Much like new enlistees arriving at recruit training, the aircraft and donated relics arriving at the restoration facility here undergo a complete transformation.

Tucked away in a warehouse on the air station’s north side, four curators, employed by the air station, work hand-in-hand with volunteers to diligently renovate all of the equipment en route to the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, the only museum in the world dedicated primarily to Marine Corps aviation.

The facility receives potential display items from across the country. The Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va., loans aircraft and articles to the local museum, who accepts the responsibility of maintaining the planes.

All gear first arrives to the receiving area, where workers clean, inventory and document all items received. Curators store books, photographs and uniform items in acid-free boxes to best preserve them for display. Weapons and ammunition, including a bayonet collection, lie locked away in the building’s armory. The aircraft remain outdoors until workers pressure-wash it to prepare it for renovation.

The curators strip the antique aircraft of their rusty and corroding surfaces just as drill instructors strip the recruits of their old habits. The aircraft and donations come to the restoration building in all different varieties and in all different forms – some are in good condition, one spent 45 years at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Depending on how poor of shape the aircraft is in, the process could take up to 5,000-work hours, explained retired Col. Tom O’Hara, a curator at the facility.

Once the curators completely clean the interior and exterior of the planes, they wheel them inside to the paint booth where painters spray a glossy new coat on the raw metal and detail squadron logos and lettering to make them as realistic as possible.

“When painting the aircraft, we try to trace back their heritage and paint the aircraft the same as it was originally,” said Steve Smith, the assistant curator of the facility. “If we can’t, we just paint them representing a historic squadron.”

The curators have a closet full of maintenance manuals for reference when the time comes to replace parts. When parts are damaged or missing, the workers make numerous phone calls to other museums to locate the piece. If the part cannot be found, curators fabricate them on site or order custom-made replicas.

“It’s unique to observe the enormous leaps in technology from one decade to the next – from aluminum and wood models created in the 1940s to today’s composite material,” said O’Hara.

The curators bring knowledge from the U.S. Army Curator School and career skills learned as Marine crew chiefs, Navy mechanics and maintenance officers.

In addition to the daily labors of restoring garage-kept uniforms and out-dated aircraft, the restoration facility provides a display at the annual Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Air Show. Recently, workers finished readying anti-aircraft weapons systems and a humvee for this year’s show.

Once the curators drill in the parts and the aircraft reaches the display state, workers attach tugs and tow bars to transport the planes outside the bay door and to a location where spectators can admire them.

Like the proud day new Marines stride across the parade deck, the improved versions of the aircraft are wheeled to the museum, immortalizing Marine Corps aviation history to future spectators.