NEWS
June 30, 1999 | JANET WILSON, LOS ANGELES TIMES
Just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, in a time when orange groves still stretched alongside dusty farm roads from the Santa Ana Mountains to the sea, the U.S. Marines put their boots down in the heart of Orange County. They wanted a training ground for hotshot pilots destined to do battle in the Pacific Rim. It would change everything. The site they selected was smack in the middle of James Irvine's finest 28,000-acre lima bean field, then the world's largest.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 2, 1997 | KEN WOO, TIMES STAFF WRITER
For three years, Steve Stavrakakis has flown a jet in the El Toro Air Show and enjoyed a special camaraderie with other pilots whose steel nerves and split-second timing have made the event a thrilling tradition for 47 years. This year, however, is the final show at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which is closing in 1999. "I hate to see it happen," Stavrakakis, 39, said, adding that the Marines are "like a family to us."
NEWS
December 5, 1996 | SHELBY GRAD and ERIC BAILEY, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Laguna Niguel City Councilman Thomas W. Wilson was selected Wednesday to succeed Marian Bergeson as Orange County's 5th District supervisor, and he immediately vowed to fight the conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a commercial airport, the county's most divisive issue. "Many of my constituents want me to vote 'no,' " said the 56-year-old retired Rockwell International aerospace engineer. "I am going to work diligently on their behalf to keep [an airport] from happening."
NEWS
June 30, 1994 | H.G. REZA, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Navy is studying the possibility that some naval and Marine Corps bases scheduled to be closed could be kept open by showing Congress that the military installations are vital to national defense or that closing them would be too expensive. In a June 1 Navy memo, base commanders were told that they are welcome to "propose changes to the previously approved . . . base recommendations of the . . . (congressionally appointed) commissions."
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 2, 1994 | KEVIN JOHNSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Orange County Grand Jury urged local leaders Wednesday to take control of the decade-long problem of jail overcrowding, warning that further delay could seriously erode the future effectiveness of law enforcement officers. The grand jury found a shortage of 3,615 beds in the county system, which has resulted in the release or turning away of "tens of thousands" of people who would normally spend time in jail.
NEWS
April 27, 1994 | H.G. REZA and JODI WILGOREN, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
As if on cue, the brooding skies that hovered over El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Tuesday suddenly burst with sunshine, as the plane carrying Richard Nixon to his final homecoming taxied to a stop. Storm clouds had threatened to dampen an already somber military ceremony planned for the arrival of the former President's body. But the rain that fell on much of Southern California Tuesday eased long enough so the brief ceremony, which is steeped in military tradition, could proceed.