“We Didn’t Think Anybody Would Notice”

U.S. Navy says “oops” nearly 40 years later

At the top of the news today is something a little more humorous than cutting ten million children’s health care off, or rattling sabers at Iran, or even which Republican hypocrite got caught with his pants down. I figure we should enjoy the comic relief whenever we get a chance.

The photograph at left was originally obtained by Google Maps over the internet, and has since proliferated across the ‘net, on YouTube, and in print and video media. For rather obvious reasons. It’s a building housing U.S. Navy SEALs at the Coronado amphibious base near San Diego, California. It was built in 1968, and has been sitting there in a ‘no fly’ zone for 39 years where only Navy and Marine pilots (and passengers) could see it from the air. Until satellite images became public access not long ago…

Kossak ‘Troutfishing’ believes this “Accidental” Giant Navy Swastika Building Was No Accident, and traces some of the hilarious hemming and hawing the Navy’s been engaging in ever since researcher and dual US/Israeli citizens Avrahaum Segol went public with his data earlier in the Summer.

The building plans were signed off on by Rear Admiral Robert R. Wooding in March of 1968, apparently [?] unable to ‘see’ the swastika clearly outlined on the building plans – which are rendered as if from overhead. According to architect John Mock (who designed the building complex for the Navy), things weren’t actually that confused…

“We knew what it was going to look like.” Duh.

As the news started getting around on the wires and even CNN was starting to make fun of the sheer stupidity of the excuses, the New York Times reported the Navy to Mask Swastika Look of Barracks in California. The excuse from Angelic Dolan, spokewoman for the Coronado base:

“You have to realize back in the ’60s we did not have the Internet.”

Thank God for a decade’s worth of internet-accellerated human brain evolution that now makes us smart enough to recognize a swastika, since military leaders in the VietNam era had no idea what one looks like because they didn’t have internet (or, I suppose they might laughingly ask us to believe, spy planes or satellites or even flying machines).

Sorta makes ya proud, don’t it? The Anti-Defamation League in San Diego praised the U.S. Navy for “doing the right thing” 39 years later. Oy, Vey!

Finally, an update on SCHIP – the Senate passed the SCHIP funding and extension bill on a roll call vote 67-29. 18 Republican Senators joined the majority in reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that covers more than 6.6 million U.S. children whose parents work but can’t afford (or aren’t offered) health insurance through their employers.

The 45 Republicans in the House who joined Democrats for passage earlier this week are not enough to override the veto George Bush has been promising since July. So these House and Senate Republicans joined Democratic colleagues in sending a letter to 22 Republican Governors asking for their help in convincing Bush NOT to veto. Current SCHIP funding expires on Sunday.

Related Ads:

Filed under Humor, Military | Comments (3)