San Diego Harbor is rich with Navy ships of all types. Sailing next them, they felt so monstrous. We enjoyed using binoculars and sighting the number on the side of the war ship, then learning more on wiki.
Hanging around these Naval Bases all week reminds me of stories of my Dad, Don Brown, who served here in the Navy during the Viet Nam war. He is currently a happily retired math teacher and life long surfer living in Santa Cruz. He was stationed here for a bit near Point Loma. He was working on the USS Pritchett DD-561 (similar to the USS Russell, #59 pictured above) when my oldest brother Jeff Brown was born, not far from where we were in the Coronado Cays.
It turns out that Scott’s Dad, Ashley Erwin, now living in El Paso, was also stationed here, in ’63 and ’64, but on a submarine. Ashley was in the Navy for 20 years and later lived on a 45’ sailboat also. Yes, “son of a son of a sailor” comes to mind.
Sue and my step father Roland Krevitt, currently reside in the beautiful country house where I grew up, in Scotts Valley, Ca. They all follow us on maps via AIS.
Below is a little history that I learned while lounging on the beach today. By the mid 1900’s, the San Diego Naval Base had grown to 7, 000,000 square feet with berthing facilities including five giant piers, see pictures, of more than 18,000 feet of dock space. The land totaled more than 921 acres. Today it has 1,600 acres.
I took this picture while driving our temporary truck over the huge Coronada Bridge. These barracks down here could accommodate 18,000 enlisted men. More than 3,500 sailors could be fed in the galley at a single sitting. I am sure glad I am not their galley cook! Watching these naval ships amaze me, so does knowing that San Diego Naval Base is the largest and most powerful navy base in the world.