:
Section reference dates. In 1942 the
United States Marine Corps chose a site with east of
San Diego for parachute training for the newly forming
parachute battalions. In September 1942,
Camp Gillespie was completed and named in honor of Lieutenant
Archibald H. Gillespie, a Marine officer who played a prominent role in the effort to separate California from
Mexico in the 1840s. Three high towers were built from which the paratroopers practiced their jumps. In February 1944, the camp was commissioned as Marine Corps Auxiliary Airfield Gillespie under the command of
Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. MCAAF Gillespie soon became responsible for
Camp Pendleton Outlying Air Field. Among the units that transited and trained at MCAAF Gillespie were
VMSB-141,
Air Warning Squadron 10 and the
Navy's TBM-3 Avenger torpedo squadron VT-37. In 1946 the airfield was turned over to
San Diego County and became a general aviation facility. The last race was run in 2004, and the County started expansion of the airport onto of this land in 2005. In 1971 the County Sheriff stationed
ASTREA, a helicopter law enforcement base at the airport, and in 1993 the San Diego Aerospace Museum located its restoration operations and an exhibit at the field. ==Facilities and operations==