I drive to Disneyland plenty of times. After a long battle between the SoCal traffic, I know the theme park is near when the intersection street posts begin turning a forest green color, and Mickey Mouse ears begin to pop up everywhere. Once I see those, I know that I have made it. That is exactly how it is on the way to the March Field Air Museum, except the mouse ears are replaced with shadows of airplanes. For a museum in Riverside, it was bigger than I expected. To be honest, I thought the place had five tiny airplanes, slapped a sign that said “Museum” out on the front, then started charging people for admittance. I did not expect it to be crowded; I was right. After all, I have lived here for nearly a decade, and have never bothered…show more content… The handler would communicate to the dog using hand signals, and it was the dog’s responsibility to warn the handler of what lies ahead. On the battlefield, the dogs were another soldier, but in their free time, they were man’s best friends. Although over 4000 war dogs fought along side man during the Vietnam war, only 200 dogs came home (Ravitz ). The rest of the dogs were either put to death or left behind. Jeffrey Bennet, president of the War Dog Memorial, wanted to commemorate and recognize heroes that were forgotten and left behind. Thus, the March Air Field Museum became the first to receive a War Dog…show more content… It was not until Frank Miller, the owner of Riverside’s Mission Inn, announced to build an airfield near Riverside. Mark explains that the Mission Inn “had a lot of influence.” He explains how “so many presidents have visited [The Mission Inn], including JFK, Bush, even Theodore Roosevelt.” Prior to Frank Miller’s idea, San Diego pilots used the base area as an airstrip. In 1918, air corps began flocking in and began training. Eventually, the training base evolved into a permanent base. In 1996, it finally became the March Air Reserve Base and the museum became March Field Air Museum.
By this time, Mark had finished his Pina Colada Starburst. Thank God. He tells me that his favorite part of the museum is the live airplane watch, but insists that “the Flight Line is a must.” I followed him out of the main hanger and to an airplane graveyard, where Mark said the museum had “over 70 types of aircraft on display.”
All the planes differed in size. Some only seated one or two. Some seated a whole army. One of the larger pieces of aircraft, in the corner of the hangar, caught my eye: the C-141B Starlifter. There was a large group of people dressed in fancy sundresses and suits, strutting down the air stairs, with glasses of sparkling
