Wilson, Richard, PN1

The onset of World War II in 1941 found the United States woefully unprepared to fight wars in Europe, Africa and Asia. This led to decisions to induct, train and deploy over a million men and women. As part of the massive build up to take the war to the Japanese Empire, Germany and Italy, the United States government surveyed sites around the country for naval and military bases. The Twelfth Naval District, which included the San Francisco Bay area, had one of the largest concentrations of naval and military facilities on the West Coast. Less well known were the naval facilities that were built slightly southeast of the bay (in what is now Dublin, California) but were decommissioned and dismantled after the end of the war.

In what was then sparsely inhabited farmland near Pleasanton and Livermore, California, the U.S. Navy decided to build three major and other smaller facilities to house, train, deploy and recuperate personnel who would construct, maintain and man ships, bases, depots, camps and facilities in the Pacific theatre of war. The main facilities were Camp Parks, Camp Shoemaker and the Shoemaker Naval Hospital. The personnel who worked or moved through the facilities included the Naval Construction Battalions, more popularly known as the Seabees, and naval personnel of all ranks and specialties. At one point during the war the three major facilities were called "Fleet City." Camp Parks and Shoemaker Naval Hospital were designed to support the Seabees. Camp Shoemaker, located between the two, was a naval personnel training and distribution center designed to handle naval personnel on their way to, or returning from, the Pacific. On April 13, 1944 the Naval Construction and Replacement Depot (Camp Parks), Shoemaker Naval Hospital, the Naval Receiving Barracks and the Naval Disciplinary Barracks were administratively combined into the U.S. Naval Training and Distribution Center (TADCEN), Shoemaker, California. (cited by Steve Minniear at http://www.militarymuseum.org/FleetCity.html)