Existing comment:
Naval Training Station San Diego:
A naval training center appeared early on the list of the type of military installations the Chamber of Commerce desired to see built in the city.
Before the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park opened on January 1, 1915, Congressman and Chamber of Commerce director William Kettner refined his strategies to make that wish come true. Kettner's special interest involved the north end of the bay, Loma Portal to the west and Dutch Flat to the east. Kettner's own home looked down on this property, and he had long wished to be able to view from his window well-ordered military bases with their neatly arranged buildings and grounds, and especially their marching columns of uniformed, disciplined young men.
Kettner had arranged for Colonel Joseph Pendleton's 4th Marines to move from North Island to the Exposition grounds in Balboa Park, where the Marines' model camp was a leading attraction. In March 1915, Kettner met Pendleton at the Exposition at the Exposition, where they discussed establishing a permanent base for Marines at Dutch Flat. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt visited the Exposition a few weeks later, and liked the idea of San Diego as a major center of naval activities.
When Roosevelt and Kettner met in Washington, DC, FDR told him of his own long-held dream; moving the Navy's west coast training station from Goat Island, on San Francisco Bay, to San Diego.
According to Kettner, Roosevelt was "really delighted with San Diego... [H]e made the statement that he found at Goat Island among the Navy boys so much sickness [due to San Francisco's insalubrious climate] that it was quite depressing, and practically assured me that if I should make some effort to remove the Base of San Diego, I could have his support." |