Finishing touches on Castle terminal

I cruised around Castle Commerce Center Thursday before I met up with the military folks for the story I wrote about Operation Hydra.

First I stopped by the former American School of Aviation headquarters, which had a couple broken office chairs in the parking lot, some trash from Carls Jr. and a lock on the front door.

It'll remain a sad chapter in Castle's redevelopment history.

Then I checked out the much-hyped terminal, which will accommodate commercial travel in and out of the airport. It's an airport, right?

Well ... according to the sign above the doors, it's called Castle Airfield Terminal. The title struck me as sort of odd and one of my sources out at Castle thinks this is another back-door move to change the name of Castle. It's a sore subject for some of the tenants out there.

He pointed out that it's always been called Castle Airport, not Castle Airfield. Still, the difference not as significant as it could have been, I pointed out.

When the county was considering a name change for the airport, the suggestions were much more drastic -- Central California Yosemite Airport and Merced County Yosemite Airport.

The plans have since been dropped, though planes will now be flying into Castle Airfield.