Posted on 04/16/2012 10:24:25 AM PDT by Jeff Head
Lucky you! Used to live in Escondido (North of San Diego). Try to find time to visit the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park located in Escondido. Just checked they now call in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We visited there all the time and really is a special place. Go in the morning as it does get hot!
On the drive to Escondido up 15 N you will go past Miramar Naval Air Station which used to be a busy place. Top Gun school located there.
Been to all the Sea World’s and San Diego has the best! Try to visit that as the gardens and flowers are beautiful and the shows are great. Check the sun angle and try to sit accordingly- can be roasting if full sun for an hour.
Just some thoughts for your family to consider, wish I could come!!
Thanks for the tips, mojo. My wife’s been out there a couple of times to visit her bro who’s lived there for about 30 years. I’ve never heard a bad thing said about San Diego. Only thing I’m not looking forward to is that long plane ride from West Palm Beach to SD via Atlanta.
You do know that Miramar is now a Marine Air Station? Or were you referring to the past? The Naval Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) is now integrated into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at NAS Fallon, NV.
Talking past- 1980’s. Thanks for the update.
7th Fleet is WESTPAC. EASTPAC is 3rd Fleet.
Yep...already fixed that on my site...was my bad, &th is forward deployed in Japan.
Another freeper also pointed thios out on this thread and I appreciate it.
They say San Diego is the highest concentration of US Naval vessels in the world after Norfolk. I believe it.
The entire Sound around Bremerton is pretty big too, as would be Hawaii and Japan.
But yes, this is the 3rd fleet. Thanks for pointing it out.
Pearl Harbor has full complement of surface vessals and subs but much of the time they are deployed. Carriers are in and out since no one wants another December 7th in the Duck Pond. When a carrier arrives, it’s rarely inside the harbor unless for a refit. Where the subs are is anyone’s guess.
The same consolidation of bases occurred in San Diego with all but one of the Naval installations (Naval Base, San Diego).
I always thought that to have different command structures were redundant (think redundant fedgov agencies), so I think this a good thing. Of course, each base still has it's own designation and base commander.
It's always a thrill when a carrier returns to port.
She's quite a sight!
I can imagine the wonderful setting the Del provided for your daughter's wedding. What gorgeous photos you all will have to mark the day! Congratulations to all!
With so many FReepers heading this way, seems we should have a mini FR convention here some time! Just a thought....
They can try to change the name but we still call it The Wild Animal Park :)
LPH-11 (USS NEW ORLEANS) - purple shirt here. What a pain when the Marine units came aboard and bought out the ship's store and layed about everywhere. Or maybe you were on a smaller LPD or LST or now LSD? Still, I was proud to be their "sea-going bellhop". Gotta love our Marines.
Just researched LPH-11 and found she was used as target practice and sunk in 2010 some 70 miles off Kaua'i. She was my home for (3)years back in the 70's. Makes me a little sad. Guess better to be blown up than being scrapped for junk metal.
I still remember every inch of that flight deck and every time I had to run across it to fuel the Cobra's, Huey's, Chinooks, Sea Stallions - also some Harriers. Think FOD walks in o'dark thirty. Can't count the number of times I ate dry cheese sandwiches on deck and peed off the side of the re-fueling station. Miss those times, except for the countless fire-fighting drills and how bad everyone smelled from the heat of the orient. Are you a Shellback?
I was on two LPDs (DUBUQUE and JUNEAU), two LSTs (BRISTOL COUNTY and SAN BERNARDINO), an LKA (ST LOUIS) and an LSD (CARTER HALL). Only the last is still in commission. The LSTs were sold to foreign navies and the LKA is in mothballs at Pearl Harbor. I don’t know the status of the LPDs. They were rode hard for 40+ years and put away wet.
I was able to cross the equator on every ship I was on, including the only non-gator, an FFG. I am a Golden Shellback-BRISTOL COUNTY crossed at 0° and 180° enroute from Guadalcanal to Pearl Harbor. I was King Neptune on my last crossing (actually the CMC was a senior shellback but he was required to be a safety observer for the ceremony.)
For my job (QM) amphibs were challenging ships. Lots of inshore navigation and of course beaching on the LSTs. I enjoyed them very much.
I saw that someone else corrected you-after I posted. My fault for not reading all the posts first.
I haven’t been to San Diego since 1995, when we brought my LST from Sasebo to be decommed and turned over to the Chilean Navy. I remember being shocked at how empty the place seemed after the first big wave of post-Gulf War decommissionings compared to what it had been in the ‘80s. I imagine I would be really shocked now. But the guys in the ‘80s who remembered the ‘60s and ‘70s probably said the same thing.
Thanks for the photos. It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been to Coronado. I had 3 years of shore duty at NAS North Island followed by 3 years on USS Ranger (CV-61) homeported at NAS North Island. I left in 1993 when the Ranger decomissioned. There sure have been a lot of changes since then, in San Diego and in the Navy.
Jeeze, so you were the guy I had to kiss the lard laden fat belly? That was nasty, not to mention crawling through a tunnel of galley garbage. I wonder if they still do that, along with the paddles hitting the backside. My second/third crossing was fun, as I was a Shellback. My turn...har! I also did duty on a FF (USS Barbey).
Sounds like you missed out on adult Disneyland of Olongapo. Then maybe not your cup o tea.
ROTOR-HEADS ROTATE EVERYWHERE! USN: 1975-1986.
No, that was the Royal Baby, not King Neptune. I made it to Subic plenty of times before it shut down. I was also there right after Pinatubo went off and was in the last the ARG to pull out when they closed the base. I never went back after that though, which was cool because I was married by then.
Yes. The synapses are not firing on all cylinders nowadays. It's been too long since.
Take care Vet.
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