Hidden away inside a rundown hangar, once part of the old Allan Hancock airfield in Santa Maria, historical treasures await the curious.
For the past 14 years, Central City Surplus has called the rusty clamshell building home, leasing it from the Santa Maria Public Airport. Proprietor John Kinney, a former Naval officer and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputy, is crazy about old military equipment. For decades, he’s accumulated artifacts from vehicles to inert torpedo shells and ammo, housing and refurbishing the pieces to sell to museums, private collectors, and even the movie industry.
“It was kind of a passion of mine for military history and the equipment that they used,” Kinney said. “It started out as a small hobby and grew into what it is today, a business.”
Through connections made with various prop houses in the Burbank area, items from Kinney’s collection have ended up as set dressing in war themed films, including Memphis Belle, Pearl Harbor, Windtalkers, and Flags of our Fathers.
“Most war movies now that they make, they’re wanting everything to look authentic, so they go on the hunt trying to find this stuff,” Kinney said. “In the past, the military used to make all this stuff available, but they don’t do that anymore, so they have to look for private sources now.”
Inside the hangar lies a historian’s dream: World War II-era anti-aircraft guns, restored jeeps, reconnaissance vehicles, armored cars, Humvees, and tanks. Some have been
assembled from scratch, with parts collected from various government surpluses, salvage yards, and defense contractors.
“We’re just holding onto it,” Kinney said. “Eventually it will all be sold, I guess. I can’t take it with me.”
Kinney’s latest prized acquisitions are three sections of the gun barrels from two historic battleships, two from the USS Missouri and one from the USS Iowa. Both ships rested in Tokyo Bay during Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II; the barrels from the Missouri overlooked Japan’s surrender on Sept. 2, 1945, as documented by Naval Weapons Research Center reports.
“The government had these things over in a depot in the Nevada desert since the 1950s, and all of a sudden they decided to just cut them up for scrap. Knowing full well they came off a historic ship, they went ahead and cut them up anyway,” Kinney said. “Luckily we knew the scrap contractor that got the bid on cutting them up, and we got a hold of him and asked if we could at least buy the front end of those barrels and try to preserve some history.”
Kinney said he intends to eventually sell the barrel segments to a museum or private collector. In the meantime, he said, the public is welcome to make an appointment to look at the pieces and any of the other artifacts he has on display. Kinney has no plans to turn the hangar into a museum, but said he does find purpose in preserving the collection for future historians and engineers.
“It’s our history. We have to look at where we’re going, and in order to follow that path without a lot of problems, you have to look at where you came from,” Kinney said. “Having something like this sitting in a museum or a private collection will pique that interest and pique that study.”
Central City Surplus is at 3944 Mitchell Road in Santa Maria. For more information, or to make an appointment to view Kinney’s collection, call 937-3488.
Highlights
• Are you looking for a way to get more involved in the community and expand your circle of influence within the Santa Maria Valley?
Leadership Santa Maria Valley, a program designed to foster and create future community leaders and trustees, is currently accepting candidates for the class of 2011-12.
Through the program’s 11-month seminar/interactive curriculum, which begins in August, participants will engage in face-to-face discussions with experts and key decision makers in vital areas of concern within the Santa Maria Valley.
For more information, or to register, call Judi Kincaid at 346-6093 or e-mail judi.kincaid@iglide.net. Applications and a class schedule can also be downloaded from lsmv.org. m
Biz Spotlight/Highlights are written and compiled by Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 4, 2011.