Some 70 years ago, it was an air base without airplanes or even a runway.
Rather, the Santa Ana Army Air Base, or SAAAB, served as a nearly 1,300-acre basic training camp where thousands upon thousands of young Americans prepared for war.
Starting at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, the student center at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa will play host to the 37th annual Santa Ana Army Air Base Reunion that, among the festivities this year, has a special element that organizers say combines old veterans with the new.
There will be a small ribbon-cutting ceremony for OCC's Veterans Resource Center, said Liz Parker, a foundation specialist with the OCC Foundation.
"This particular event is full circle. It really is," she said, calling Saturday's event a great reunion of those in the service decades ago and those recently returning back to civilian life.