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    The Military in San Diego
    The Military in San Diego
    The Military in San Diego
    Ebook188 pages1 hour

    The Military in San Diego

    By Scott McGaugh

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    About this ebook

    No city is as proud of its military heritage as San Diego, known as "Navy Town, USA." Congress also has designated San Diego as "the Birthplace of Naval Aviation." However, its community fabric reflects a more diverse and tightly woven relationship with our nation's defense. Over the past century, the city has invented and then reinvented itself in response to shifting world affairs and national priorities. It began with a successful campaign to become a West Coast Navy base in the early 1900s. By the 1930s, military aircraft manufacturing drove economic development. After explosive growth in World War II, San Diego emerged as an established military metropolis. At the dawn of the Cold War, San Diego recast itself as a home for Cold War research and development and defense contractors. Today, San Diego is an internationally renowned defense science and technology development center, a city in which one in four jobs and fully 50 percent of regional domestic product are defense related. Like no other city in America, San Diego has grown from a remote military presidio outpost to become a preeminent Pacific powerhouse.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 7, 2014
    ISBN9781439642658
    The Military in San Diego
    Author

    Scott McGaugh

    Scott McGaugh is a veteran journalist and published author of Honor Before Glory (Da Capo/Hachette, 2016), the New York Times bestseller Surgeon in Blue (Arcade, 2013), Battlefield Angels (Osprey, 2011) and Midway Magic (CDS/Perseus, 2004). Midway Magic became the basis for a History Channel program, Hero Ship: The USS Midway, featuring the author and Honor Before Glory is in development as a feature film. McGaugh served as the founding marketing director of the USS Midway Museum in San Diego, the most visited floating ship museum in the world. Television appearances have included the History Channel, Travel Network and Discovery Channel, among others. Radio appearances have included NPR's Weekend Edition.

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    • 5/5
      A very well done pictorial essay in San Diego's military, and most prominently its naval, history. This book contains photographs illustrating naval/ military projects not normally covered in similar books.

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    The Military in San Diego - Scott McGaugh

    Center.

    INTRODUCTION

    The history of the San Diego region is inextricably interwoven with the history of the US military. Over the course of five generations, this symbiotic relationship, which predated the birth of the nation, is one in which most San Diegans take a great deal of pride.

    More than 200 years ago, the Spanish recognized the value of San Diego as a strategic military foothold on the West Coast. When California became a province of the United States in the mid-1800s, the nation quickly recognized San Diego’s strategic position, with the area first being used as border protection. Then, as America turned its attention to the Far East, San Diego became even more relevant. City leaders worked with Congress and President Roosevelt in the mid-1900s, successfully advocating a military metropolis that eventually evolved into the San Diego region of today. Beginning with the arrival of the Great White Fleet in 1908, the military has been woven into the fabric of the region’s fate.

    As the armed services evolved in the 20th century, San Diego matured as well. The military presence spawned massive migrations of military personnel and civilians to the region, requiring vast expansions of housing, schools, public services, education, and health care. From welders to engineers, much of San Diego’s labor force has been fueled by the employment needs of the military. Similarly, as technology evolved, San Diego’s economic base has reflected shifts from aircraft manufacturing to military and defense space technology. San Diego’s robust innovation sector, from high tech to biotech, as well as its world-class academic institutions, has been nurtured by billions of dollars in military research and defense (R&D) funding that has flowed into this region.

    Today, military spending in the region is approximately $20 billion annually, the majority of which supports approximately 130,000 jobs. In addition, more than an estimated 300,000 civilians support the military’s presence.

    The relationship between the military and San Diego goes far deeper than the gross regional product. It speaks to the tens of thousands of Americans who depart from San Diego’s shores every year in service to their country. It is reflected by military housing complexes throughout the region, where the children of civilians and those in uniform attend the same schools. Further, it is not just an active duty military community. San Diego is home to the third-largest population of veterans in the United States; 1 in 12 employees is a veteran, and 1 in 6 businesses is owned by a veteran.

    Over the years, San Diego has evolved from a remote Spanish presidio outpost to a Pacific powerhouse and has become home to the largest Navy complex in the world. Worldwide commands of US Navy Special Forces, its surface fleet of ships, and all air wings are headquartered in San Diego.

    Looking ahead, San Diego will continue to lead the nation in military/civilian stewardship and will continue to flourish as a community through its long-standing relationship with the armed forces of the United States.

    —Charlotte Cagan

    Executive Director

    San Diego History Center

    While San Diego may be internationally recognized today for its intimate relationship with the US Navy, the historical roots of its relationship with the military were first seeded by the US Army. Then nearly half a century later, the Army established the first substantial military aviation presence in the region. As national priorities and world affairs evolved, the Navy gradually became dominant. Here, marines conduct a marching demonstration for the public in 1915. Today, San Diego’s relationship with the military spans not only the Navy, but also includes a vast array of military R&D institutions and alliances.

    ONE

    THE CHANGING GUARD

    1769–1907

    Over the course of the first 150 years of its history, San Diego’s relationship with a local military presence underwent a number of changes. In 1769, the Spanish established the first military outpost to protect a nearby mission as well as to deter exploring sea captains from claiming territorial ownership for their kings and queens.

    Spanish military influence continued until the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Navy sailors captured San Diego at the beginning of the war, constructed a small fort of logs and earthen embankments, and named it Fort Stockton.

    The subsequent Army-dominated period saw an increased military presence. Point Loma was recognized for its military value, and San Diego grew as a port of entry for supplies destined for the region’s mostly Army outposts. In the latter half of the 1800s, the focus shifted to improving regional infrastructure to support a more diversified military presence. A river had to be relocated, and the bay had to be dredged.

    By 1907, San Diego had matured from Spanish outpost of occupation, to a permanent Army foothold, to increasing Navy interest. This formed the backdrop for what would become the dominating local emergence of the US Navy.

    OPPOSITE: When the Spanish entered San Diego Bay in 1769, they built a presidio, or fort, on a hill overlooking the bay. The original fort featured two brass cannons and a wooden stockade surrounding a number of simple brush huts. The 300-by-300-foot compound later was reinforced with adobe blocks. After Mexico won its independence, the presidio became the residence of the governor of Alta California. The compound was abandoned in 1835 when its occupants moved into the new Pueblo de San Diego at the foot of the hill.

    Soon after the United States’ declaration of war against Mexico in 1846, a force of American sailors and Marines aboard the USS Cyane rowed ashore and raised the American flag in the plaza of San Diego. After a series of skirmishes with Mexican loyalists, the ship’s commanding officer, Comdr. Samuel DuPont, ordered his men to construct a fort above the old presidio. It marked the official possession of San Diego by the American military. The fort was later named Fort Stockton to honor Commodore Robert F. Stockton, the commander of the Pacific Squadron. A small garrison manned this earthen-walled fort until it was relieved by the arrival of the famed Mormon Battalion that had marched 2,000 miles from Iowa. The walls of the fort can still be seen near a monument to the Mormon Battalion atop what is now known as

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