MILITARY
airport alongside the leader of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia. The assassination was seen as a major escalation in hostilities, and Iran days later launched missile attacks on Iraqi bases, injuring more than 100 U.S. troops.
A letter from the U.S. commanding general in Iraq on Jan. 6 announcing a withdrawal of U.S. forces in that country was obtained by The Washington Post. The Pentagon denied that there was a plan to withdraw troops.
By November, President Donald Trump, reeling from his election loss, ordered U.S. forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan before Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Effects of pandemic
Closer to home, in February, Camp Pendleton began receiving Americans f leeing the coronavirus outbreak in China. The base held hundreds of Americans in isolation in February and March as the U.S. government tried and failed to stem the spread
of the virus across the country.
Although community spread of COVID-19 was already under way, top officers of the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps downplayed the threat the virus posed to military operations at a forum in San Diego on March 2.
Ten days later, a Miramar Marine became the first active-duty service member in San Diego to test positive for the virus. That day, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot canceled all public graduations, after initially resisting the move. Public boot camp graduations have not resumed.
On March 20, after several consecutive days of headlines about sailors and Marines in San Diego testing positive for COVID-19, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet announced it would no longer name ships when discussing positive cases.
Soon after, the Pentagon stopped naming geographic locations of coronavirus outbreaks in the military and instead began reporting numbers service-wide.
In March, an outbreak of
the virus aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt sidelined the vessel for almost two months in Guam and cost the ship’s captain and the acting Navy secretary their jobs.
The ship pulled into Guam for what Chief of Naval Operations Mike Gilday described as a “previously scheduled port visit,” but days later a letter from Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, the ship’s commanding officer, put the situation in more dire terms. He wrote that sailors would die if the Navy didn’t move 90 percent of the crew off the ship.
Then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly removed Crozier for allegedly allowing his letter to leak to the press. Days later, after Crozier was cheered by hundreds of his crew members as he departed the ship, Modly visited the carrier and unleashed a tirade against Crozier on the ship’s public address system.
The speech was recorded and leaked to the press. Modly apologized and resigned.
On April 13, Roosevelt sailor Chief Petty Officer Charles Thacker, 41, died of the coronavirus at the Navy
hospital on Guam. More than 1,200 Theodore Roosevelt sailors ultimately tested positive for the virus.
The ship later got the all clear and returned to San Diego in July. It left again in December for another deployment.
Bonhomme Richard burns
In July otherwise clear San Diego skies became clouded with acrid smoke as the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard became engulfed in f lames at San Diego Naval Base.
The inferno, which Navy officials are investigating as arson, burned almost five days and required hundreds of firefighters, crew members, and several water and air craft to put it out.
Some Navy crews battling the blaze also became infected with the coronavirus; some sailors tested positive after sharing firefighting equipment at the scene.
Adm. Mike Gilday, the Navy’s top officer, visited the ship when the fire was extinguished, describing the damage as “extensive.”
The Navy in November announced that the fire-ravaged ship will be decommissioned and scrapped be
cause the cost of repairing the 22-year-old vessel — estimated at $2.5 billion to $3.2 billion — was too steep. Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.
San Clemente accidents
On July 30, a Marine assault amphibious vehicle sank off the coast of San Clemente Island during training, killing eight Marines and a sailor.
Of the 16 troops aboard, eight were pulled from the water alive, though one later died.
The remains of seven Marines and a sailor were recovered days later in about 385 feet of water. The lost service members ranged in age from 18 to 23.
A month later, an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed on San Clemente Island, killing two soldiers. The helicopter was conducting special operations training as part of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which is based at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Investigations into both incidents are ongoing.
Looking ahead
In December, some members of the military in San Diego began receiving the
coronavirus vaccine, though it is expected that the new norms of mask wearing and social distancing will remain protocol on base and on ships for months to come.
San Diego hospitals in general are straining with a surge in coronavirus patients, and a statewide lockdown order has been extended into the new year.
San Diego’s major military hospitals — San Diego Naval Medical Center and Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital — also are feeling the strain.
The hospitals on Dec. 14 were among the first in the military to receive Pfizer’s new coronavirus vaccine, which is being given to frontline health care workers, first responders and security forces at the facilities.
A Navy spokeswoman said Monday that there is still no clear timeline for when the vaccine will be available to the rest of the local military community.
Also coming in 2021 are changes not related to the virus.
Military officials in December announced expanded roles for women that will affect the ranks in San Diego.
In a national first, the Navy said a woman will take command of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt was selected to command the San Diegobased Abraham Lincoln, the Navy announced in December. Bauernschmidt will assume command this summer.
Also, for the first time in its nearly 100-year history, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego will host female recruits for boot camp. Until now, women have exclusively attended boot camp at Perris Island, S.C.
In December, the depot graduated three of its first female drill instructors. The Marines plan to form the depot’s first integrated company in February, although more changes are expected for the boot camp to be integrated permanently.