Naval Base San Diego

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Naval Base San Diego

Naval Base San Diego
Type	Military base
Built	1918
In use	United States Navy
Controlled by	United States Navy
Commanders	Captain Dixon R. Smith

Naval Base San Diego is the largest base of the United States Navy on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet, consisting of 50 ships and an additional 50 tenant commands. The base is comprised of 14 piers sctreched over 977 acres of land and 326 acres of water. The total on base population is 35,000 military personnel and 7,000 civilians.

1 History
2 Operations
3 Miscellaneous
4 Homeported Ships
5 External links

[edit] History

The 1,029 acres (4.16 km²) of the land on which the Naval Base sits today was occupied in 1918 by a coalition of concrete ship building firms known as the Emergency Fleet Corporation, under the single company name Pacific Marine Construction. But Pacific Marine began to lose profits with the conclusion of World War I, and negotiated a return of the land back to the City of San Diego. Meanwhile, the Navy was exploring the small tract of land to establish a west coast ship repair facility and moved on the opportunity to acquire the land. By 1920, the Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation had negotiated the transfer of land improvements to the United States Navy.

During its first years in commission, the base grew rapidly as repair facilities expanded, torpedo and radio schools were established and more shops were constructed. During 1924, the base decommissioned 77 destroyers and commissioned seven.

The base then expanded heavily during World War II and by 1942, the Navy had added expanded fleet training schools, and an amphibious force training unit. By the following year, it was determined the scope of operations exceeded the base’s basic function as a Destroyer Base. The base was re-designated the U.S. Repair Base, San Diego , a title it retained throughout World War II. Between 1943 and 1945 the newly named base performed conversion, overhaul, maintenance and battle damage repair to more than 5,117 ships. Central to this maintenance were the Navy’s construction and delivery of 155 new floating dry docks deployed to various bases, including three 3,000-ton, three 1,000-ton and one 900-ton floating docks remaining at the San Diego Repair Base. The floating dry docks became the central repair and training facilities on the base which were crucial to the World War II mission.

After World War II, base operations were again reorganized, with a post-war mission to provide logistical support (including repair and dry-docking) to ships of the active fleet. On Sept. 15, 1946, the Secretary of the Navy re-designated the repair base Naval Station, San Diego. By the end of 1946 the base had grown to 294 buildings with floor space square footage of more than 6,900,000 square feet (641,000 m²), berthing facilities included five piers of more than 18,000 linear feet of berthing space. Land then totaled more than 921 acres (659 land) and 16 miles (26 km) of roads. Barracks could accommodate 380 officers and 18,000 enlisted men. More than 3,500 sailors could be fed in the galley at a single sitting on the base.

Later, in the 1990s, the Naval Station became the principal homeport of the then U.S. Pacific Fleet when the Long Beach Naval Shipyard was closed for the final time Sept. 30, 1994. Naval Station San Diego was realigned under Commander, Navy Region Southwest and became one in a triad of metropolitan Navy bases that now make up the bulk of the metro area Navy’s presence. With that change, the base became the hub of all Navy port operations for the Region, assumed logistical responsibility for both Naval Medical Center San Diego and the Region headquarters and was re-designated Naval Base San Diego.

[edit] Operations

A thoroughly modern, state-of-the-art naval facility, Naval Base San Diego is now homeport to approximately 50 ships, including 37 U.S. Navy ships, two U.S. Coast Guard cutters and various ships of the Military Sealift Command, as well as research and auxiliary vessels. Soon, the base will welcome the Navy’s newest and most advanced 21st century fleet platforms known as Littoral Combat Ships.

Ashore, Naval Base San Diego is also home to approximately 100 separate tenant commands and other Navy support facilities, each having specific and specialized fleet support missions. The base is a workplace for approximately 40,000 military, civilian and contract personnel. Additionally, the base has rooms to house more than 4,000 men and women in modern apartment-like barracks, including newer state-of-the-art resident towers planned for construction in the near future.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Since the day the base was opened, its name has been redesignated almost half-a-dozen times, and on one occasion, earned a local name that was never officially recognized.

Because of its geographic location, and the positioning of its main entrance, today's Naval Base San Diego has been known as 32nd Street Naval Station not only by the local community, but Sailors and veterans around the world. The moniker was never officially recognized, although the name did appear countless times not only in local publications, but Navy publications as well.

The base today runs on a facilities budget of about $34 million annually.

Support services on base includes less direct and indirect fleet support: waterfront operations, force protection (security), supply, Navy Exchange and Commissary shopping centers, bachelor quarters, food services, public affairs, administration, transient personnel administration fiscal management, equal employment opportunity, civil engineering, family services, recreation on the base and near various military family housing areas, medical and dental care, religious services, transportation, utilities, legal support, counseling and assistance, facility maintenance, fire protection, educational services, and child care for more than 300 children daily at the base Child Development Center.