War Fair

There was no denying it. The Civil War was shaping up to be a total bomb.

As scores of spectators waited impatiently for the kickoff battle in a weekend of simulated skirmishes Saturday, event coordinator Jeff Sharp reviewed the troops and came to a disappointing conclusion--there would be no War Between the States today.

Sure, there were plenty of horses, cannons and guns. But only one Confederate foot soldier bothered to show up, and he was late.

“Knuckleheads,” Sharp muttered under his breath. At least the day wouldn’t be a total loss, he thought. He still had the Spanish Civil War, an Old West gunfight, The War To End All Wars and WWII to wow the crowd.

“These things are always a logistical nightmare,” said Sharp, who has coordinated three such exhibitions for the County Veterans Service Office. A “master of mayhem” of sorts, it’s Sharp’s job to make sure every war gets off to a noisy start and a smoky finish.

That was especially true of the first year the event was held. Fireworks used to simulate combat explosions set fire to a bush that spread to the battlefield.

“That was something else,” Sharp said. “We had German soldiers, Japanese soldiers, Americans, cowboys and the National Guard putting that thing out.”

As make-believe soldiers in German and American fatigues strung rubber barbed wire over trenches and placed machine guns in pill boxes in fields behind the County Operations Center in Santa Ana, Sharp sped from battlefield to battlefield on a yellow golf cart barking orders into a walkie talkie.

“Hey! You can’t block this sidewalk,” Sharp said as he wheeled up to a platoon of ROTC cadets practicing drills outside the Registrar of Voters Office. “Knuckleheads,” he muttered, as he drove past.

Throughout the day, from trenches and behind sand berms, the would-be soldiers tested their weapons by firing blanks and discussed the relative authenticity of their period uniforms.

“There’s this sort of excitement before you reenact a battle,” said William Wan, who wore a German WWII uniform. “It’s kind of like, is this what it was all really like?”

Unlike most of the men attending this year’s Marching Through History Exposition, Sharp does not wear a military uniform. Instead, he’s dressed in a white shirt and tie.

“I’ve been a baseball official for 18 years,” Sharp said. “I have to wear uniforms all the time.”

The event, which continues today, is meant to honor veterans and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Korean War’s outbreak.

Later in the day, as a squad of make-believe soldiers played out a brief battle of the Spanish American War, a trio of boys from Tustin stood beside the battlefield in wide-eyed wonder.

“It’s really real, just like the movies,” said Michael DeBenedetto, 11.

“Yeah, it’s real instead of fake,” said friend Sam Prescott, 12.

It was, in Sharp’s view, the ultimate praise.