elephant cages

Early this morning, just after midnight, I was catching up on fb before wandering off to bed.
My little sister's wife sent me the following story:
Navy's mysterious 'elephant cage' retired
Say what???
I spent 15 months of my life there, from December 1982 to March 1984.
I was 24 years old.
That was my last duty station as a Cryptologic Technician, Maintenance, for the United State Navy. My time in San Diego was memorable, from the all-day concerts in open-air stadiums to the drives along the magnificent coast and points all around.
Then there were the trips I made!
Out to Barstow to see my high school friend Josie and her family, then onward for my first view of Las Vegas, sparkling like jewels on black velvet on the night-time road.
Up to Los Angeles to visit Arturo Koenig and George Cherry, fellows I knew in my Okinawa days.
Another trip in that direction, to Anaheim, to visit the family of Jeff Petrell, a friend stationed with me in Panama.
Then, for Christmas of 1983, up to San Francisco, to see my best friend Lizz, my jarhead of Okinawa (I was her squid!)
of course, I also drove across the border to Tijuana, just about ten miles away from where I lived in Imperial Beach, which was in easy walking distance from the station.
You see, NSGA San Diego was physically located in Imperial Beach, just ot the south of town. Until the early 1970's, it was known as NSGA Imperial Beach and many around there still called it that when I was there.
Apparently, it last saw sailors in September of 1999.
On July 27, 2005, it was disestablished.
What a word: disestablished.
Stripped of its official status as an integral part of the US Navy.
Rather similar to a marriage being annulled, isn't it?
Now, the Wullenweber antenna array, a structure the size of two football fields, is to be dismantled, to be disappeared from the spot on which it has stood since 1965.
I sat right here in this chair and sobbed.
Disappeared???
Part of my history whisked away into nothingness???
That can't be right... can it? We're talking about a military station, for crying out loud! No more sailors working there night and day to help locate folks lost at sea or people trafficking in drugs or humans? No more?
Apparently.
The site has been known as the Silver Strand Training Complex ever since its dismissal from the military. Odd, I don't recall seeing that name on it when Cyndi drove me by it in 2008, on my February visit to San Diego. I was too busy drinking in the sights, overall, for such a detail.
It was originally scheduled to be removed in 2007.
Perhaps it had been left there for me to visit, one more time.
Now, it's stay of demolition has been lifted. Funds have been found and it will be deconstructed this very month.
The 390-foot diameter, circularly disposed antenna array will be removed. The two-story, windowless, concrete block building at its heart will vanish, to beat no more.
I sat here and sobbed, wiping my eyes as I read its obituary.
Then a thought struck - what about the other duty stations of my youth? Were they safe from demolition? Surely...they were in other countries, on foreign soil and in locations not as hungry for beachfront land as California is.
A few simple searches with goodsearch confirmed my fears. The obituaries were right in front of me.
Naval Security Group Activity Galeta Island, Panama: closed in March, 1995. Disestablished a scant three months later. Given to Panama on New Year's Eve, 1999.

Now, reduced to rubble.
This was taken in April, 2008, by Dave Peck on his visit there.
From military outpost with
US Marines on the roof
to rotting tourist site
in a mangrove swamp.
For all I know,
the structures are
completely gone.
I sat and sobbed.
NSGA Galeta Island was my first duty station. I was 19 years old and newly wed.
I was the first woman to be stationed there. The one bathroom had a sign to be switched from "Men" to "Women" to "Open". Funny what memories come to mind!
My first husband and I spent our honeymoon driving there, starting in Pensacola, Florida, then to Laredo, Texas, and the US-Mexico border. We spent some time in Mexico, dodging vehicle collisions in the massive roundabouts, climbing the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, listening to the mariachi bands on the gondolas of Xochimilco's Floating Gardens, admiring the beauty of the cathedral in Oaxaca.
Then, onward along the Pan-American Highway to Panama, paying exit fees and entrance fees all along the way. We were living on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the last few days of our trip! We arrived in April of 1978 and were there until April of 1980.
My last dog was a Panamanian version of Heinz 57, with German Shepard being dominant. Toffee was aptly named. She was a sweet, smart, girl with heavy mascara all around her eyes and dark hairs scattershot throughout her coat. She came with us when we left Panama, spending her month in quarantine in Miami before joining us in Savannah.
Coco Solo was home while down in Central America. Disco dancing, shag, square dancing! Movies on reels to watch as often as we wanted, over in the Officers' Quarters! Shopping and festivals in Colon! Exploring the thorn trees on Fort Davis! Riding the train to the PX at Rodman Air Base on the Pacific Ocean side! Hopping a ride on new Navy and Marine vessels as they traveled through the locks of the Panama Canal! Sunbathing at the secluded Playa Diablo!
No more.
Coco Solo, the smaller towns, even the Army base at Fort Gulick - all swallowed up by the now-city of Colón. I wonder if the restaurant where I first dined on ceviche and dorado is still there?
Early this morning, I was not consciously thinking of any of these memories. I was in shock at my loss.
Tears coursed down my cheeks as I viewed the list of stations I knew.
Groton? London? Naples?
Closed, closed, closed.
What about NSGA Hanza, in Okinawa?
Closed. The last sailors had left by June of 1998. The antenna array and ops building were demolished in June, 2007.
Nothing to mark its place now.
Gone.
I wept in a daze, wiping my eyes with the backs of my hands.
March of 1981 to December of 1982, my room was on the third floor at Torii Station, facing the ocean. I rode a bus to go up the hill to the "elephant cage" for my 2-2-2-80 shiftwork. I rode the Okinawan buses in to Kadena, Naha, Nago, for dining and shopping and barhopping with the guys.
I took USO-organized trips to Hong Kong and Kowloon province China, to Taipei, Taiwan, to mainland Japan. I took an overnight ride on an Asian passenger ship from Taiwan back to Okinawa, being treated to a night sky with more stars than I could have ever dreamt possible.
My first experiences with theatre were in Okinawa. Army Community Theatre On (the) Rock, aka ACTOR, was a source of civilian sanity and socializing in the heart of Torii Station. Janet Leary and Mark Engler taught us all to have fun while entertaining others. I am especially fond of our production of "Bell, Book, and Candle", in May, 1982. No, I wasn't part of that one. I saw it after successfully lobbying the Navy to grant me a tubal ligation. The abdominal surgery left me unable to laugh without wincing, so I had to clap instead!
Such memories of good times...
... at a place now gone.
Even Torii Station has changed, offering recreational activities and beachside entertainment. I remember not being able to go on the beach because of the mines still buried in the sand.
This morning, I wept until I was exhausted and my eyes were nearly swollen shut.
In need of diversion before bed, I looked to the television world.
I caught the last 15 or 20 minutes of the last episode of "Friends". In the final moments of the show, they are leaving the apartment for the very last time, placing their keys on the kitchen counter.
I couldn't have asked for anything better, something to alter my perspective in a positive way.
Change is part of life.
Coincidence? More like my Grandmama looking after me.
By the closing credits of the show, I was calm once more.
The time was 3 AM.
"Futurama" was coming on.
Time to relax with an Outshine lime popsicle and those folks of the future.
Then I was off to bed, for sure, and peaceful dreams.
And today has been a new day.