I looked up just in time to see a C-130 and I think two Blackhawks. That's odd, don't think I've ever seen a rotary wing escort before. Apparently it was a tribute to pandemic first responders.

Hard to tell by the pic but it’s probably a HC-130 or MC-130 variant. That’s a tanker for helos used for SOF/combat search and rescue. One of those wing pods has a drogue refueler in it.

CA ANG flies those out of Moffett Field.

https://www.129rqw.ang.af.mil/

https://www.airnav.com/airport/KNUQ

Camp Parks (Dublin) and the Concord docks might be the only other military presence in the entire bay area.

It was the 129th out of Moffett. Came through here early this afternoon.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Camp Parks (Dublin) and the Concord docks might be the only other military presence in the entire bay area.

With Travis AFB (Fairfield) nearby, I would've been in favor of a formation of C-17's or, C-5s doing a flyover.

Then standby for the scolds to scream that bombers were doing practice runs

Parks has largely been reduced to being a monthly marshaling area for reserves, with highly controlled exercises as new housing developments get built around its perimeter. Concord is closed, Navy owns the land, to be turned over to the city in the next 10-years.

Here's a better pic. HC-130J and two HH-60G Pave Hawks.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
CA ANG flies those out of Moffett Field.

https://www.129rqw.ang.af.mil/

https://www.airnav.com/airport/KNUQ

Camp Parks (Dublin) and the Concord docks might be the only other military presence in the entire bay area.

Solono County is considered one of the 9 bay area counties, Travis AirForce Base is located there. The Coast Guard has a station on Alameda . My work used to take me into Concord Naval Weapons Station, Mare Island Navy Shipyard, Alameda Navy Air Station and the Army Base in Monterey. I never worked in the Persidio in San Francisco, but I attended the closing ceremony, when they retired the colors and marched off the base.
The Persidio was the longest continually operated military base in the US. Before the US Army , it was a Mexican , and before that Spain. Base Realingment and Closure hit the SF Bay Area hard. Also lost was Hunters Point , Oakland Navy Base, Hamilton Field
and I am sure something I forgot.
Pay back, I guess, to the Bay Area Congressional delegation for the way they treated the military, I never thought they could elect someone worse than Ron Dellums, wrong ! I believe, Camp Parks, and what is now called Marine Ocean Terminal Concord are a actually Army Reserve Installations. The Army used to have a morturary detachment at Travis, and the Navy used to keep converted DC 8 jets that were somehow involved in communication with submarines. A CSM told me the Navy mission was the most important thing going on at the base. One time we were in the remote area where the DC 8s were kept,
they were in the company of 36 Cobra helecoptors with all the US Army markings painted over. The Sergeant Major was tight lipped about them. That must have been nearly 30 years ago. Rumors were the Cobras were going to El Salvador or Turkey.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott in NCal:
Pay back, I guess, to the Bay Area Congressional delegation for the way they treated the military, I never thought they could elect someone worse than Ron Dellums, wrong ! I believe, Camp Parks, and what is now called Marine Ocean Terminal Concord are a actually Army Reserve Installations. The Army used to have a morturary detachment at Travis, and the Navy used to keep converted DC 8 jets that were somehow involved in communication with submarines. A CSM told me the Navy mission was the most important thing going on at the base. One time we were in the remote area where the DC 8s were kept,

Travis definitely serves as an alert station for Navy E-6's, there's usually 2-3 of them there at any one time.
Scuttlebutt around the time of The Presidio's closing, is 6th Army HQ staff, who oversaw the base, was charged with finding additional Federal tenants to keep the base alive. There was many buildings and property that went unused over its last 25-30 years as a base. Letterman Hospital was the biggest tenant, I remember there was talk of relocating a major medical command to be in proximity of UCSF and Stanford medical centers, along with the fast growing bio-medical community around South SF. Base housing was the envy of the Army as many used the base as their last duty station before retirement, senior enlisted and officers got very large, neo-Spanish homes, dependants moral was pretty high.
The Navy pulling out completely was a crime, the oldest and second largest natural harbor on the West Coast. They should've thumbed their nose at the anti- military types and been the thorn in their side. Alameda NAS was a hard one to justify, cost of living, traffic congestion were major issues, especially with two carriers home ported there, closing Mare Island however not only put West Coast submarines in a bind but, also eliminated a shipyard, which is now biting the Navy in the ass.

My family took a trip to SF area and stayed with a family friend on Oakland Naval Supply Center Oakland in 1991-2. It was the end of the golden age of military presence in SF. We saw everything, NAS Alameda with A6s taking off, Treasure Island, the Presideo, Army helicopters flying around, you name it.

All gone now.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

The Navy pulling out completely was a crime, the oldest and second largest natural harbor on the West Coast. They should've thumbed their nose at the anti- military types and been the thorn in their side. ... closing Mare Island however not only put West Coast submarines in a bind but, also eliminated a shipyard, which is now biting the Navy in the ass.

I was there working at Mare Island. The asshat locals made operating untenable.

Recall the jerk who laid down in front of the less than 5mph ammo train at Concord Naval Weapons Station. Lost his legs and then the courts awarded him millions. WTF?

Then the Beserklites who passed legislation forbidding the transport of any radioactive materials, such as very low reading anti-c protective gear sealed in shielded drums, through their area. Significant added costs to doing any work in Oakland - Alameda area.

I could go on with example after example, but the point is these leftist anti-military assholes elected by their constituents wanted the Navy to leave by creating one obstacle after another. Feinstein and Boxer at the top of the list. So the Navy did. You can't just thumb your nose at this shit!

And we all predicted that it would take a minimum of 10 years to reacquire a work force with the level of talent, experience, and expertise that MINSY's closure would loose. Yes some members ended up at the nuke shipyard in Bremerton. But many, many more were cast to the winds. The Navy never made a move to replicate that work force at another new yard so your comments that submarine maintenance and overhaul has suffered is correct. And that deficiency continues to this day.

What has been ironic is that after the pullout, the huge economic impact of that loss was bemoaned by these same losers who pushed the Navy out. In that respect karma was and is a bitch.



BTW I went from a senior member of the Navy's first Los Angeles Class Engineered Refueling Overhaul (ERO) Project Management Team (my last assignment at MINSY) to a senior billet at a B1-B USAF base. I missed MINSY.

I was out in the tidal area of CNWS the day the train ran over that guy, They called him Shorty after that.
Oak Knoll Navy Hospital in the Oakland hills was anouther place shut down. Mostly the efforts to convert all this surplus military land to civilian use have been spectacolar failures. Most of it is going to waste and rotting . This land is some of the most desirable land in the world.
It takes the special kind of politicians the SFBay area is known for to take some of the most valuable real estate in the world and make it worthless. The lawyer/developer for inland Concord Weapons station comitted suicide, Alameda Naval Air Station most famous.ous tennant was Ghost Busters, the homeless have taken over the officer house's
at Presidio. It is more economical to tow ships around south america and up to Texas
than to break them at the dry docks in SF or Vallejo

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
I was there working at Mare Island. The asshat locals made operating untenable

Don't recall Solano County being difficult for the military since they had both Mare Island and Travis. Contra Costa Co, they wished to be like Alameda Co

quote:

Recall the jerk who laid down in front of the less than 5mph ammo train at Concord Naval Weapons Station. Lost his legs and then the courts awarded him millions. WTF?

Oh yeah, that guy knowingly became a martyr, early 80's. The awarding was on a civil suit since they couldn't get the navy or, the guys on teh locomotive on a criminal charge. Navy was hoping the civil suit would get tossed since the guy was on a terrorism watch list, as he was suspected of supporting the Sandinistas. The Navy screwed themselves years before by not buying up the land surrounding the tracks, which connected the weapons igloo farm to Port Chicago. With the tracks having to cross/pass thru non-Navy property it exposed themselves to public intrusion and disruptions.

quote:

Then the Beserklites who passed legislation forbidding the transport of any radioactive materials, such as very low reading anti-c protective gear sealed in shielded drums, through their area. Significant added costs to doing any work in Oakland - Alameda area.

Getting trains to go through Alameda county was always a PIA, Bezerkley was always 'unique'. My father worked in container shipping for 30-years, Oakland terminal was the worst to get cargo moving and off the docks. Trains took forever to move due to all the limitations of movement, times and the minimal infrastructure support the county would commit to traffic enforcement, crime and general upkeep.

quote:

And we all predicted that it would take a minimum of 10 years to reacquire a work force with the level of talent, experience, and expertise that MINSY's closure would loose. Yes some members ended up at the nuke shipyard in Bremerton. But many, many more were cast to the winds. The Navy never made a move to replicate that work force at another new yard so your comments that submarine maintenance and overhaul has suffered is correct. And that deficiency continues to this day.

What has been ironic is that after the pullout, the huge economic impact of that loss was bemoaned by these same losers who pushed the Navy out. In that respect karma was and is a bitch.

Ironically, the Navy just announced the USS Boise will enter the yard for her overhaul after 4 years of being tied to the dock

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

Don't recall Solano County being difficult for the military since they had both Mare Island and Travis. Contra Costa Co, they wished to be like Alameda Co

You obviously choose to interpret "local" to just Solano County. My context for local was the greater Bay area.

The shipyard performed work not only at Mare Island, but Oakland-Alameda, San Diego, Holy Loch Scotland, and many other sites around the globe. We sent teams wherever they were needed. Our mission was the construction, repair, and overhaul of nuclear propulsed surface and sub-surface vessels. The big boys, like aircraft carriers, could not be accommodated at the Island.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Then the Beserklites who passed legislation forbidding the transport of any radioactive materials, such as very low reading anti-c protective gear sealed in shielded drums, through their area. Significant added costs to doing any work in Oakland - Alameda area.

Getting trains to go through Alameda county was always a PIA, Bezerkley was always 'unique'.

We didn't use trains but trucks and they were barred from travel through these areas.

Trains were used to transport expended cores to Hanford from MINSY. But none were removed in need of transport from the Bay area in connection with any of our work (meaning no CVNs were decommissioned there).