When Gary was in boot camp, oh so many years ago, he was stationed in San Diego. A cool spot to be stationed in - except for the entire time, he got only 6 hours of free time to be off the base. He chose the zoo - probably not many other guys chose the zoo. But, that’s my man for you. Here are some pictures from that time. Here’s an overview of the barracks where the other guys at boot camp lived. On the other side of the river was where they trained, where the parade found was and where the officers were. In the morning they had to march over a bridge to get to the other side and then had to march back at night.
The ‘X’ marks Gary’s barracks in what was named Camp Nimitz.
Here’s a post card showing the whole area.
Looks a bit different today although Gary’s barracks is still there.
At the bottom of the picture below you can see the barracks off to the right and the foot bridge that they guys marched over in the middle. At the end of the footbridge, before the guys marched to their left, is a ship called the ‘Recruit.’
what is now Liberty Station fills the rest of the picture. There’s a nice walking trail next to the channel
Looking across the river today, this is one of the barracks building that is left - still being used. The area is fenced off to tourists so we couldn’t get any closer.
Here’s his squadron. 3rd from the right in the bottom row is our hero.
And, a close-up.
One final picture with our hero on the right in the 3rd row from the top.
OK, into the present. Gary and I spent a day on what used to be the base. Today it is a trendy restaurant and living space called Liberty Station (as if the guys ever got ‘liberty’). The homes begin in the 300’s and go up from there and there is a high school there also. But, we wanted to see the ‘base’ parts that were left. And, there were precious few.
Hey, look, he hasn’t changed at all. Put him in a white cap and uniform and he’d fit right in.
When they marched across the bridge they were met by the USS Recruit, a 2/3 model of a destroyer. This was the only naval commissioned ship to never reach water - thus the nickname: USS Neversail.
And, that’s about all that Gary was really familiar with.
Also on Liberty Station is a marvelous walk through memorials to those subs lost during war.
Here is the one USS Amberjack which was lost February 1943. Nothing was recovered from this sub but there was a Japanese plane and a ship in the area trying to sink it. All that was seen was a patch of oil, a piece of hull and a life jacket with the words ‘Philadelphia Naval Yard’ stenciled on it.
Many of the old Naval buildings that were there then are still there. We liked the cool mosaics on this one.
As we walked around we were especially impressed with the trees towering over us.
We also visited three museums but they were pretty small and I didn’t get many pictures. We did spot an interesting shoppe on our walk. How often have you seen a ‘Flamenco’ shoppe? I have never seen a Flamenco store so I was intrigued. Here you can buy your dress,
flowers for your hair
your shoes and barrettes
and many other things so you can be an official Flamenco dancer. Pretty cool. Now, I’ve seen a Flamenco shop.
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