Marines’ Biggest Air Wing Changes Chiefs at El Toro

The top job in the Marine Corps 3rd Aircraft Wing in El Toro changed hands Friday, as Maj. Gen. Donald E.P. Miller officially turned over $50 billion worth of fighter planes and helicopters and thousands of Marines to his successor, Maj. Gen. Royal N. Moore Jr.

The change-of-command ceremony under a bright morning sun at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station took more than an hour and was attended by about 2,000 people, including County Supervisors Thomas F. Riley--a retired one-star Marine general--and Gaddi H. Vasquez.

Spread over three air bases in two states, the 3rd Aircraft Wing is the largest in the Marine Corps. It boasts 500 aircraft, ranging from the small Cobra helicopter to the sophisticated, supersonic F/A-18 Hornet, and 16,200 Marines at El Toro, Tustin, Camp Pendleton and the Marine Corps Air Station at Yuma, Ariz. The force represents the Marine’s front-line defense in the Western Pacific, including Korea and the Philippines.

Miller, 54, and his wife, Dixie, will leave on Sunday for Washington, where he is scheduled to begin his new assignment in one week as a director in the Marine Corps Department of Plans, Policy and Operations. Wing commanders are rotated routinely every two years.

The 3rd Wing’s new commander, born in Pasadena, was director of operations for the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii. Before that, he was assistant deputy chief of staff for aviation at Marine headquarters in the nation’s capital. He also served as assistant wing commander for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point, N.C. He enlisted in the Marines in 1953.

2 Tours in Vietnam

Moore, 54, like Miller, saw two tours of duty in Vietnam where he flew 287 combat missions in F-4 Phantom jets and F-8U Crusaders. He has logged more than 5,500 hours in 35 different aircraft. His decorations include the Combat Action Ribbon, Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Moore becomes commander of one of the Marine Corps’ three active aircraft wings. The others are headquartered at Cherry Point, N.C., and Okinawa, Japan. The reserve wing is based in New Orleans.

About 6,000 Marines work and live at the air stations at El Toro and Tustin. Economists figure that those two bases pump $427 million a year into the area’s economy through retail purchases and rents.

The El Toro station is situated on more than 6,000 acres and is built around two sets of large intersecting runways. The value of the land has been estimated at between $500,000 and more than $1 million an acre.

In a message read during the ceremony, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Alfred M. Gray Jr. praised Miller for his work as wing commander. Of special significance, Gray said, was Miller’s emphasis on “readiness, safety and mission accomplishment.”

Gray also sent congratulations to Moore on assuming command “of one of our finest units with my total trust and confidence.” Gray said he was confident that Moore would “continue the superb relationship with the surrounding community created by Maj. Gen. Miller and will move into the 1990s with skill and a warrior’s spirit.”

Those who worked directly for Miller praised him for his ability to motivate people to get the job done, but get it done safely. Last year, the aircraft wing had the best safety record since it moved to El Toro in 1955. Before he took command, a series of CH-53E helicopter crashes killed nearly two dozen Marines, many of them stationed at Tustin. It has been more than two years since the last Marine crash involving the CH-53E Super Stallion.

Miller lists his accomplishments as his safety record, expanded facilities, including more housing on the bases, and improved relationships with surrounding communities.

He remains “violently opposed” to suggestions that the Marines share El Toro with commercial airlines.

“I think it is a dumb idea to suggest joint use or to throw the Marines out and make an international airport in the middle of the largest growing area in the state of California or probably any coastal state in the country,” Miller said in a recent interview. “I don’t think anyone is prepared to have 24-hour-a-day operations, with airplanes landing and taking off every 40 seconds. They moan at us, and we are pretty good guys. We start at 7 a.m. and quit at 2200 (10 p.m.).”

Miller arrived at El Toro for the first time a little more than 30 years ago as a young fighter pilot. Throughout his career, he has periodically returned to the Southern California base. In 1986, he was named base commander of El Toro and Tustin as a brigadier general. A year later, he was promoted to major general and given the aircraft wing, a prestigious job in the corps which pays about $6,000 a month.

During one of his two tours in Vietnam, Miller was shot in the arm as he transported cargo to an area just south of Da Nang in an old CH-37 helicopter. He said at that point he realized what combat was about. Among his medals is a Purple Heart, Silver Star and the combat Legion of Merit.

Miller’s only child, Deborah, will be married today at the chapel on the El Toro base.

Moore and his wife, Patricia, have three children.

The new commander on Friday asked the Marines in the aircraft wing for the same level of support that they gave Miller.

“I will, without question, do what every commander must, and that is take care of his Marines, the Navy people assigned with us, and their dependents,” Moore said. “I promise you that without question.”

MARINE AIR STATIONS IN COUNTY EL TORO

Commissioned: March 17, 1943

Personnel: 3,000

Aircraft: RF-4 Phantom jet

F/A-18 fighter jet

A-6E fighter bomber

A-4 Skyhawk jet

KC-130 tanker plane

TUSTIN

Commissioned: Sept. 1, 1942

Personnel: 3,000

Aircraft: CH-53 Sea Stallion

helicopter

CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter

CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter