Tag: military

Broadway Pier activity during Fleet Week San Diego!

Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego will be bustling with activity all this weekend. That’s because it’s 2024 Fleet Week!

The public can walk out onto the pier Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Veterans Day) and view a variety of displays by the United States military, in particular the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. The event began Friday afternoon, and I arrived in time to check it out.

The first thing one notices are United States Marine Corps combat vehicles and a gigantic howitzer. As I watched, active service members demonstrated the operation of the howitzer. Funny how operators must physically swab the bore after every shot, just as soldiers and sailors did with cannons in olden days.

Wandering about Broadway Pier, one can find a military working dog demonstration from Camp Pendleton, a robot demonstration, organizations that assist Veterans, and a multitude of food trucks near an outdoor entertainment stage.

The public can also tour a Coast Guard cutter and the USS Germantown, a huge amphibious dock landing ship.

I enjoyed exploring the Fleet Week Innovation Zone inside the pier’s Port Pavilion, where a bunch of booths were set up that promote STEM education. When I arrived, the day was drawing to a close and many of the booths were empty, which was a bit disappointing.

I did enjoy a very cool virtual reality simulation of operations aboard an aircraft carrier! Five visitors don VR headsets and become team members, landing and launching aircraft!

I also enjoyed speaking to friendly folks at the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration table, and viewing graphics concerning Naval history in California.

To learn all about the public ship tours and Fleet Week San Diego activities, which will include a Veterans Day Boat Parade on Monday, click here!

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Photos of Rancho Bernardo Veterans Memorial.

The Rancho Bernardo Veterans Memorial is located in Webb Park. During a recent walk around small Webb Lake, I paused at the memorial to read plaques honoring military veterans who’ve sacrificed to defend our country and freedoms.

You can learn more about the Rancho Bernardo Veterans Memorial by visiting the Mission page of its website. You’ll read how the Veterans Memorial was designed and installed at a central location in Rancho Bernardo – Webb Park – and dedicated on 4 July 1994.

Engraved plaques along the sidewalk define the Patriots Walk. This feature, honoring veterans, was dedicated in 2022.

If you know of someone who ought to be included in the Patriots Walk, and you’d like to make a donation that goes toward maintaining the memorial, you can find a printable nomination form here.

These photos were taken on an overcast day.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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A patriotic Massing of the Colors in San Diego.

The 68th Annual Massing of the Colors and Service of Remembrance was held today in San Diego’s Balboa Park. About 40 color guards from around San Diego converged on the Spreckels Organ Pavilion for the patriotic spectacle.

The Massing of the Colors is presented each year by the San Diego Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars, a patriotic organization that was founded in 1926. Their motto is: It Is Nobler To Serve Than To Be Served.

MOWW promotes Youth Leadership, recognizes Law Enforcement and Fire & Rescue, and promotes love of Country and Flag.

As speaker Lt. Col. David J. Worley explained, at bottom it’s all about upholding the United States Constitution, which was designed to provide Liberty for all Americans. (Of course, this includes Freedom of Speech. As a writer, that’s very important to me.)

The Parade of Colors was followed by an Invocation by Kathleen Winchester, honoring those who’ve sacrificed for our country. Next came the Pledge of Allegiance, and the singing of the National Anthem and God Bless America, led by opera singer Laura Bueno.

Laksita Nandakumar in the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Mira Mesa High School then read My Name is Old Glory. You can read it, too, here.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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History of El Hispano Americano newspaper in San Diego.

A fascinating exhibit on the 9th Floor of San Diego’s Central Library concerns the history of the old El Hispano Americano newspaper, founded in San Diego by Hernando Limón Hernández, who had been a general in the Mexican Army.

Display cases in the library’s Marilyn & Gene Marx Special Collections Center contain photographs, printed art, old newspapers and documents, detailing the life of General Hernando Limón Hernández and his groundbreaking newspaper in San Diego.

While living in Mexico, the General had been tasked with designing and building lighthouses across Mexico’s main ports. He and his family would settle in San Diego by 1916, where the retired General became a Spanish teacher at the military compound in Coronado.

He soon purchased the new El Hispano Americano newspaper, and began to operate its print shop in downtown San Diego.

El Hispano Americano was the first modern Spanish language newspaper published in California. It would become the first binational newspaper that circulated simultaneously in Southern California and Northern Baja California. At its peak, in 1932, El Hispano American averaged 25,000 daily readers.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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Graphics outside Navy SEAL Museum San Diego.

Last week I was hurrying through downtown San Diego in the very early morning to catch a trolley for work, when I noticed a crane beside America Plaza, directly across Kettner Boulevard from Santa Fe Depot. Then I saw something strange.

Two submersibles were sitting on the sidewalk near the crane! I learned that they were to be lifted through a second floor window to become an exhibit inside the future Navy SEAL Museum San Diego!

It was too dark for my camera, unfortunately, and I couldn’t wait. But someone pointed out to me that graphics had been newly applied to the front of the museum.

The interior of the Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is presently under construction. The museum is scheduled to open next year.

I returned later to take these photographs in the daylight…

UPDATE!

Many new graphics have appeared in the following days! Navy SEAL images can now be found on all sides of the museum. Here are more photos…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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U.S. Navy SEAL stares out a window!

I was walking past One America Plaza in downtown San Diego this morning when I had to stop in my tracks and do a double take. Staring out a window at 1001 Kettner Boulevard was a U.S. Navy SEAL!

The surprising window graphic draws attention to the fact that this building is the future home of Navy SEAL Museum San Diego. You might recall how years ago this space, across from Santa Fe Depot, was used as a gallery by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. (MCASD has since moved everything from their downtown San Diego location to La Jolla.)

As you can see from my photo, construction of the new Navy SEAL museum is now underway. According to their website, Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is scheduled to open in 2025.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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Model of new Freedom Park at Navy Pier.

Near the center of the hangar deck of the USS Midway Museum, there’s a scale model of Freedom Park at Navy Pier. When completed, this large, new public park will occupy the historic pier that the USS Midway aircraft carrier has called home now for 20 years.

One can walk around the model and visualize in three dimensions how Freedom Park will appear when it has its Grand Opening, which is scheduled for Spring 2028. The park will include a formal parade ground, plenty of grass for recreation, gardens, benches, play structures, trees and winding walkways, and a monumental flag at the pier’s end which will be visible from downtown and across San Diego Bay.

This informative presentation provides an excellent overview of the plans for Freedom Park, including a detailed map and timeline for completion.

The parade ground will feature a central statue of John William Finn, San Diego area resident and last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the attack on Pearl Harbor. The park will also feature a Family and Sacrifice Monument, honoring the sacrifices thousands of military families have made, telling their stories. Navy Pier was once where many families waved goodbye to departing sailors.

A Footsteps of Freedom interpretive path will follow the length of Navy Pier and circle around the USS Midway, connecting with the present-day Greatest Generation Walk, where many military monuments exist today. (Including this Navy plaque, whose exact origin was a mystery, until some of this blog’s readers provided amazing information!)

Other features will enhance the new Freedom Park, such as a Digital Journey that people can follow with their smartphones.

Today, after viewing the model and taking a few photos, I asked a docent at the Midway Museum: where will visitors park their cars? (Most of the parking lot now atop the pier will be vanishing.) He informed me there is underground parking at the new RaDD complex across Harbor Drive. A small parking lot will remain near the entrance of the museum.

Of course, a project of this magnitude requires a lot of funding. There’s more money to be raised. If you’d like to buy a Freedom Park Legacy Brick and help with this effort, click here.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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A young boy at the Memorial Day ceremony.

A very young boy came with his family and sat in the plastic chair beside my own this morning. The family had arrived for the Memorial Day ceremony, held on the flight deck of the USS Midway.

The small child was very fidgety. As speakers spoke solemnly of the sacrifice of others, and of very serious things like honor, duty, courage and dedication, the little boy wiggled about at the edge of my vision.

Lt. Col. Lynda Hilliard, an Army nurse, gave the keynote speech. As she talked about two wars and the sacrifice of other nurses who desired only to heal, the little boy thrust his arm in front of my face.

I was immediately irritated. Oh, come on, I thought to myself.

The boy was pointing toward something off to the right.

Then I heard the bird chirping. (Did you hear it, too?) I had been concentrating on the powerful words of the speech.

A small bird, perched atop a nearby helicopter, was just visible to the eye. The young boy had heard and seen it, and was taking joy in pointing it out to the world.

The boy was happy, living without a care in a world where he was free.

And it occurred to me: that Security, Freedom and its Happiness, in this old world filled with everlasting trouble, is a gift from those who have unselfishly sacrificed.

I gazed in wonder at that small chirping bird for a few moments, too.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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Powerful, true words for Memorial Day.

I hope somebody recorded them–those words spoken today by First Sergeant, US Army, Brian Bennett. They were eloquent. They were true.

After eating a hot dog in the San Diego sunshine, I sat listening to Brian’s speech during the Memorial Day event at Balboa Park’s International Cottages. He was the first of five distinguished speakers. They had served in the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. All of the speakers were excellent.

Brian is a teacher at Mount Miguel High School. He confessed that he began to prepare his speech the way many of his students do their homework–by using AI. We in the audience laughed.

Brian, however, found that AI’s predictable answer about the meaning of Memorial Day wasn’t quite right. True–the holiday is about duty, dedication, courage and ultimate sacrifice—but the computed answer wasn’t complete.

A true understanding of Memorial Day, explained Brian, involves long years of service and often difficult experience. It’s only then that one can fully understand the great and meaningful sacrifice made by those who’ve fallen in service to their country. Ideals easily spoken of become real.

Ultimately, he explained, Memorial Day is about love.

Love for those in your life who are precious. Love for a country whose founding documents grant us a life of freedom. And love for those who’ve come before, sacrificing so that we may live this life.

Yes, I thought, a life where people from all walks can freely gather together and speak or listen to powerful words without fear.

I hope my few, poor words did Brian’s great speech justice.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Demolition begins on San Diego’s Navy Pier.

Demolition has begun of the crumbling structure on the east end of Navy Pier. The old building is the last remnant of San Diego’s historic Naval Supply Depot, which grew over the years into a major complex. You can read the fascinating history here.

Over the next few years, the surface of Navy Pier, including the large parking lot next to the USS Midway, will be converted into beautiful Freedom Park! The project is a partnership between the Port of San Diego and the USS Midway Museum.

Today I learned from a museum employee that before the walls of the old headhouse are torn down, workers are busy removing asbestos and doing the preliminary things that are necessary.

You can visualize how Freedom Park at Navy Pier will appear when completed by visiting this web page. I was told the park, which will honor “ordinary” heroes, will likely be finished in 2027.

When I was a young man I observed dozens of Army tanks parked inside this building and lined up along the pier. I wish I’d taken photographs. I believe that was back in the 1980s.

UPDATE!

The exterior demolition had begun in August…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.