"This illustrated book presents the intriguing story of how the Navy slowly came to appreciate San Diego's attributes and then took bold action to consolidate its position there. Highlighting these pages is a parade of rousing personalities that include plucky congressmen, local officials, naval officers, activists, and other colorful San Diegans. Such a discerning history provides a sweeping and long overdue view of the city and its naval bases that have influenced the lives of thousands of Americans."--BOOK JACKET.

San Diego has never been afraid to call itself a "Navy Town," and the positive and inspiring link between the navy and the city knows no equal across the country. For over 150 years, beginning with the U.S. Navy's capture of the city for the United States in the opening days of the Mexican War, the navy has been an indelible part of San Diego's lifestyle, culture, and vitality. Not only has the navy formed the bedrock of the region's economy, but it has helped shape the population while endowing the city with a sense of international and cosmopolitan awareness that separates San Diego from many other cities of its size. San Diego and its navy enjoy a special relationship, one deeply rooted in historic perspective that renews itself with each passing year.

San Diego has never been afraid to call itself a "Navy Town," and the positive and inspiring link between the navy and the city knows no equal across the country. For over 150 years, beginning with the U.S. Navy's capture of the city for the United States in the opening days of the Mexican War, the navy has been an indelible part of San Diego's lifestyle, culture, and vitality. Not only has the navy formed the bedrock of the region's economy, but it has helped shape the population while endowing the city with a sense of international and cosmopolitan awareness that separates San Diego from many other cities of its size. San Diego and its navy enjoy a special relationship, one deeply rooted in historic perspective that renews itself with each passing year.

No city is as proud of its military heritage as San Diego, known as "Navy Town, USA." Congress also has designated San Diego as "the Birthplace of Naval Aviation." However, its community fabric reflects a more diverse and tightly woven relationship with our nation's defense. Over the past century, the city has invented and then reinvented itself in response to shifting world affairs and national priorities. It began with a successful campaign to become a West Coast Navy base in the early 1900s. By the 1930s, military aircraft manufacturing drove economic development. After explosive growth in World War II, San Diego emerged as an established military metropolis. At the dawn of the Cold War, San Diego recast itself as a home for Cold War research and development and defense contractors. Today, San Diego is an internationally renowned defense science and technology development center, a city in which one in four jobs and fully 50 percent of regional domestic product are defense related. Like no other city in America, San Diego has grown from a remote military presidio outpost to become a preeminent Pacific powerhouse.

San Diegos Naval Training Center (NTC) was commissioned on June 1, 1923, and for 70 years served as a young recruits introduction to a naval career, beginning with nine weeks of basic orientation and organization training (BOOT) camp. Originally consisting of 135 acres adjacent to San Diego Bay, NTC eventually expanded to almost 550 acres with 300 buildings, landscaped promenades, parade grounds, and a concrete training non-ship, the USS Recruit (a.k.a. USS Neversail), where recruits learned their first duties of seamanship. Advanced training schools were later added for military personnel learning specialized duties. After training hundreds of thousands of recruits, NTC was officially closed on April 30, 1997, and has since been transformed into San Diegos new and vibrant cultural center, Liberty Station.

The U.S. Navy SEALs boast a rich history.