Airmen, community members recall memories at March hospital Published March 29, 2011 By Megan Just, 452 AMW Public Affairs 452 AMW MORENO VALLEY, Calif. -- As demolition crews with a crane and excavator chip away at the facade of the old March hospital off Cactus Avenue, March Airmen, retirees and members of the local community have been reminiscing about their experiences there as patients and employees. Demolition began on the 45-year-old hospital building following a ceremony March 30. Chris Dickinson, the supervisor of the project for U.S. Demolition, said it will take 20-30 days to reduce the building to rubble. "It will be very strange to see it gone after all these years," said Laurie Stone, executive director of March Joint Powers Authority, the agency that oversaw the hospital building following the realignment of March Air Force Base property in 1996. The site where the hospital stood will be part of the $3.3 billion March LifeCare campus that will include a 550-bed hospital, medical offices, a 700-bed continuum of care for seniors and research and training facilities. Infrastructure construction is expected to begin at the beginning of the summer, after the remaining buildings on former base property are demolished. Retired Chief Master Sgt. Daniel Zarazua was the group superintendent at the 90-bed March hospital from 1993 to 1996. He recalls being surprised when he learned of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's recommendation to shut down the hospital. "March was the only major medical facility in the region," he said. "It kind of caught everyone off guard, especially the retirees." In addition to serving all Air Force active duty service members, retirees and family members in Southern California, the March hospital was a follow-on training site for Air Force medics specializing in nursing, lab and X-ray specialties. During Operation Desert Storm, Zarazua said almost all of the hospital staff was deployed and had to be backfilled with medical personnel from the Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and other active duty bases. "They had to learn how to manage the whole operation," he said. Zarazua explained that many of the backfill service members had only served at small Air Force clinics and had never been exposed to the kind of medical care available at the March hospital. "Many of them weren't experienced, but they knew the basics and they picked it up right away," he said. "It was a good experience for everyone." The backfill service members were also introduced to the hectic pace that characterized the hospital. "It was constantly busy," Zarazua said. "The work load was nonstop, both for inpatient and outpatient." Retired Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Gary Fichman remembers the pace at the hospital well. From 1976 to 1980, he served as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the surgical ward, and later the intensive care unit. After three overseas tours, he returned to the hospital as the superintendent of inpatient and outpatient services from 1987-1993. "It was a tough assignment because you never knew how many patients and what you were going to get from day to day because your patient population would fluxuate from what you were staffed for," he said. Fichman said the number of patients the hospital served would double or triple in the winter when retiree snowbirds would flock to Southern California. "There was always another patient," he said. "There was never a time when there weren't any patients." The patient load began to let up as March's realignment reduced the number of active duty Airmen, Fichman said. Also, the implementation of TRICARE gave patients healthcare options outside the hospital. "There were big things swirling in the Air Force medical community and march was touched by that," Fichman said. Fichman is now a hospital administrator in Douglas, Wyo. and is still married to the ICU nurse he met during his first tenure at the March hospital. On March 27, three days before the demolition began, Darren Hughes, a former hospital medical administration technician, and Robert Miller, Jr., a Riverside resident who was born at the hospital, toured the vacant building. Hughes's job at the hospital was his first after joining the Air Force. He worked there from 1986-1990 and later as a reservist with the 452nd Medical Squadron. "I joined the Air Force to see the world and I ended up in my own backyard," said Hughes, who grew up in San Dimas, Calif. His duties in the outpatient records and medical dispositions department included writing death certificates. One of the certificates he composed was for Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay, the fifth chief of staff of the Air Force, who died at the hospital in 1990. During his years at the hospital, Hughes would watch air show practices from the roof of the building with fellow staff members. In particular, he recalls a SR-71 Blackbird flying directly over the top of them. "It was surreal, the way it floated over," he said. "It was very quiet. It came over the hospital and when it was out over the runway, it poked its nose up and it was gone. All you heard was 'poof.'" Robert Miller, Jr., was born at the hospital in 1974. Both of Miller's grandfathers retired from the Air Force after serving in Korea and Vietnam. When Miller was born, his mother was just 15 and his father was 17. At the time, the two--whom he notes are still married--were young enough to be military dependents and therefore receive care at the hospital. "When I'm (driving by) with people who aren't from here, I point to the building and tell them I was born there," he said. Prior to touring the soon-to-be demolished building, Miller hadn't been inside the hospital since he was in elementary school and visited his paternal grandfather who was recovering from a heart attack. On March 27, Miller toured the maternity ward where he was born. "Knowing that there's a new, bigger facility coming is a good thing," he said as he walked through the labor rooms that were still painted pink and the ward's corridors that were still decorated with cartoon animals. Miller said the hospital building has sentimental value for him and being back on former March Air Force Base property brought back memories of attending air shows and eating at the noncommissioned officers' club with this grandfathers. "I have a lot of love for the base even though I was never in the military," he said.