RWA in San Diego - SEALS storm the beach

Reminder: I have a special giveaway to celebrate June at this link.

In two weeks, I'll be in San Diego for the RWA Annual Conference (link). I will soak up the sights of "America's Finest City" until Wednesday, when I am cohosting the bus tour of the Navy Base Coronado (link).

I've shared the history of NBC ...

- The Army Comes Flying Along (link)
- A Future Duchess Lands (link)
- Aircraft Carriers Pull Into Port (link)

U.S. Navy SEALs conducting training with SCAR rifles.

Public Domain (link)

But it is San Diego's connection to Navy SEALs which interest the authors on our tour.  From Navy.mil (link),

During the 1960s, each branch of the armed forces formed its own counterinsurgency force. The Navy utilized UDT personnel to form separate units called SEAL teams. January 1962 marked the commissioning of SEAL Team ONE in the Pacific Fleet and SEAL Team TWO in the Atlantic Fleet. These teams were developed to conduct unconventional warfare, counter-guerilla warfare and clandestine operations in both blue and brown water environments.

Concurrently, Naval Operations Support Groups were formed to aid UDTs, SEALs, and two other unique units — Boat Support and Beach Jumpers — in administration, planning, research, and development. During the Vietnam War, UDTs performed reconnaissance missions and SEALs carried out numerous offensive operations. In 1967, the Naval Operations Support Groups were renamed Naval Special Warfare Groups (NSWGs) as involvement increased in limited conflicts and special operations.

Two members of SEAL Delivery Team 2 conduct lockout 

training with USS Hawaii in 2007.
Public Domain (link)

In 1983, existing UDTs were redesignated as SEAL teams and/or SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams and the requirement for hydrographic reconnaissance and underwater demolition became SEAL missions.

The Naval Special Warfare Command was commissioned April 16, 1987, at the Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, Calif. Its mission is to prepare Naval Special Warfare forces to carry out their assigned missions and to develop special operations strategy, doctrine, and tactics.

SEALs (Sea, Air, Land) teams go through what is considered by some to be the toughest military training in the world. Basic Underwater Demolition/ SEAL (BUD/S) training is conducted at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado. Students encounter obstacles that develop and test their stamina, leadership and ability to work as a team.

UDT members using the casting technique from a speeding boat

Public Domain (link)

Will I see any SEALs?  I'll let you know when I return from San Diego! I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash to one randomly selected commenter. To enter the giveaway,

1. Do you have a favorite book or movie featuring Navy SEALs? This is a tough answer for me ... so I share the first book I read with a (former) Navy SEAL as the hero - Pamela Clare's BREAKING POINT.  Check out my review at this link.

2. Comments are open through Saturday, July 2, 10 pm in Baltimore. 

3. I'll post the winner on Sunday, July 3.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore
Aloha Spirit in Charm City

RWA in San Diego - A Future Duchess Lands on Navy Base Coronado

Reminder: I have a special giveaway for Military Appreciation Month at this link.

Continuing our virtual tour of Navy Base Coronado (link and link), from Early Aviators (link),

On September 25, 1917, Lieutenant Earl W. Spencer, USN, a 29-year-old Naval Aviator, Academy Class of 1910, was ordered to duty in command of Naval Air Station, San Diego. He was instructed to ... establish a permanent Naval Air Station for training purposes.

Alas, Lieutenant Spenser would be eclipsed by his socialite wife, Wallace Warfield Spencer.  From the CINC Navy website (link),

Even the base's first commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Earl W. Spencer Jr., USN, added a degree of celebrity to North Island. His wife was Wallis Warfield, a prominent socialite who remarried twice, and become the late Duchess of Windsor for whom King Edward of England gave up his throne in 1936.

Presumably military life (and an alcoholic husband) did not suit Wallis' tastes.  Still, she was the "first wife" of Navy aviation on Coronado Island.  Remember, "coronado" is crown in Spanish - a foreshadowing of a crown that never came for the Baltimore-born socialite.

Spencer's second (of five) wife, Miriam Maze, remarried Vice Admiral Arthur Radford, who later became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Radford, like Spencer, graduated from the Naval Academy and received his wings as a Naval Aviator.

Next:  Aircraft carriers pull into port.

USS Langley, the Navy's first aircraft carrier 

I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash. To enter the giveaway,

1. Leave a comment about Navy ships - have you toured any?

I toured the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier, when it pulled into Pearl Harbor in 2012 (link).

2. Comments are open through Saturday, May 21, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3. I'll post the winner on Sunday, May 22.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

RWA in San Diego - The Army Comes Flying Along to North Island

I am envious of the readers meeting authors this week at the RT Booklovers Convention in Las Vegas.  Then again, my turn comes in July when I attend the RWA Annual Conference in San Diego. In fact, I am one of the hosts for the driving tour of Navy Base Coronado (link).  Two weeks ago,  I shared how Navy Aviation arrived on Coronado ... to be followed by the Army's Signal Corps Aviation School.  From the National Park Service (link),

In 1910, climatic conditions, flat terrain, good beaches and protected stretches of water attracted Glenn H. Curtiss, aviation pioneer and Wright Brothers' competitor, to North Island, where he soon founded his Aviation School. In January 1911, Curtiss signed a contract with the owner of North Island to use the land for three years for a flying school. Curtiss invited the Army and the Navy to send officers to his new school for flying training. The Army's Signal Corps Aviation School relocated from its original location at College Park, Maryland, to North Island, San Diego, in December 1912. The Army flyers established a tent camp at the north end of North Island, and for about a year, the Signal Corps Aviation School rented airplanes and hangars constructed for the Curtiss school. 

Aero Squadron in Rockwell Field

Public Domain (link)

There was a desperate needed for trained military pilots as the United States had entered World War I earlier in the year. President Woodrow Wilson signed an Executive Order in August 1917 for condemnation of the land, which was still privately owned. The Army turned over the north end of the island to the Navy and relocated to the south end of North Island (named Rockwell Field). During World War I, Rockwell Field provided training for many of the pilots and crews sent to France. It also was the source of men and aircraft for the Sixth and Seventh Aero Squadrons, which established the first military aviation presence in Hawaii and the Panama Canal Zone, respectively.

Rockwell Field in 1918
Public Domain (link)

As the Navy shifted from seaplanes (which landed on water) to airplanes (which landed on carriers), it required more land to train its pilots. In 1935, President Roosevelt transferred Rockwell Field to the Navy.  As a result, the Army relocated its aircraft to March Field (later March AFB) in Riverside, California.  

Next: A future duchess lands at Navy North Island.

USS Chaumont (AP-5) in 1924
Public Domain (link)

I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash to one randomly selected commenter. To enter the giveaway,

1. Leave a comment about World War I - do you have any family members who served?  My maternal great-grandfather served in the British Army Ambulance Corps.

2. Comments are open through Saturday, April 23, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3. I'll post the winner on Sunday, April 24.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Walt Disney volunteered for the American Red Cross in France.

Note his drawing on the ambulance.

Public Domain (link)

RWA in San Diego - Driving Tour of Navy Base Coronado

I previously posted that I will be attending the Romance Writers' America (RWA) Annual Conference in 2016 (link). I was invited by two friends to participate in a special driving tour of Navy Base Coronado on Wednesday, July 13, from 10 am - 2 pm:

Join Navy veteran Cathy Maxwell, Navy spouse Anne Elizabeth, and Air Force veteran Kim Lowe for a driving tour of Navy Base Coronado. We’ll drive by historic sights such as “Camp Trouble,” where Naval aviation was born. We’ll walk in the footsteps of the first commander’s wife, Wallis Warfield, who later became the Duchess of Windsor. Today, Navy Base Coronado is a consortium of eight installations providing support for 16 helicopter squadrons, two fixed wing squadrons, two aircraft carriers, four SEAL Teams, and Navy Expeditionary Combat Command squadrons. Our tour will give you a glimpse of military life with a retired Navy SEAL as our narrator. We will make several stops, including Breakers Beach for a group photograph and the Navy Exchange for lunch.

RWA posted the link on Thursday afternoon ... and the tour sold out within an hour.  Who knew romance writers wanted to see steel gray buildings?  Actually, I think it is the retired Navy SEAL narrator who inspired the sellout.

I would like to thank those who made this possible - my cohosts Anne Elizabeth and Cathy Maxwell. I also appreciate the writers connected to the military who are sponsoring the tour - including Heather Ashby and AJ Brower.

For those who are not able to participate in the driving tour ... how about a virtual tour?  Navy Base Coronado occupies the north side of Coronado Island, Spanish for "Crowned One". Indeed, Coronado is the king of aviation history.  From the National Park Service (link),

The Naval Air Station, San Diego, Historic District, located on North Island in California, is associated with broad national and regional themes in the history of military aviation, representing the principle administrative and residential core of one of the earliest naval air stations in the United States, and the first on the West Coast. Climatic conditions, and the characteristics of flat terrain, good beaches and protected stretches of water, attracted the aviation pioneer and Wright Brothers' competitor, Glenn H. Curtiss, to North Island in 1910. Through the intervention of a local flying club, the landowner, the Coronado Beach Company, was persuaded to permit Curtiss to use North Island for his Aviation School.

In December 1910, the Navy assigned its first pilot, Lt. T.G. Ellyson, to be trained by Curtiss at his school on North Island. The Navy established its first naval aviation unit at Annapolis, Maryland, in September 1911. However, because winters in the Northeast precluded flight operations, North Island was chosen for the aviation unit's winter quarters. In 1912 "Camp Trouble," as it was called, was established on the northeast corner of North Island, a site now encompassed by the Naval Air Station, San Diego, Historic District. Consisting of three airplanes, three pilots, three tents and some mechanics, this group stayed until April, then returned east. The Navy would not return to North Island until 1917.

Next week:  The Army Signal Corps comes rolling along to North Island.

I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1. Leave a comment about "Camp Trouble" - do you have a funny story about camping?  I haven't camped since I was a Girl Scout.  When I accompanied my youngest son on a Webelos campout with the Boy Scouts, I stayed in a cabin (link).

2. Comments are open through Saturday, April 9, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3. I'll post the winner on Sunday, April 10.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

Camping on the beach in Hawaii