East Bay
Oakland Army Base
-June 1941: construction begun in marshlands, planned to augment cargo handling at Ft Mason (aka San Francisco Port of Embarkation). Built by Bechtel. 422 acres, 1 million square feet of office and warehouse space (plus water, roads and electricity). Before construction, 6 million cubic yards of rock filled in the salt marsh
-08 December 1941: Opened as Quartermaster Depot, even though it was under 25% finished
-WW2 Base Paper: "The Service Knight"
-1943: construction finished, at a cost of $35 million. 27 miles of railroad. 13 berths. over 75 buildings and facilities
-May 1944: 900 Italian exPOWs, captured in North Africa, arrive in Oakland from the southwest
-1946: construction finished. All of site called Oakland Army Base (OArB). Formerly only operational areas had that name, Camp James T. Knight being the housekeeping and service areas.
-at war's end, OArB occupied 700 waterfront acres (some leased from Port of Oakland). Remains of 50,000 went through. Site of surplus material.
-1962: Transportation Operations moved to Oakland from Fort Mason
-1966: Oakland Army Terminal renamed Oakland Army Base
-July 1987: Senator Wilson requests that Dept of Defense move Army Language Training School (then at Presidio's PHS Hospital; moving it would allow a regional AIDS hospice to move in) to OARB, cheaper than a new building at Fort Ord
-1995: BRAC Commission selects it for closure, the only West Coast Army site
-1997: tenant Naval Public Works Center closes
-08 July 1999: Oakland base Reuse Authority selected development team (including United Indian Nations and Phoenix-based OpusWest) that plans to build an eco- park (light industries sharing resources) on 220 of the 400 acres. 189 acres of the 422-acre base set aside for the Port of Oakland (area west of Maritime Street). Park also included in plan, operated by the East Bay Regional Park District
-10:45AM 16 September 1999: closed under Col John Compisi (flag to MG Kenneth Privrintsky, Military Traffic Management Command Commander). At closure, the OARB had 143 military and 1943 civilian workers, 3 piers and 3 miles of railroad (Oakland Terminal Railroad)
-04 February 2001: City of Oakland and Port of Oakland swap parcels
Oak Knoll Naval Hospital
-Oak Knoll Country Club built early 20th century. Bankrupt in depression, sat unused
-01 July 1942: Oak Knoll Golf and Country Club (and adjacent tracts) becomes Oak Knoll Naval Hospital (aka US Naval Hospital Oakland), with 6 buildings. Oak Knoll NH General Contractor: Huber Hunt & Nichols (Indianapolis). Architect: Stone Marraccini & Patterson; 100K sq ft ceramic/quarry tile & marble
-1955: Naval Hospital Oakland on 343 acres
-1960s: 9 story hospital built for injured Vietnam era soldiers
-01 October 1996: 200 acre Oak Knoll Naval Hospital closes
-2000: Oakland increased it's bid for the 175 acre site from $250,000 to 1.6 million, including 8 story hospital
-Oakland Naval Medical Center at 8750 Mountain Boulevard, Oakland 94627
-Oak Knoll base paper: the Oak Leaf
Naval Supply Center Oakland
-15 December 1941: Oakland Naval Supply Center opens.
Expanded to 541 acres (10 million square feet covered, plus 3 million uncovered) on 4 sites in 25 mile radius. 528 acres in Oakland (112 buildings and 102 underwater acres adjacent to OArB), 410 at Point Molate, 107 on Alameda and 145 along the inner harbor at the Alameda Annex, adjacent to Alameda NAS. Largest military port complex in the world during Vietnam War.
-WW2/ Korea: 3M troops & 35M tons of cargo go through
-15 June 1999: 528 acre Oakland Naval Supply Center leased by the Port of Oakland from the US Navy as the Fleet & Industrial Supply Service. Oakland Harbor Transportation Center (4 berths, UP and Sante Fe rail beds) went to the Port of Oakland
Naval Air Station Oakland
-05 February 1927: Oakland City Council buys 692 acre Bay Farm Island to build an airport upon
-03 June 1927: Army informs Oakland it'd like to use site for California- Hawaii flight, requesting a runway be built.
-28 June 1927: Maitland and Hegenburger depart for Hawaii on a completed runway
-March 1928: Naval Reserve unit, the Golden Gate Flying Club established, leasing 1200 square feet at Oakland Municipal Airport.
-mid 1920s: Admiral Nimitz initiates pilot training for NROTC students of UCB at Oakland Airport
-01 August 1928: Navy forms NARB (Naval Air Reserve Base?) on 1200 leased square feet. Regular facilities established late 1930s (?)
-1935: Station begins conducting elimination training course
-1937: Rear Admiral C S Kempff accepts 939 acres for air station in Oakland
-1940: Boeing School of Aeronautics builds hanger to train Army and Navy mechanics. Hangar now used by the Western Air Museum
-January 1940: Oakland sells USN 500 acres of marshland for $1
-1941: 13 acres bought and Naval Reserve Air Base Oakland established
-1942: moved, becoming Naval Air Base Livermore
-January 1942: Oakland selected as a Naval Air Transport Service Terminal, full primary training begins
-01 January 1943: Oakland designated a Naval Air Station
-01 June 1943: Oakland becomes a Naval Auxiliary Air Field under Alameda as Livermore becomes as Naval Air Station. United Airlines operates a mechanics school for the Army on site, since the facility was jointly run with the Army's Air Technical Service Command. 1016 acres (65 USN owned, rest leased)
-WW2: Naval Auxiliary Air Stations (operational training for fleet units) included Oakland, Arcata, and Hollister
-1946: returned to Oakland.
-1946: Naval reserve activities start at Oakland, which was upgraded to a Naval Air Station. At one point the largest Naval Reserve Air site, there were also Marine and Army Air Reserve activities, from the mid-thirties onward
-1948ish: Oakland Naval Air Station on Bay Farm Island, north of Oakland International Airport
-1955: Oakland Naval Air Station on 65 acres by Oakland International Airport
-1961: Oakland site closed, reserve activities moved to Alameda
ELSEWHERE
-WW2: Hotel Oakland (founded 1912 at 13th and Alice) taken over by the government for use as a military hospital
Alameda Naval Air Station
-1872: two businessmen acquire Alameda peninsula
-1902: a tidal canal dredged, making Alameda peninsula an island
-1916: new owner of one of the larger resorts (of several; this one extant since 1870s) opens 120 acre Neptune Beach.
-1917- 1934: Alameda Naval Air Station (ANAS) built on 1734 acres, mostly dredge spoils, behind about 10 ships. Built by residential developer and banker John J. Mulrany, who campaigned for it from 1917 through 1936
-1927: portion of island that would be northern part of ANAS filled
-02 December 1930: Alameda gives 1075 swampy marshland acres to the Army for the minor Army Air Corps facility, Benton Field. Benton Field also hosted Pan Am's seaplanes. Next to Alameda Airport, which was also evidently taken over.
-1931: City of Alameda reclaims 135 acres and Pan American Airways builds 3 hangars, a water well & tank and administration building after US Army made improvements. Army starts constructing 100 acre airfield.
-1934: City of Alameda finances improvements on Benton Field
-22 November 1935: 1st Pan American China Clipper leaves there. China Clipper movie has Alameda with a supporting role
-June 1936: Congress passes Public Resolution 19, approving establishment of a Naval Air Station at Alameda
-1936: US Navy buys Benton Field (and sand- runway Alameda Airport?) for $1.
-1936: Navy acquires initial acreage
-1937: Congress approves $415 million for ANAS
-1938: Navy begins building ANAS
-October 1939: Neptune Beach closes, bankrupt
-1940: Neptune Beach resort demolished
-01 November 1940: ANAS opens
-1940: Nimitz Field opens
-1941: San Francisco Airdrome (commercial airport, operating since mid 20s) closes
-1941- 1948: more land for ANAS acquired
-1942: US Navy buys Neptune Beach property. The two pools became the Parade Ground of the US Maritime Service Reserve Training Center
-1942: outlying fields in Santa Rosa, Crow's Landing, Monterey and South San San Francisco established
-December 1943: base newspaper, The Carrier, founded
-October 1953: 55 watt station KNAS bows. 640AM, music requests, interspersed with newscasts, recievable only on post
-1955: 2473 acres
-September 1960: relocating from Santa Cruz, ex naval Academy head coach Eddie Erdalatz brings Raiders to practice
1967: Part of park now the Alameda Memorial State Park, opened on former Neptune Beach site
-01 April 1967: 139 acre Naval Air Rework facility opened
-July 1967: Yours, Mine and Ours filmed on Enterprise, commissary and XO's house
-1973: US Navy jet hits an Alameda apartment building. Plane not from ANAS.
-1990: Marina Village (duplexes) built for personnel. Now used to house Coast Guard members and families. On site kof Airdrome.
-25 April 1997: ANAS closes
-1997: ex-USN pilot Mike Crouch (& partners) founded TRIDENT MGMT, to take over deep water port. To serve 8 Maritime Administration ships (eventually to be 11 Ready Reserve ships)
-1999: United Indian Nations puts in a 12 unit transitional housing facility
-Nearly 1000 acres were slated to become US Fish & Wildlife Service's Alameda National Wildlife Refuge. 565 land and 413 water (978 total) acres. 500 foot passage for boats south of refuge and north of Breakwater Island within wet acreage. USN to clean up 72 acres (pesticides, dump, toxic chemicals, garbage, tear gas agents, asbestos and radium, buried between mid 50s and 1978. 1.6 million tons of waste). Transfer date: 2002 from Engineering Field Activity West, Naval Facilities Engineering Command in San Bruno. USN sets $31M for capping hazardous garbage. 32 acre wetland adjacent
-Films made since peacetime: Rainmaker, Flubber, A Smile Like Yours, true Crimes, effects of What Dreams May Come
Concord
-Founded 1907 as Bay Point, a lumber importing center.
-World War 1: site a shipyard. Later abandoned
-28 January 1936: became Naval Ammunition Depot Mare Island
-23 March 1941: old Concord Air Mail field re-opened (cleaned up and CONCORD painted on the hangar) because NAS Alameda set to replace San Francisco Bay Airdrome
-08 December 1941: All west coast private flying stopped. Alameda's Outlying Field (OLF) Concord used for practicing takeoffs and landings
-27 January 1942: Becomes Naval Magazine, Port Chicago
-February 1942: construction begins on Mare Island Annex across Suisun bay. Town, Port Chicago, 2 miles away, population 1500. Across Suisun bay from Mare Island. Renamed Naval Ammunition Depot, Port Chicago.
-November 1942: construction ends
-04 December 1942: in use, commissioned as a US Naval Magazine. 650 acres
-20 January 1944: US Naval Magazine, Port Chicago (inland area) established
-17 July 1944: the E.A. Bryan (7212 ton EC-2 Liberty ship) loaded with 4600 tons of munitions (including 1780 of high explosives) and prepared-to-be-loaded-at-midnight-with-430-tons-of-bombs Quinalt Victory, plus 102 loaders, 9 Naval Officers, 67 crewmen & armed guards, USMC sentry, 5 Coast Guard fire barge men and a few civvies -or, 320 people- lost in huge explosion, costing $12 million
-April 1945: 3 piers finished. 7600 acre Tidal and 5200 acre Inland areas
-18 January 1945: US Naval Magazine, Port Chicago becomes US Naval Ammunition Depot, Concord. NAD Mare Island became Mare Island Annex
-1955: 6585 acres
-1966- 1968: US government buys 5000 acres (in essence the town of Clyde) only to demolish it in 1969, creating a buffer around the Naval Weapons Center
-March 1986: hangar bulldozed, field is all housing, built for Navy as "Victory Village"
-October 1997: 834th Transportation Battalion moves to Concord from Oakland
-01 October 1999: 13000 acres to US Army Reserve, 7600 acres as Military Ocean Terminal Concord under long-term lease to Military Traffic Management Command. Most activities for Army & Air Force anyway. 101 miles of rail, 79 miles of roadway. 7 shore cranes, 1 floating crane, 1 superstacker, one Rough Terrain Container Handler, 342 forklifts. Abandoned airfield still has one runway (other gone), taxiway and ramp. Besides two tracts is radiologiacl lab in Pittsburg. Capability of loading 4500 daily tons of munitions. A division of Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.
-May 2000: two thousand-ton cranes (each capable of lifting 44 tons), two hundred feet high installed
-Port Chicago now part of the USN Magazine Concord
Camp Stoneman
-January 1942: construction starts on San Franciso Port of Embarkation's primary staging center. Rail fed by spurs of Santa Fe and Southern Pacific.
-15 May 1942: Camp Stoneman opens
-28 May 1942: Activated. 96 buildings on 1950 acres. 800 buildings between Pittsburg and Antioch. Accommodated 30000 troops at once, 2800 acres. Took over Detention duties from Ft McDowell, housing 2250 German POWs. Excursion boats Catalina and Cabrillo, yacht Yerba Buena (later redubbed Ernie Pyle) made up Army's ferry fleet. Average stay of two days. Amenities: 3 theatres, 10K seat outdoor theater, weekly USO shows, 8 PXes and 75 phone booths. 45 dentist chairs used in 18 hour shifts
-Angel Island "welcome home" sign accompanied by another one on the side of C & H refinery and stil another on S&P's Benicia- Martinez bridge
-1952- 1953: 2349th HQ Squadron, 2349th Pers Proc Gp at Stoneman & Parks AFB
-Korea era: Camp Roberts initial training, Camp Stoneman ‘holding’ area.
-30 August 1954: Camp Stoneman closes. Buildings vacated but extant some years after.
Point Molate
-built early 20th century as California Associated Wine Association's Wine Haven. Has a castle. 419 acres, one mile north of the Richmond- San Rafael bridge. 12 underground bunkers (tanks?) built to withstand aerial bombing
-30 September 1998: closes. 65 buildings and 29 housing units on 421 acres
Camp Parks
-26 November 1942: CB activity established in Livermore for training, called Camp Parks
-19 January 1943: Construction Battalion Replacement Depot commissioned
-1940's: 3 sites between Tassajara and Dougherty Roads: Camp Parks, Camp Shoemaker and US Naval Hospital
-East of Camp Parks was Camp Shoemaker housed both US Naval Convalescent Hospital (Shoemaker, est 43) and a Naval Training and Personnel Distribution Center. Known collectively with Camp Parks as "Fleet City"
-Naval Training & Distribution Center @ Shoemaker, Ca
-During WW2, at Shoemaker : WAVES Overseas Unit, Co J; WAVES Detachment Overseas Unit, Co.s E & F (1945); & at USN Training & Dist Ctr (Shoemaker): Woman's Reserve Overseas Unit X and Company C. Also there: Station Force Construction Battalion Replacement Depot
-46: Quonset huts and two story barracks dismantled, Fleet City closes. Main gate sign and the Base Commanders house (on a hill overlooking the base). Used by Alameda county for vocational rehabilitation.
-1947: Santa Rita County Jail opens
-1951: except for the 900 acres used for the jail, Navy reacquires land and transfers it to the Air Force, construction begins on Parks AFB
-1951: Parks Air Force Base opens
-March 1951: Basic Training begins. Site also used as an overseas replacement depot and air base defense training
-1953: land transferred to Air Force from Navy
-1959: Navy operations moved to Port Huenume, the site went to the Army. 400 acres spun off as the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center
-July 1959: closed, control transferred to the Presidio of San Francisco, remained in standby status
-1964: declared excess. 1600 acres kept for National Guard and Navy use
-1969- 1973: excess and transferred to Alameda county (used as Job Corps Training Center)
-Early 1970s: 450 northeastern acres spun off to from Tassajara Park
-December 1980: Dept of the Army establishes Parks Reserve Training Area
-01 September 1993: Parks US Reserve Forces Training Area established
-1996: Army units use 2,300 acres for field exercises and weapons training, Camp Parrington (Detachment D, CBMU 303) a small building at NW corner of 7th St & Fernandez Ave became local SeaBee home when Treasure Island closed
Travis Air Force Base
-Summer 1942: runways & temporary buildings built by Corps of Engineers. Used initially by Army & Navy fighters (first few months: AC deck painted on runway for Seamen) to practice take-offs and landings. Strong prevailing local winds replicated those at sea. Soon came medium- range bombers. Realization soon came of the proximity to the Pacific.
-11 May 1943: named Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base
-01 June 1943: 23rd Ferrying Group from Hamilton arrives to officially pen the base. Main purpose was ferrying tactical aircraçft to Pacific war zone. This led to it's assignment under Air Transport Command
-week of 25 September 1943: Western Airlines opens Cargo Operations school
-06 November 1943: school becomes 'Station # 10, Pacific Wing, Air Transport Command, Fairfield- Suisin Army Air Field'
-1945: west coast's largest arial port, emphasis on troop and materiel shipments to occupied Japan and Korea. and processing of returning GIs
-06 July 1947: UFO seen by AAF Captain and Mrs. Burniston
-01 June 1948: moved to Military Air Transport Command
-01 May 1949: Strategic Air Command assumes jurisdiction
-1949- 1958: airlift operations take backseat to long range reconnaissance & intercontinental bombing operations. Runways added and expanded, hangars/ barracks/ family housing built
-05 August 1950: BG Robert F. Travis (Cmdr, Heavy Bombardment Wing) killed at the field in a crash of a B29
-20 October 1950: renamed Travis Air Force Base
-21 April 1951: formal dedication held to open the 10,000 acre Travis AFB
Hayward Army Air Field
-1942: War Department buys 407 acres of Concord farm land for $542,646 for Hayward airfield.
-June 1943: US Military Command acquires it and adds anti attack aircraft. Soon added 122 acres, for which the city paid $500k and the Federal government $12,140,726
-April 1947, the City of Hayward takes over Hayward Municipal Airport from the War Assets Administration
-1963: Became Hayward Air Terminal
-07 January 1999: Becomes Hayward Executive Airport 1999
Buchanan Field
-June 1941: Contra Costa Board of Supervisors take option on 310 acres of Vincent Hook Estate
-March 1942 Contra Costa Board of Supervisors votes to buy the land
-24 April 1942: facility named for William J Buchanan Field, Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors. Differeent from Diablo Field (Concord Air Mail Field), was desigend to replace SF Airdrome, as was Pleasant Hill's Sherman Field
-June 1942: site turned over to US for development as an airport
-15 July 1942: grading began
-14 August 1942: CAA raises federal allocations to $494,026 (from 344,026) to meet bids on 400 acre Bucahnan Field (at Pacheco). Land purchased by county for $98,000
-1942: 407 farm acres leased near Concord for Buchanan Field; lease expired 1945
-September 1943: after $3m of development, Army began operating Concord Army Airport. Advanced base for P-39 pilots
-September- December 1943: 328th Fighter Group (Hamilton) had unit at Concord AAF, the 444th Fighter Squadron
-07 January 1944: County votes to let Army lease Buchanan Field another year at $1
-September 1944: closes as an active base
-01 December 1944: Buchanan Field (Concord AAF) inactive, housing for 50 officers & 400 men
-November 1945: exists caretaker status
-04 August 1946: dedicated as a county airport
San Leandro Naval Hospital
-early 20th century: Seqouyah Hills Country Club founded
-1944: influx of psychiatric cases to Oakland Naval Hospital led to opening of sister facility, San Leandro Naval Hospital. Had beds 1500 patients plus staff
-1951: recommissioned for the Korean War
-1964: site sold to Eicher and Brown & Kauffmann to raise money for a new building at Oak Knoll. Developers cleared the buildings for homes, which were called Seqouyah Hills
Livermore Naval Air Station
-March 1942: Livermore Naval Air Station, covering 629 acres of rancher W. Gatzmer Wagoner's former property and bounded on the south by East Avenue and on the east by Greenville Road. Wagoner compensated $75,265 and U.S. government acquired the land by deed. First training planes landed on the field in March 1942. During its time as a primary flight training center, over 4000 candidate pilots trained at the Livermore Naval Air Station.
-01 June 1943: Livermore separates from Oakland Naval reserve Air Base and is commissioned Livermore Naval Air Station
-15 October 1944: with pilot demand declining, the station lost training function and became a base for operational units base. This meant stopover point for fighters operating from aircraft carriers. Last pilot trainee finishes and station put under command of Alameda's naval Air Center
-10 October 1946: LNAS deactivated. Opened to civilian aircraft, but little use.
-1947: LNAS used for model airplane meet and stockcars race in 1947.
-1948: site control passed to Alameda County.
-1947- 1950: used as temporary quarters for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade classes of Livermore Elementary School District while constructing new buildings. Considered as a site for an Alameda County junior college and a state college. Air Force proposed building academy here, but needed 9000 acres, not 681.
-late 1950: California Research and Development, a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Corporation, announced it would occupy site construction of MTA particle accelerator. Property taken over by Atomic Energy Commission
-1952: became the site of the Livermore branch of the University of California Radiation Laboratory
-Livermore NAS had a dozen unpaved outlying fields:
NOLF Abel (Milpitas)
NOLF Cope (Pleasanton)
NOLF Brown (Tracy)
NOLF Brown- Fabian (Tracy)
NOLF Gelderman (Dublin)
NOLF Heath (Fremont. At some point paved, reused as Fremont Drag Strip, which in turn became Baylands Raceway, leased from SP. FDS sublet southern portion (aroun 1959) for what became Sky Sailing Airport)
NOLF Linderman (Tracy)
NOLF Livermore (nee Livermore CAA Intermediate Field)
NOLF May School
NOLF Rita- Butterworth (Pleasanton)
NOLF Spring Valley (Pleasanton)
NOLF Wagoner (Livermore)
East Bay Oddities
-former Army airports: San Carlos AP (southeastern San Mateo), Livermore Municipal Airport, Stockton Metro AP
-Shannon Field of Pleasanton, built in 1934, used to train military pilots. Or is that Sherman Filed of Pleasant Hill
-07 January 1944: Contra Costa County repairs St. Mary's Pre Flight School grounds at St. Marys College, anticipating USN reimbursement
-1850: Benicia Arsenal established. First West Coast Army hospital at Benicia. Army's principal west coast ordnance depot until end of WW2
-1953: Benicia Ordnance Depot founded
-Civil War era posts near Lake Merritt: Camp Merritt (later called Camp Merchant) and Camp Downey. During the Spanish American War, briefly, was Camp Barrett
-WW1: In Berkeley (current MLK @ Derby Street) was Savo Island, Navy housing. Later to school district, which razed it.
-1940: Stockton Airport taken over by military
-1941: War Department opens Military Intelligence Command Camp Tracy within the old Byron Hot Springs hotel (built 1904, closed mid-20s)
-1942: tactical unit of Army Air Field moved to Oakland Airport
-07 January 1944: CC County repairs St. Mary's Pre Flight School grounds at St. Marys College, anticipating USN reimbursement
-01 September 1945: temporary detention center at Byron Springs closes
-05 February 1962: Army's Nike Site SF-25C (ca. 56-59) to USAF as Mount Martell ANG Radio Relay Annex, assigned to Air National Guard
-WW2:
-Richmond Tank Plant converted from a Ford factory
-UCB had ROTC in Field Artillery, Infantry, Engineering and Coast Artillery
-Training centers include the following camps: Hyde, Stoneman, Clayton, Ashby, and Fremont.
-Albany: Naval Landing Forces Equipment Depot on the grounds of Golden Gate Fields
-Ordnance Automotive Shops in Emeryville
-2000 troops in Tilden Park
-West Berkeley: Camp Ashby established at 9th and Ashby as training site for black troops
-In West Berkeley, building housing Weatherford BMW (foot of Potter Street) built 1942 by Navy as a foundry, making parts for the Richmond shipyards