While hundreds of thousands cram into crowded tents and other paid perches to watching the Pacific Airshow, more than a hundred people gathered at Fiddler’s Green at Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, saying it’s the best-kept secret out there.
What makes JFTB such a great place to watch the show, those gathered near the runway get close-up looks at the marvelous flying machines as they taxi to, and from, the military airfield’s main runway.
While anyone from the public can enter the base with a valid photo ID, military personnel issue stern warnings that if citizens are caught near the runway fences or other areas, they “will be escorted out of the base.”
Courtesy photo
George Melendez, a municipal employee in Stockton, California, drove all of the way to Los Alamitos with his son Kalel to watch the planes.
“Well, my son Kalel is an airplane freak,” said Melendez. “He likes airplanes so came down here to check it out.”
Melendez said Kalel told him the A-10 Thunderbolt (sometimes referred to as The Warthog) is being phased out of the show and he desperately wanted to see one close up.
As of Sunday afternoon, the A-10 had not taken off yet, “so we’re still hoping to see it,” the elder Melendez said.
Base officials constructed a large party tent outside the Pub at Fiddler’s Green to accommodate the rather large group gathered to watch the jets take off.
Once spotters hear any of the huge jets warming up their engines, the throng would make their way to an observing point as closest to the runway as the base would allow to wait for the payoff, a thunderous roll as U.S. Air Force jets like the F-22 a roared and shook the ground as it thundered into the clouds.
Melendez said many of the planes “put on a little show” for the local crowd either when they took off or landed.
Melendez said his son’s friends’ view, who were on the sand at Huntington Beach, was hampered by the so-called Marine layer, while skies were clear at the base.
Cathy Donahue, of Cypress, said she lives near the base in Cypress, yet it was her first time watching the planes take off for the airshow.
“These planes are awesome,” she said, “they are just unbelievable” seeing them so up close.
Just then, an F-22 taxis down the runway, preparing to take off, with his pilots cockpit open and with the smell of aviation kerosene vividly wafting though the air.
“My husband thinks I’m crazy,” said Donahue, “but you don’t get to see these planes very often.”
Since being named Commander of the base, Lt. Dan Col. Dan Fox has openly worked to bring the public inside the gates of the base in an effort to create more civic engagement with the community.
Most of the planes connected to the airshow, especially those from various military organizations, use the aviation services of JFTB base during the Pacific Airshow since once airborne, it’s a few-minute flight to showtime over the Pacific at Huntington Beach.
Editor’s note. This story has been edited since the print edition to reflect an F-22, not an F-35 and it now includes a statement about the commander’s effort to make JFTB more community inclusive.