Alameda

When I hear the name Alameda. The first thing I think about is the old Naval Base near Oakland known as the Alameda Naval Air Station.

That base was open from World War II through the Dotcom Boom. When I was younger, my dad used to tell me all about it. There wasn’t much to say about it than another office job that needed to be done. The base served as the home of many ships for when it was active. Carriers, Destroyers, Cruisers and variety of other ships to support the USMC in amphibious assaults. The most significant ships that ever sailed through that base were both USS Hornet Carriers (CV-8 and CV-12), the USS Hancock (CV-19), the USS Midway (CV-41), the USS Coral Sea (CV-43), USS Oriskany (CV-34) and the first Atomic Powered Carrier USS Enterprise (CV-65). But when the Cold War came to a close, the base was shut down in 1998 and transferred back to the county to do what they wanted to do with it.

It is now Home to the CV-12 USS Hornet for which the Essex Carrier sits at the former base as a Naval Aviation Museum. The Carrier returned to its home when Veterans who served aboard it fought a lengthy battle with the Navy to save the ship for preservation. When it returned to its home dock, the spirits of the former crew returned to the vessel to remind everyone where it has been.

Most of the surrounding facilities that were once the base have either fallen into mass disrepair or are still in a state of clean up. Like the Presidio Base in San Francisco, the Alameda Base has gone through its own turbulence. Alameda is still cleaning up the hazardous waste that is still at the site.

The plan so far is to make it a residential area once the clean-up is complete. As for the piers, they are still being used by the city for its own purposes.

Hopefully the former Naval Base shall see a bright future once the clean up is complete.