The Guns at Bird Rock
Officer Jake Stirling parked his patrol car on the sharp bend of Camino de la Costa, glanced at the house across the street and wondered if the man inside had managed to kill himself yet. He opened the car door and climbed out. Waves crashed on the rocky shore below, where skeletal silhouettes of abandoned artillery batteries loomed against the purpling sky, remnants of a U.S. Navy training facility from the Second World War. The guns had gone silent after the bombing of Hiroshima ten years earlier. The Japanese invasion of La Jolla, California had never arrived.
The above paragraph is from the opening of my novel-in-progress, Esmeralda by the Ocean. I knew some of San Diego’s WWII history when I started my research for the book, but the story of these artillery guns was new to me. The facility was known as the Naval Anti-Aircraft Gunnery Training School.
The facilities included anti-aircraft guns, ammunition magazines, storage buildings, barracks, and gasoline pumps. The first rounds were fired on September 2, 1942 and continued day and night until the facility closed down on November 3, 1945. Over 300,000 men and officers were trained there over the course of the war. Needless to say, if you lived in the area, it was not a pleasant experience.
When the “big guns boomed” at Bird Rock, they damaged the houses and buildings, breaking windows as their “millions of rounds of ammunition” were expended.
The training center was located between Bird Rock and False Point (known then as Gunnery Point).
The Navy maintained the site as a surplus supply center for a short time after the war, but facilities were demolished and the property decommissioned in the late 1940s. The post-war building boom soon overran the area and nothing remains of the facility today. You can get a great view of the area and imagine what it might have been like from Calumet Park.
Back to the Sun
During the the most recent COVID shutdown, I started playing around with some of the mastering software that’s out there. For those of you that don’t speak audio geek, mastering is the final tweak of a recording that gives it that nice sheen. Previously the domain of mystical audio wizards, mastering is now a one-button (mostly) software plug-in. So I tried it on a couple of recordings from my old bands. And, gosh darn, it did make the tunes sound even better.
Then I got inspired and made a video to go along with this particular tune – Back to the Sun. Seemed relevant to our world’s current troubles. Hope we all can get back to the sun soon.
You can also listen to just the audio below or download the files for your digital collection.
I can feel my heart pounding And the engines open wide As we fly out of darkness And across the great divide Back to the Sun, Back to the Sun we go When I see you at the station I will kiss you at the gate I will hold you in the morning In a long cold, sweet embrace Back to the Sun, Back to the Sun we go We are dancing over mountains We are floating on the rain We are drifting in the slipstream Out of loneliness and pain Back to the Sun, Back to the Sun we go
San Diego’s A-Bomb Test
If you happened to be in San Diego on May 14, 1955, you might have felt the earth move. It wasn’t an earthquake however. It was the residual shockwave from the U.S. Navy’s underwater atomic bomb test, officially known as Operation Wigwam. The test took place in the Pacific Ocean 500 miles west/southwest of our fair city.
The location was selected by scientists from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, who identified an area that would have the least affect on shipping channels and fisheries, a “biological desert far from seat lanes”. The test was designed to assess the lethal range of underwater nuclear explosions on submarines. You can see the Navy’s official film report below (skip to the 21-minute mark if you just want to watch stuff blow up).
Oceanography was a relatively new science at the time and Scripps Institute began its rise to prominence in the field shortly after the Second World War. Some of the earliest experiments confirming the possibility of global climate change were conducted at the institute in the 1950s (and continue to this day). I’m including the institute and two of its employees (one real, one fictional) in my work-in-progress historical novel, set in the 1950s. Fascinating stuff.
Desert City Diva (audio)
The “radio drama” podcast version of Desert City Diva has come and gone, but I’m making it available here for anyone’s who’s interested in listening. Play from this page or download the MP3 files for later. Includes all four episodes plus a roundtable discussion with some of the creative folks involved. Enjoy!
San Diego’s Rock and Roll History
I recently discovered this bit of treasure for anyone interested in the history of San Diego’s music scene. It’s a CD Compilation called Look Out! The San Diego Scene 1958 – 1973 Rock & Roll, Garage, Psych and Soul From America’s Finest City.
Released in October 2020, this is a top-notch assemblage, put together with respect and loving care by San Diego musician and local music historian Andy Rasmussen. The generous 33 cuts showcase a wide range of pop styles from the era. A 36 page booklet of liner notes by Mike Stax provides short histories on each of artists as well as a cornucopia of band photos, record labels and other promotional items.
Most of these bands remained local, though some members went on to bigger careers, most notably The Outcasts’ Gary Puckett who had several national hits in the 1960s when he formed Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. Jerry Raney, who later went on to success with another well known San Diego band, the Beat Farmers, is represented here with his songwriting, singing and lead guitar work for the band Glory. A band called The Survivors featured the mysteriously disappearing singer-songwriter Jim Sullivan, who released two well-received major label albums in the 1960s. Joel Scott Hill of The Strangers and The Invaders later played with both Canned Heat and The Flying Burrito Brothers. And I’m personally intrigued by Willie Kellogg, who seems to have been the most valuable drummer in town, showing up in many of the recordings.
Aside from the famous names, what’s really fun about the CD is learning more about the local music scene during this era, when Ozzie’s Music Store (which I do remember) used to hold a Battle of the Bands concert once a month in their parking lot. Clubs where bands played had names like Shangri-La, Cinnamon Cinder, Circe’s Cup, Funky Quarters, Halo Hop and the Candy Company, to name a few.
Much of the material here is of its time, but the performances are top-notch and, given the recording tech of the time, well recorded, all honorably restored and re-mastered by Mike Kamoo. Find Me a Moment by The Brain Police could easily have been a big pop hit in the psychedelic era. The Caterpillar Crawl by The Strangers is an aggresive Dick Dale/Ventures-style guitar instrumental. Ervin Rucker brings Stax Records soul to She’s Alright while Hootchie Part 1 from the Ray-Nears provides some nifty sax-fueled funkiness. And the doo-wop Unemployment from Steve and the Holidays is a real hoot. In short, the CD is a lot of fun and a great bit of San Diego musical history as well. Kudos to all involved.
You can purchase your own copy of the CD via BandCamp. All proceeds go to the San Diego Music Foundation with $1500 raised so far.