The Sun Sets on El Toro

I have a most interesting tale to tell
About a town on a California road, called the “El Camino Real”.
It was also known as the “Kings Highway”,
In those grandiose days of old
And something of historical interest, for the records must be told!

The Orange County town of El Toro,
Celebrated its last tomorrow,
In many a year long gone by.
She was kind of eclipsed, by an assortment of things,
That had taken flight in her sky.

The whole town had become an air base,
Quite to everyones complete surprise
And it turned out to be the Marine Corps,
Department of the United States Navy,
Who had swallowed up her skies.

It went on for nigh on fifty years
And then as suddenly, as it had arrived,
By an act of the U.S. Congress, it ups and disappears.
All that’s left of this town’s heroic legendary past,
Are the memories, that will now forever last.

Your “Orange County Great Park” staff,
Has preserved one of the runways for you
And with a little imagination, the sounds will surely come thru,
Of the roar of their engines, of years gone before,
As their planes took off daily, to fight in the war!

Remember Them, Many Never Came Back!!

William Grant Burns, Poet Laureate