CLOSING OF FLYING LEATHERNECK MUSEUM A REAL SHAME

The recent announcement that the Marine Corps brass is shutting down the Flying Leatherneck Museum at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar represents the likely loss of a vital piece of San Diego’s military and aviation heritage.

While the future of the collection of historic aircraft at the museum remains undecided, it’s unlikely to find a new home in San Diego. There is talk of moving it to its former home at the now-shuttered Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange County, or maybe of parting it out to aviation museums around the nation.

Which is both a shame and a lost opportunity — for San Diego’s role in aviation and Marine Corps history made this the perfect home for the Flying Leathernecks.

Once Wright Brothers rival Glenn Curtis opened the first Navy flying school on Coronado in 1911, San Diego was established as a nexus in aviation. Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis was built in San Diego by Ryan Airlines Company. Consolidated Aircraft built thousands of B-24 Liberators for the Army Air Corps during World War II, and General Atomics continues to supply the U.S. military with Predator drones.

The Marines have similarly long roots in San Diego — with half the Corps training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, and Pacific operations and training supported out of Camp Pendleton.

And, of course, the Marines took over the former Navy fighter base at Miramar in 1999, with the closing of the El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps air bases up in Orange County.

Given that, it’s no surprise that San Diego has one of the largest populations of retired Marines in the country.

All of which makes the decision to evict the museum so frustrating.

The Flying Leatherneck Museum complemented the USS Midway Museum and the San Diego Air & Space Museum, as well as the March Field Air Museum in Riverside. While the Midway tells the story of Navy aviation, and March that of the Air Force and Army Air Corps before it, the Flying Leatherneck Museum shares the unique story of Marine Corps aviation.

Carrier-qualified like their Navy colleagues, Marine Corps pilots can also fly and fight from forward-deployed ground bases like their Air Force counterparts. Marine Corps aviation is always in support of the Marines on the ground. Wherever

Marine infantry are engaged, you’ll find Marine Corps pilots supporting them. That’s a history worth preserving. In announcing the shuttering of the museum, the brass cited the cost of operating the facility.

Here’s where frustration sets in for the dozens of retired Marines who have poured tens of thousands of hours (and dollars) into preserving the Corps’ aviation history: A private, nonprofit foundation has been running the museum since 2007. That year, the foundation presented plans to the Department of the Navy for a permanent building to house and display the collection, as well as exhibits that would bring the stories of those planes to life. The foundation was prepared to launch a fundraising campaign, with honorary chairs Jerry Coleman, the longtime Padres broadcaster, and Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s announcer sidekick.

The foundation would have carried all expenses — relieving the Corps and taxpayers of all costs. All they needed was a green light to get started.

Andrew Dyer’s March 18 article in The San Diego Union-Tribune about the pending closure indicated the foundation never even received so much as a a response to its proposals in the intervening 14 years. Not a yes. Not a no. Just silence.

Now both Coleman and McMahon, proud Marine aviation veterans, have passed, and apparently their beloved museum will be gone as well.

The museum served as an important bridge between the Marine Corps and the rest of us. It wasn’t just seeing those historic aircraft in person, it was meeting the docents — retired and former Marines who flew those aircraft, who repaired them and maintained them, who brought those stories to life in a palpable way no video can replicate.

I realize that funding a museum is not a priority of the Corps, nor should it be.

But given the wild success of the USS Midway museum here in town, and that of the Smithsonian-affiliated San Diego Air & Space Museum, it seems to me that this is a community that has proven that it will financially support aviation museums.

It’s too bad the brass never gave the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum Foundation a chance to try.