At Vintage Aviation News, we have covered the March Field Air Museum in Riverside, California for their restoration projects, such as their B-29 Superfortress, F-86A Sabre, F-80C Shooting Star, and Fairchild SD-5 Osprey reconnaissance drone, but lately there has been a dispute between the current board members of the museum and several officials who were formerly in charge of the museum’s collections, archival, and restoration departments, with several current and former officials from the museum expressing concerns over the museum board’s shrinkage of the museum’s budget, the downsizing of the museum’s archival, collections, and restoration departments, and an increasing interest in making the museum more of an event venue.
Much of the current controversy is centered around the museum’s board of directors, including the current President of the March Field Air Museum, Chairman of the March Field Foundation and local Riverside philanthropist Jamil Dada. Dada has been involved with the March Field Air Museum for nearly 40 years and has served for over 20 of those years as both president of the museum and chairman of the museum’s foundation. Additionally, Dada serves as Chairman of the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Council, a member of Air Mobility Command’s Civic Leader Advisory Board, and the 452nd Air Mobility Wing’s Honorary Wing Commander. On October 9, 2025, the museum terminated the following staff members: Sherry Ziegler (Collections Manager), Karla Conde (Archivist), and Tryston O’Toole (Restoration Assistant). As a response to this, two other staff members resigned from the museum in protest: Jeff Houlihan, Director of Collections, and Mikey Diaz, Security Supervisor. Concerned over the current direction of the MFAM, a group of concerned individuals have created the Facebook group Save March Field Air Museum and the website savemarch.org (link HERE: Home). On their About page, the group writes, “This group is dedicated to protecting the legacy of the March Field Air Museum from irreversible damage. We believe this historic institution—home to irreplaceable aircraft, archives, and artifacts—should be preserved for future generations, not repurposed for private gain. Recent actions by Board President Jamil Dada and others threaten to dismantle the museum’s core mission by selling off planes, gutting the archives, and converting the space into a commercial venue. We are here to organize, inform, and take action to stop this from happening. If you care about military history, community heritage, and ethical leadership, you belong here.”
The group has also called for public audits of the museum’s finances and expresses concerns that personal items such as uniforms that were donated by the families of military personnel are going to be deaccessioned without allowing the families a chance to retrieve the items in question. In response to statements from those associated with the Save March Field Air Museum Facebook group and the staff that were recently let go or resigned, Board Secretary Richard Lemire and others have dismissed these as “false, inaccurate, and inflammatory statements” from disgruntled former employees and family members who have been taking the situation too personally. However, when Jeff Houlihan resigned, he stated it was over concerns regarding the board’s current outlook on the museum’s mission. Despite concerns from members of the Save March Field Air Museum page that the museum will be deaccessioning some of its aircraft, at least one new aircraft had been spotted in the restoration area of the museum. This is Beech C-45G Expeditor 51-11863, originally manufactured as AT-11 42-36955 before being modernized by Beech for the USAF in 1953. This aircraft was previously noted to have been stored outdoors at the now-closed Rialto Municipal Airport, and according to museum staff, it arrived at the March Field Air Museum about two months ago. The museum’s Lockheed F-80C/TV-1 Shooting Star, acquired last year from the Museum of Flight in Seattle, has also been reassembled, but its restoration has not yet been completed.
However, the museum board also turned down an offer to purchase a replica of a Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker to complement their collection of replica WWI aircraft, which consists primarily of scaled-down homebuilt replicas with more modern inline engines. The flux in the Collections Department has also put the future of a Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon, Bureau Number 37216, N10PV, into doubt. In 2023, museum volunteer Greg Stathatos, who now volunteers with the Castle Air Museum, worked with the Castle Air Museum to begin sending the Harpoon, which was being kept in outdoor storage after the former patrol bomber turned fire tanker had been trucked from Sonoma Valley Airport in Schellville, California, in 2014, down to the March Field Air Museum. As of writing, the engines, propellers, and tail assembly have been sitting at the March Field Air Museum for two years, while the fuselage and wings remain at Castle, waiting for clearance to be trucked down to Riverside. But with the fate of the aircraft currently uncertain, we would hope that this aircraft can be brought to March Field in its entirety lest it come to the same fate as PV-1 Ventura BuNo 33327, which was quietly scrapped by the city of Irvine in 2023 (see this article HERE).
One reason that could prove difficult for any potential deaccession of much of the museum’s aircraft collection is the fact that much of the aircraft are not owned outright by the March Field Air Museum but instead they are on loan from the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. These include most of the MFAM’s fighters, bombers, transports, and several training aircraft, and the museum’s Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. There are also naval aircraft on loan through the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, such as the Grumman YF-14A Tomcat and Northrop-Grumman EA-6B Prowler. There are, however, other aircraft that are not on loan from the US Air Force or the Navy, such as a Bensen B-8 Gyrocopter and a Hispano HA-200 Saeta Spanish jet trainer.
Yet another development at the museum has been the complete renovation of the Heritage Courtyard at the entrance to the museum. Earlier this year, the March Field Air Museum moved its B-25J Mitchell, serial number 44-31032, to the courtyard’s 15th Air Force Commemorative Wall, but the rest of the Heritage Courtyard, including the Distinguished Flying Cross National Memorial, the War Dog Memorial, and P-38 Lightning Memorial, is in the middle of a construction zone. The March Field Air Museum has partnered with the Western Municipal Water District on a “Landscape Transformation” to put in drought-tolerant plants with the stated purpose of saving an estimated 94,000 gallons of water per year from being used to water the grass in this courtyard. But in addition to ripping out the grass, the project has also ripped out the memorial tiles placed in front of the War Dog Memorial bearing the names of ex-servicemen whose families sponsored the museum to place these tiles, which were destroyed. The museum and the Western Municipal Water District estimate that the project will be completed in January 2026.
One of the things that has many members of the Save March Field Air Museum site worried has been statements concerning the prioritization of events being hosted at the museum. In an email sent to The Raincross Gazette, a digital newspaper based in Riverside, Jamil Dada mentioned that events are “very much in demand” and brought up that they are a key source of revenue for the museum. These and other statements have instilled a sense of concern among the members of the Save March Field Air Museum site that aircraft and artifacts have been removed from the collection for the museum to turn towards hosting corporate events. Speaking on behalf of the museum’s board, Richard Lemire denied these concerns, stating that preserving the aircraft and artifacts in the museum would remain the “heart and soul” of the museum. The author of this piece attempted to reach out to March Field Air Museum president Jamil Dada for further statements, but received no response. It should be mentioned that we at Vintage Aviation News firmly wish to see the March Field Air Museum continue its mission to preserve aviation history, and the legacy of one of America’s oldest continually operating air bases. Stay tuned for further developments. For more information, visit the March Field Air Museum’s website HERE, and the Save March website HERE.
