The Tidelands Archive

Plied for nearly 100 years by U.S. armed forces, San Diego Bay provides the setting for two memorials planned for Tuna Harbor on the G Street Mole between Navy Pier and Seaport Village in remembrance of World War II. One recognizes the light anti-aircraft cruiser San Diego, which was instrumental in the Battle of Leyte Gulf on the Philippine Pacific coast in October 1944; the other recognizes Bob Hope, who entertained the troops in wartime zones for decades.

John Ibe, a founder of Western Devcon in San Diego, was a machinist’s mate in 1944 who was among those entertained by Hope in the Admiralty Islands off New Guinea and among those who fought in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Americans lost eight ships and 894 men from the largest carrier task force ever assembled. The Japanese lost so many ships, they ceased to be a Naval power; they turned to kamikaze missions for the war’s remainder.

Ibe is spearheading the privately funded Military Tribute to Bob Hope monument, organized by members of Taffy 3, the Naval task force that was instrumental in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. “We had high hopes that we would break ground on May 29th, Bob Hope’s (98th) birthday,” Ibe says. The group now hopes to break ground later this year while raising funds for the $5 million project. “He says he’ll stick around for it,” Ibe says of Hope.

The San Diego served in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and was the first major U.S. warship to enter Tokyo Bay upon the surrender of Japan before being decommissioned in 1946. “We have 500 members nationwide who served on the ship,” says Coronado’s Len Shea, secretary of the Taffy 3 association, which is leading the $1 million privately funded USS San Diego Memorial drive. “Right now we’re in the fund-raising stage.”

The Port has approved the preliminary design and siting for both monuments, which would join the Battle of Leyte Gulf Memorial, Aircraft Carrier Memorial obelisk and Homecoming sculpture already on the mole. For more information on the Hope Tribute, call (858) 587-9999; on the San Diego Memorial, call (619) 435-0431.

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Fifty-two acres of what had been the Naval Training Center, off Navy Lagoon next to San Diego International Airport have been conveyed to the Port of San Diego for airport enhancements. The land is slated for airport employee parking to reduce traffic congestion, says Port spokesman Steve Shultz. Employees currently park on a Harbor Island site slated for a hotel.

The Port has increased the daily rate to $9 and the monthly rate to $60 at the Park Shuttle & Fly Long-Term Airport Parking Facility.

Hawaiian Airlines institutes nonstop daily service between San Diego and Honolulu June 15.

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The Joint Airport Advisory Committee, composed of Port and Sandag board members, will hear from Denver and Boston officials on their regional airport issues at a public meeting at 1:30 p.m. June 7 at the Holiday Inn on the Bay, 1355 N. Harbor Drive.

The Local Coastal Program, the land-use policy precise plan for the Naval Training Center’s metamorphosis as the Liberty Station mixed-use 360-acre development is slated to be heard at the California Coastal Commission meeting June 12 to 15 in Long Beach.

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Looking forward to the Fourth of July — a Wednesday this year — North San Diego Bay joins San Diego waterfront fireworks venues. The rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air, produced by San Diego’s Pyro Spectaculars and set to music simulcast on KYXY (96.5 FM), will be launched from two barges and be visible from Downtown to Point Loma, with best viewing from Shelter Island and Harbor Island.

“It’s the first time we’ve had anything in the North Bay,” says show organizer H.P. “Sandy” Purdon, owner of Shelter Cove Marina and a 17-year resident of Point Loma. Purdon is assembling sponsors, including San Diego National Bank, Sheraton Hotels and Seaside Marine, to put on the $75,000 show, which he says will be San Diego’s largest. He expects $10,000-$15,000 after costs to benefit the San Diego Armed Services YMCA.
More tidelands fireworks shows, all set for 9 p.m., will be at Chula Vista Harbor, Glorietta Bay, Sea World, La Jolla Cove and Oceanside Pier. Independence Day parades step off at 10 a.m. along Coast Highway in Oceanside and Orange Avenue in Coronado.

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It’s slow ahead for cruise ship stops in San Diego. Other than Royal Caribbean International’s Viking Serenade, which has changed its weekly stops now to Wednesdays, only the Hapig-Lloyd Line’s Bremen is scheduled to arrive, June 11.

The aircraft carrier Stennis, back from screening the premiere of “Pearl Harbor” on deck in Pearl Harbor, goes out for flight qualification operations off the San Diego coast early in June.

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Vessels on a vastly different scale go on display June 15 when the San Diego Maritime Museum opens “Masterpieces in Miniature” aboard the 1898 ferryboat steamer Berkeley. The miniature models, including ships in a bottle, range in size from 3 inches to 3 feet and in ships from the 14th century to today. The exhibit runs through Dec. 31 and is included in museum admission.

Movies Before the Mast aboard the Star of India continue with “Hook” June 15 and 16 and “The Hurricane” (1937), staring sarong siren Dorothy Lamour, July 13 and 14, both at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call (619) 234-9153.