Memories in Flight

Of the estimated 70,000 visitors who crowded the tarmac on a breezy and brilliant second day of the 37th annual Point Mugu Air Show, there was one group of rubberneckers who 23-year-old aircraft mechanic Theresa Gains especially looked forward to seeing.

“I love the old guys,” said Gains, a short, talkative sailor stationed at Port Hueneme. “I’m just wowed by some of the things they tell me about the past. I learn more about them, I think, than they do about me.”

Gains, standing under the wing of a C-2 cargo plane parked nearby, was referring to the contingent of graying military veterans who ringed her and swapped war stories about Vietnam, Korea and World War II. About battles they had seen that are now in history books.

But if she looked forward to seeing them, the feeling was mutual. The veterans of long-gone wars said they come out every year to gawk at the new equipment and to rib the young military men and women who they say have it easier.

“You look around and say, ‘These dummies don’t have it as hard as we had it,” joked John Rochford, 69, of Camarillo, who flew 43 bombing missions during the Korean War.

The camaraderie of the uniform was much in evidence, but it wasn’t the only thing on display.

The haze and low clouds that dogged the show’s opening events Friday lifted Saturday morning, clearing the skies for the jets and civilian airplanes that tumbled and flipped above the crowd.

Compared with Friday’s gloomy conditions, the show’s sunny second day seemed a celebration. The 562nd Air Force band played ragtime music in the shadow of a massive cargo plane. A squadron of biplanes, called the Red Baron Stearman Squadron, spiraled overhead, leaving trails of smoke. And an F-14 raced above the crowd at nearly supersonic speed, dropping dummy bombs that ignited explosives on the ground with crackling fury.

Crowds strolled past more than 100 aircraft on display, including an F-117 Stealth fighter, a World War II-era Grumman TBM-3, several giant helicopters and Gains’ C-2 cargo plane.

Among the visitors was a group of at-risk teenagers brought by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos Barragan. His brother, Navy Lt. Raul Barragan flew a large cargo plane to Point Mugu Naval Air Station from Maine, and the 20 or so teens got to climb aboard.

“The kids are getting a riot out of this,” Carlos Barragan said. “They love it.”

The smell of jet fuel in the air brought difficult memories for veteran Jim McDonough, as he climbed aboard a CH-46 helicopter. He rode in similar aircraft during the Vietnam War as the commander of an infantry company.

For him, it was the smell of a checklist of questions: How will I get my troops together on the ground? Will this chopper drop us off in the right spot?

“The only thing I can equate to flashbacks is those smells,” said the 60-year-old Thousand Oaks resident, who is now a computer company executive.

Scores of other veterans stood near the vintage and modern aircraft, recounting stories, while others listened to the young, active duty soldiers.

They formed a walking museum of military history. Former Marine Wayne Hazelhurst, 58, of Los Angeles rode in the back seat of an F-4 jet, flew other planes and served in Vietnam. His brother, Rick Hazelhurst, 55, of Marina del Rey served in the Air Force from 1963-1967, then spent several years in Asia as a civilian, outfitting cargo planes with weapons and converting them “into killing machines.”

“Nostalgia and a love of aircraft” brought the pair out to the show, Rick Hazelhurst said.

Veterans have a love for jets, choppers, tanks and tractors that never dies, said Dallas Holverson, 63, of Ventura, who was a member of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 10 stationed at Port Hueneme from 1957 to 1961.

“We like to play with toys,” he said.

Rochford, who flew an AD (A1) Skyraider over Korea, spent nearly half an hour in front of a giant C-2 “Greyhound” cargo plane talking with Cmdr. Stephen Kingston of San Diego.

Rochford marveled that the giant C-2 could carry 10,000 pounds of cargo or 26 passengers to a naval ship. During his time in the Navy, planes were smaller, making supplies difficult to come by.

He said he feels obligated to support young men and women who serve the way he did.

“We’re just doing what we ought to,” he said of his fellow veterans. “We need to be backing up these young kids today.”

Maj. Mike Lynch pilots CH-46 helicopters similar to the ones McDonough rode in.

Lynch flies with a Marine unit called the “Evil Eyes” for the sinister eyeballs painted on the choppers’ noses. The unit is well-known for carrying Marines into Vietnam firefights and extracting them from treacherous battles. Vietnam vets who see the faded eyes painted on the helicopter at air shows sometimes cry, Lynch said.

“We learn from them; they learn from us,” he said. “It makes us proud to be Marines.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Air Show Schedule 8 a.m.: Gates open.

8-9:30 a.m.: Radio-controlled airplane demonstration.

10 a.m.: Welcome ceremonies featuring Red Baron Stearman Squadron Missing Man Formation and the national anthem.

10:30 a.m.: AT-6 fly-by, Yak and Sea Fury.

11 a.m.: Hawkeye and John Collver’s War Dog AT-6 demonstration.

Noon: Bill Cornick, Weapons Test Squadron F, F-14 demonstration and Flight of the Cats.

1 p.m.: Channel Islands Air National Guard C-130 firefighting demonstration, Bearcat demonstration, ANG pallet drop and Dan Buchanan.

2 p.m.: ANG troop insertion, F-15 demonstration, Heritage Flight and Gene Soucy.

3 p.m.: F-117, Wild Thing, Red Baron Stearman Squadron and F-18 demonstration.

4:15 p.m.: Taillhook Legacy Flight 93.

For more information call 989-8786 or visit the Internet Web site at https://www.naspm.navy.mil/.