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    CSUF’s de Graaf Center and Marine Museum preserve oral history of the air base
    • March 10, 2025

    A partnership between the Lawrence de Graaf 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...

      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)

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    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)

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    Jessica 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.”

    ​ Orange County Register 

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