BY VALERIE ORLEANS
From Dateline (September 2, 2004)
DeLana Bush-Hamblin Returns to Campus She Remembers as Home
For DeLana Bush-Hamblin, going to work each
day is like, well, like going home. Except in this case, home used
to be El Toro Marine Corps Air Station ... and now it’s home
to Cal State Fullerton’s El Toro Campus.
As the operations systems analyst, she’s in
charge of almost all pieces of technology at the South County campus:
TV, VCR, DVD players, computers, televised classes, copy machines,
phones – you name it. And while she’s always enjoyed
her work and Cal State Fullerton (she’s an alumna and had
worked at the former Mission Viejo site), arriving to work at El
Toro seems very familiar.
Hamblin shares her viewpoints on work-ing at the
same base where she spent her formative years.
Q: |
How old were you when you
lived on the El Toro Marine Base? Did you live here long? |
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A: |
I was 3 years old when my father
was transferred here between his tours of duty in Vietnam.
He was in charge of main-taining jets and we lived here until
I was 8. Then we moved to Santa Ana for a year and then to
the Lighter Than Air base in Tustin. But the exchange and
commissary were at this base and many events took place at
El Toro, so even when I wasn’t living on the Tustin
base, we were here at El Toro quite a bit.
After high school, I worked at the exchange, in electronics
at the one-hour photo booth. We attended movies here because
the theater only charged a dol-lar. We also attended church
here. Our gym was here. We’d wash our cars here. And
of course, we’d never miss the Blue Angels air shows.
We were always over here.
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Q: |
What was it like coming
back to El Toro to work? |
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A:
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Everything looked familiar.
Obviously, things had changed but there was still so much
that looked similar. Last year, when we had our first anniversary
celebration, I invited my dad down and he really got a kick
out of seeing our new campus. The building that Cal State
Fullerton leases used to be the officers’ headquarters.
My daughters also get a kick out of visiting. They’re
8 and 10. I show them the area where my childhood home used
to be. I tell them, “This area used to be a play-ground
when Mommy was a little girl.” They think it’s
pretty neat.
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Q: |
What are some of your fondest
memories? |
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A: |
This is going to sound funny,
but I remember that all the Marines were given a week off
every year for spring cleaning. Seriously. Because the houses,
yards and barracks belonged to the Marines, they wanted to
make sure everything was in good shape so they’d give
everybody a week off to clean and make repairs, if necessary.
You’d see whole families cleaning up their houses and
yards.
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Q: |
What happened after
you left school? |
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A: |
I signed up for the Army. I
think, being from a military family, I adjusted to Army life
a little easier. I was used to the structure and following
orders. Some of the other women in my platoon had a little
more difficulty getting used to a military environment. |
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Q: |
So you just can’t
get the military life out of your system? You sign up for the
army and now you’re back at the old base. |
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A:
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Well, I did go to school upon
my dis-charge. I earned a bachelor’s degree in communications
with an emphasis in radio-TV-film and started working at the
Mission Viejo Campus when I was a student. From there, I became
a staff member and just moved over to El Toro when it opened. |
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Q: |
What was it like opening
the campus? |
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A:
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I really liked it because we
were able to work with the architects, Physical Plant and
design team from Cal State Fullerton to design the building
and rooms the way we wanted. I worked very closely with the
electricians and technicians. I had “hands-on”
learning so I learned where all the ports and electrical network
sys-tems are. |
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Q: |
Now that you’ve been
here for two years, has the novelty of working in the place
where you used to live worn off? |
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A:
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No. When I drive in, I’m
always look-ing around – I see the area where there
used to be a park or the area where I used to live. It’s
still fun.
And I love the people I work with. George Giacumakis, the
director of the El Toro Campus, is great. He used to get a
kick out of telling everybody that George Bush is my father.
That’s true – my father’s name is George
Bush. Now he keeps telling everybody how I used to live here. |
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