San Diego Naval Base

Naval Base San Diego
San Diego, California, U.S.
Naval Base San Diego logo
Type	Military base
Site information
Owner	United States of America
Controlled by	United States Navy
Site history
In use	1922–present
Garrison information
Current commander	CAPT Roy Love, USN

Naval Base San Diego, sometimes called 32nd Street Naval Station, is one of the largest bases of the United States Navy and is located in San Diego, California. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet, consisting of 50 ships and over 120 tenant commands. The base is composed of 13 piers stretched over 977 acres (3.95 km²) of land and 326 acres (1.32 km²) of water. The total on base population is over 20,500 military personnel including U.S. Coast Guard and marines and 6,000 civilians.

The 977 acres (3.95 km²) of the land on which the Naval Base sits today was occupied in 1918 by a coalition of concrete ship building firms known as the Emergency Fleet Corporation, under the single company name Pacific Marine Construction. But Pacific Marine began to lose profits with the conclusion of World War I, and negotiated a return of the land back to the City of San Diego. Meanwhile, the Navy was exploring the small tract of land to establish a west coast ship repair facility and moved on the opportunity to acquire the land. By 1920, the Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation had negotiated the transfer of land improvements to the United States Navy. Still, three obstacles stood in the way of a Navy repair facility: the coalition company, Schofield Engineering Co., still retained an option to purchase the existing plant, a local shipping board had not granted permission for more construction and finally the Navy had not yet passed an appropriations bill to authorize funds to begin work.

Nevertheless, by June 1920, Congress passed the appropriations bill- $750,000 of which was earmarked for the navy repair base. With the money appropriated, Schofield still delayed in releasing their option on the land. At the time, Admiral Roger Welles, then Commandant of the 11th Naval District, had grown weary of Schofield's delaying tactics and threatened to pull stakes and establish a repair base in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California.