NB San Diego, CA (32nd Street Naval Station) Image 1
    NB San Diego, CA (32nd Street Naval Station) Image 2

    NB San Diego, CA (32nd Street Naval Station) History

    NB San Diego began as a Destroyer Base in the early 1920s, performing various decommissioning and commissioning activities, maintaining torpedos, training torpedo and radio crews, and performing standard tending and repair functions, under the name US Destroyer Base San Diego.

    In the late 1930s the base was expanded, then more rapidly expanded with the outbreak of World War Two. In 1942 the base was renamed US Repair Base San Diego, and over 5,000 ships were repaired, converted, or maintained here over the course of the war. During this time Repair Base San Diego had extensive docks, dry docks, and floating docks, housing a vast repair complex for every kind of surface ship. The Navy also found housing for a new fleet training schools and amphibious training in cooperation with NAB Coronado.

    At the end of the war the station had expanded a great deal from its original size, with large barracks able to house nearly 400 officers and over 18,000 sailors, a galley able to seat 3,500a t a sitting, and attendant support facilities. The base was redesignated Naval Station San Diego. The Korean War and the long Cold War prompted a further base expansion, followed by the usual ups and downs as world tension levels changed.

    In the 1990s Naval Base San Diego absorbed the shipyard functions of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, as part of the base realignments and closures after the close of the Cold War. Today the base homeports 46 Navy ships, 2 Coast Guard ships, and 10 Sealift ships. The modern base has on site modern bachelor and family housing, exchange, a large medical center, and a full slate of community support centers, including a school and fire department.