A partnership between the Lawrence de Graff Center for Public and Oral History at Cal State Fullerton and the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum at Great Park in Irvine will add a new and unique layer to the storied aircraft flown by U.S. Marine pilots over the decades.
The center is donating a copy of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Project, which features more than 500 oral histories, helping to bring to life the more than 40 aircraft and related artifacts and exhibits to be displayed in the 131,000-square-foot museum when it reopens in late 2026 or early 2027.
The El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Project includes interviews with military pilots, enlisted Marines, veterans’ families, civilian employees and others who had a connection to the air station from World War II to the Vietnam War.
Cameron Cook and his son, Colton Cook, 10, check out one of the displays at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The oral histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Some visitors walk among a few of the fighter jets being refurbished at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Patrick Gough ’80 (B.A. History), Board of Directors vice chair, speaks at the ceremony announcing over 500 Cal State Fullerton oral histories documenting the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Jessica Yirush Stern, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, speaks glowingly of the project as retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Patrick Gough ’80 (B.A. History), Board of Directors Vice Chair looks on at the ceremony announcing over 500 Cal State Fullerton oral histories documenting the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Jessica Yirush Stern, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, speaks at the ceremony announcing over 500 Cal State Fullerton oral histories documenting the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Eli Wolcott, CSUF student and history major, Natalie Fousekis, director of The Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History, Chérie Rolapp, business and community relations strategist for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Georgina Galindo, CSUF student and criminal justice major;, Nataly Luna, CSUF student and liberal studies major, Jessica Yirush Stern, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, Board of Directors Chair retired U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael Aguilar, President and CEO, retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Patrick Gough ’80 (B.A. History), Board of Directors Vice Chair all pose (from left to right) at the ceremony announcing over 500 Cal State Fullerton oral histories documenting the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Just a few of the fighter jets being refurbished at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro are stored in one of the hangars. The oral histories of the base will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
US Marine aircraft being refurbished at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro come in all sizes. Oral histories of the base will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
US Marine aircraft being refurbished at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro come in all sizes. Oral histories of the base will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
US Marine aircraft being refurbished at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro come in all sizes. Oral histories of the base will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Eli Wolcott, CSUF student and history major, stands next to one of the helicopters being refurbished the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Oral histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Eli Wolcott, CSUF student and history major, stands next to one of the helicopters being refurbished the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Oral histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Patrick Gough ’80 (B.A. History), Board of Directors vice chair, speaks at the ceremony announcing over 500 Cal State Fullerton oral histories documenting the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Jessica Yirush Stern, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, reacts to a joke as retired U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael Aguilar, completes the forms of the Memorandum of Understanding between the CSUF and the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum for the internships partnership. Looking on at left is Natalie Fousekis, director of The Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History. The oral histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Jessica Yirush Stern, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and retired U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael Aguilar, complete the forms of the Memorandum of Understanding between the CSUF and the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum for the internships partnership. The oral histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
Show Caption1 of 15Cameron Cook and his son, Colton Cook, 10, check out one of the displays at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. The oral histories will soon be available at the future Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, set to open at the Great Park in Irvine as early as spring 2027. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)
ExpandJessica Stern, dean of CSUF’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Natalie Fousekis, director of the Center for Public and Oral History, and other officials from the university and the museum, were on hand when the partnership was announced on Feb.10 at Hangar 297 at Great Park, which currently houses the aircraft.
Many of the aircraft that will be displayed in the new museum are currently being stored and restored in the hangar.
“I have to say I’m kind of moved by being here,” Stern said. “I’m an early-American historian, and I think, as most of my fellow historians in the room know, so much of our life is spent trying to picture worlds, reading sources, but the power of being in a place where everything is made manifest … I’m really touched by this; I’m really touched by the mission of what you are doing here, and I feel so honored to be a part of that.”
Fousekis said the collaboration ensures that the oral histories are not just stored in an archive but are used in exhibitions and made accessible to the public.
The collection includes the first Marine Corps female general and African American general, Fousekis said.
“So, it just feels really special to be back here in one of these hangars, which many of the Marines that we interviewed talked about,” Fousekis said.
Through the center’s student-driven oral history program, the recorded El Toro memories were conducted by 35 undergraduate and graduate students, Fousekis and Volker Janssen, professor of history.
The original oral history interviews will remain in the archives at the center, housed within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Pollak Library, Fousekis said.
The collection is available to students, faculty, researchers and the public by appointment. The partnership will offer career training and learning opportunities at the museum to students and community members.
The museum will offer two internships each semester, one paid and one for academic credit.
CSUF senior Eli Wolcott, a senior history major, is currently interning as a digital archivist.
Wolcott, who hopes to be a museum curator, digitalizes books, aircraft manuals and photographs, which he then turns into searchable PDFs.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Wolcott said. “I’ve always been into history and military history. My family has a long service history. So, getting to basically contribute in my own way is nice for me. It is a big privilege. I’m very excited. I’m happy to be able to get more experience behind the scenes of the museum.”
Col. Patrick “Paddy” Gough, vice chair of the board of directors of the museum and a graduate of CSUF, said he discovered the value of oral history while doing his own oral history project as a CSUF student.
Years later, Gough became the president of the Cal State Fullerton Alumni Association, where he met Fousekis, who told him about the El Toro Oral History Project, which had stalled due to a lack of funds.
Gough reached out to Marine Lt. Gen. Keith Stalder, the national commander for the Marine Corps Aviation Historical Society and the Aviation Museum.
He then met with Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, who had been interviewed for the El Toro project, and Brig. Gen. Michael Aguilar, president of the museum.
“I started thinking, especially when Gen. Robling told me that he was interviewed for the oral history project, wouldn’t this be a great idea to bring the two entities together?” Gough said. “The major university in Orange County and the legacy and the heritage of Marine aviation at large, but specifically in Orange County.”
“So that’s how we got here,” Gough said. “And now, today, I think it’ll be a great opportunity to solidify that relationship and make it go beyond that.”
Related Articles
Local News | CSUF launches peer-to-peer financial wellness mentoring Local News | CSUF professor’s children’s story about LA wildfires offers facts and reassurance Local News | Gutted courses, fewer majors, faculty layoffs: Who will feel Cal State’s 8% budget cut? Local News | Longtime director retires with legacy of nurturing growth at Fullerton Arboretum Local News | Paying it forward: CSUF international students share their experienceHence then, the article about csuf s degraff center and marine museum preserve oral history of the air base was published today ( ) and is available on The Orange County Register ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( CSUF’s DeGraff Center and Marine Museum preserve oral history of the air base )
Also on site :
- Manchester United vs Newcastle Prediction: Heavyweights Meet in Premier League’s Only Boxing Day Clash
- Sanofi to Acquire Dynavax, Adding a Marketed Adult Hepatitis B Vaccine and Phase 1/2 Shingles Candidate to the Pipeline
- Russell Brand Prays on Instagram After New Charges of Rape and Sexual Assault