famous flag-raising scene on Iwo Jima, where, the general reminded the crowd, “many units suffered 100% casualties, and some more than that, when replacements are counted.”

Williams then introduced Doug and Bob Burnett, brothers who survived the battle, dressed in World War II-era battlefield uniforms.

Marine spokesmen said experts will study aerial photographs taken over the air show this weekend in order to determine the actual attendance. An estimated 500,000 spectators attended the event Saturday. Last year, some 1.2 million turned out during the weekend.