El Toro USMCAS, was the home to the Marine Corps F-18 Tactical Fighter Group, and was used in recent times for training pilots of these planes. The base is over 5,000 acres covering more area than Los Angeles International Airport. Every year the base hosted the El Toro Air Show, which featured the Blue Angels. El Toro was also featured in the movie "Independance Day" starring Will Smith. At the end of the cold war the military decided to close down several of it's bases, and El Toro was one of them. It was closed, and moved it's operations down to San Diego's Miramar Base, home of the Top Gun school. The base was turned over to Orange County in 1999, and won approval for an airport conversion in two separate elections. Opposition to the airport plan mainly by affluent South Orange County has delayed the airport plan, and now opponents would like to see a park put on the site. There is another election which will bring up the re-use plan scheduled for March, 2002. I live just a few miles from the base, and circle around it everyday going to and from work, so I am very familiar with it's layout. My personal feelings about the airport are very positive, and I feel an area the size of the L.A. Basin could surely benefit with another large airport to take the pressure off of LAX, which has no room for expansion. El Toro sits in the rural area of the beautiful Saddleback Valley, and butts up against the Irvine Spectrum Indutrial Complex, which is said to be California's new Silicone Valley. It is a natural spot for an airport with railroads going through it, it is surrounded by freeways or tollroads, and has no housing in it's flight paths, and is surrounded by mainly agricultural land which grows landscape material. The base also presents itself as a beautiful entry point into Southern California, situated at the base of Saddleback Mountain.
Bill Melichar