Free Republic

As on every Memorial Day, small flags will be placed next to neat, respectful rows of headstones at military cemeteries across America. Neat and respectful is not how you would describe Mare Island Naval Cemetery – a forsaken plot of hallowed ground that fell between the cracks of Pentagon base closings and the city of Vallejo’s bankruptcy. The oldest military cemetery on the West Coast is in utter disrepair. It is the final resting place for 800-plus veterans, including a few who fought in the War of 1812 and three Medal of Honor recipients. The daughter of Francis Scott Key,...

An impressive array of Tiffany stained glass and other religious art elements is showing at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York. To see it, you need to fly to the Big Apple before Jan. 20. Or make it a lot easier on yourself and stay in Northern California, instead driving a short distance to enjoy the astonishing collection of 25 Louis Comfort Tiffany stained- glass windows that illuminate Saint Peter's Chapel on Mare Island.

Michael Lewis’s new book, Boomerang, is about the parts of the globe that were downgraded by the credit crisis, and my hometown of Vallejo, California, concludes his world tour like a telegraph from the end of days. From Lewis’s book, I learned that I grew up in what is now the third world. “Which city do you pity most?” Lewis asks two mayoral aides in San Jose, capital of Silicon Valley. “Vallejo!” they laugh. snip Mare Island built the world’s first aircraft carrier deck for $500 and the first cruise-missile submarine for considerably more. It held the record for fastest...

VALLEJO - The creation of a USS Iowa memorial and museum in Vallejo has moved a giant step closer to reality with the Navy's declaration that Mare Island is the mothballed battleship's only practical option, it was learned Thursday. "The Navy has deemed our organization the only viable candidate, so the other parties are out of the running," said Merylin Wong of the Vallejo-based, nonprofit Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square. "We're very excited. We've survived the competitive bidding process." The historic ship fought in World War II and the Korean War and has been in the Suisun Bay's mothball...

VALLEJO, Calif. (AP) - A fire tore through a warehouse on Mare Island on Wednesday, threatening millions of dollars worth of vintage wines and other goods. The fire at the 240,000-square-foot facility started at about 3:40 p.m. at Wine Central Services, which stores wine for Bay Area wineries. About 80 firefighters were battling the blaze into the night and hoped to have the fire contained by Thursday morning. Three employees were safely evacuated from the building and there were no reports of injuries. "This is a classic type of fire where firefighters could really get hurt," Vallejo Fire Chief Don...

VALLEJO - When news came last week that the most prominent California military bases had been passed over during this round of closings, that was just fine with the Bay Area. It's still recovering from the last round. Case in point: Mare Island Naval Shipyard, at one time the biggest employer in Napa and Solano counties. It was marked for closure in 1993 after nearly 150 years of building and repairing everything from paddle-wheeled gunboats to nuclear submarines. Today, a dozen years after Vallejo learned that the bustling installation that had driven the city for generations would shut down, Mare...