El Camino Real (California)

On the way to Monterey we drove on the El Camino Real. What brought my attention to the fact we were on a historical road was I noticed every mile or two there was a bell, so eventually I had to research what it all meant.

El Camino Real (Spanish for the Royal Road, also known as The King's Highway) and sometimes associated with Calle Real usually refers to the 600-mile California Mission Trail, connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions (along with a number of support sites), 4 presidios and several pueblos stretching from Mission San Diego de Alcaia in San Diego in the South to Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma in the north.

In fact any road under the direct juristriction of the Spanish Crown and its viceroys was a "camino real." Examples of such roads ran between principal settlements throughout Spain and its colonies such as New Spain. Most caminos reales had names apart from the appended "camino real". Once Mexico won its independence from Spain, no road in Mexico, including California, was a camino real. The name was rarely used after that and was only revived in the American period in connection with the boosterism associated with the Mission Revival movement of the early 20th century.

The route originalted in Baja California Sur, Mexico, at the site of Mision San Bruno in San Bruno (The first mission established in LAs Californias), though it was only maintained as far south as Loreto.

Between 1683 and 1834, Spanish missionaries established a series of religious outposts throughout the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. To facilitate overland travel, mission settlements were approximately 30 miles apart, so that they were separated by one long day's ride on horseback along the 600-mile long El Camino Real (Spanish for "The Royal Highway," though often referred to in the later embellished English translation, "The King's Highway"), and also known as the California Mission Trail (The actual Spanish expression for "King's Highway" is "carretera del rey".) Heavy freight movement was practical only via water. Traqdition has it that the padres sprinkled mustard seeds along the trail in order to mark it with bright yellow flowers.

In 1912, the State of California began paving a section of the historic route in San Mateo County. Construction of a two-lane concrete highway began in front of the historic Uncle Tom's Cabin, an inn in San Bruno that was built in 1849 and demolished exactly 100 years later. There was little traffic initially and children used the pavement for roller skating until traffic increased. By the late 1920's, the State of California began the first of numerous widening projects of what later became part of U. S. Route 101. Today the route through San Mateo and Santa Clara counties is designated as State Route 82.

An unpaved portion of the original Spanish road has been preserved just east of Mission San Juan Bautista in San Juan Batista, California.

In geek circles, the road was termed "El Camino Double Precision" when sopmeone noted it was a very long street (double precision being a format to store very large real numbers in computer memory), and then "El Camino Bignum" when it was pointed out that is was hundreds of miles long.

Today, several modern highways cover parts of the historic route, though large sections are on city streets (for instance, most of the stretch between San Jose and San Francisco). Its full modern route, as defined by the California State Legislature is as follows:

• Interstate 5, U.S.-Mexico border to Anaheim
• Anaheim Boulevard, Harbor Boulevard, State Route 72 and Whittier Boulevard, Anaheim to Los Angeles
• U.S. ROute 101, Los Angeles to San Jose
• State Route 82, San Jose to San Francisco
• Interstate 280, San Francisco
• U.S. Route 101, San Francisco to Novato
• State Route 37, Novato to Sears Point
• State Route 121, Sears Point to Sonoma
• State Route 12, Sonoma

East Bay Route

• State Route 87, Pass through Santa Clara County and Alameda County
• State Rout 92
• State Route 238
• State Route 185, Hayward to Oakland
• State Route 123, Oakland to San Pablo (continued to Martinez)

Some older local roads that parallel these routes also have the name. Many streets throughout California today bear the name of this famous road, often with little factual relation to the original; but Mission Street in San Francisco and its counterpart in Santa Cruz do correspond to the historical route. A surviving, unpaved stretch of the road has been preserved next to the old Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista; this road actually follows part of the San Andreas Fault.

In 1892, Anna Pitcher (of Pasadena, California) initiated an effort to preserve the as-yet uncommemorated route of Alta California's Camino Real, an effort adopted by the California Federation of Women's Clubs in 1902. Modern El Camino Real was one of the first state highways in California. Given the lack of standardized road signs at the time, it was decided to place distinctive bells along the route, hung on supports in the form of an 11-foot high shepherd's crook, also described as "a San Francisco walking stick." The first of the 450 bells was unveiled on August 15, 1906 at the Plaza Church in the Pueblo near Olvera Street in Los Angeles.

The original organization which installed the bells fragmented, and the Automobile CLub of Southern California and associated groups cared for the bells from the mod-1920s through 1931. The state took over bell maintenance in 1933. Most of the bells eventually disappeared due to vandalism, theft or simple loss due to the relocation or rerouting of highways and roads. After a reduction in the number of bells to around 150, the State began replacing them, at first with concrete, and later with iron. A design first produced in 19t6 by Justin Kramer of Los Angeles was the standard until the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began a restoration effort in 1996.

Keith Robinson, Principle Landscape Architect at Caltrans developed and El Camino Real restoration program which resulted in installation of 555 El Camino Real Bell Markers in 2005. The Bell MArker consists of a 460 mm diameter cast metal bell set atop a 75 mm diameter Schedule 40 pipe column that is attached to a concrete foundation unsin anchor rods. The original 1906 bell molds were used to fabricate the replacement bells. The replacement and original bells were produced by the California Bell Company, are dated 1769 to 1906, and include a designer's copyright notice.

MISSIONS ALONG EL CAMINO REAL

• Mission San Francisco Salano, in Sonoma
• Mission San Rafael Arcangel, in San Rafael
• Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Delores), in San Francisco
• Mission San Jose, in Freemont
• Mission Santa Clara de Aisis, in Santa Clara
• Mission Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz
• Mission San Juan Bautista, in San Juan Bautista
• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, South of Carmel
• Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, south of Soledad
• Mission San Antonio de Padua, northwest of Jolon
• Mission San Miguel Arcangel in San Miguel
• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolsa, in San Luis Obispo
• Mission La Purisima COnception, northeast of Lampoc
• Mission Santa Ines, in Salvong
• Mission Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara
• MIssion San Buenaventure, in Ventura
• MIssion San Fernando Rey de Espana, in MIssion Hills (Los Angeles)
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, in San Gabriel
• Mission San Juan Capistrano, in San Juan Capistrano
• Mission San Juis Rey de Francis, in Oceanside
• Mission San Diego de Alcada, in San Diego

PRESIDIOES AND PUEBLOES ON EL CAMINO REAL

• El Presidio Real de San Diego--founded on July 16, 2769. Responsible for the defense of all installations located within the First Military District (the missions at San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel)
• El Prisidio Rewal de Santa Barbara--founded on April 12, 1782. Responsible for the defense of all installatons within the Second Military District (the missions at San Francisco, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Ines, and La Purisima along with El Pueblo de Neustra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciuneula [Los Angeles])
• El Prisidio Real de San Carlos de Monterey (El Castillo)--founded on June 3, 1770. Responsible for the defense of all installations within the Third Military District (the missions at San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, San Antonio, Soledad, San Carlos and San Juan Bautista, along with Villa Branceforle [Santa Cruz].)
• El Prisidio Real de San Francisco--founded on December 17, 1776. Responsible for the defense of all installations within the Fourth Military District (the missions at Santa Cruz, San JOse, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Rafael and Solano, along with El Pueblo de san Jose de Guadalupe [San Jose])

Naval Postgraduate School, Hermann Hall (Hotel Del Monte), and the Presidio at Monterey

The Naval Postgraduate School
(Information Obtained From Naval Postgraduate School Website)

The idea for a graduate program for naval officers first emerged in the 19th Century, but at first there was little support. With Marconi's invention of the 'wireless' in 1901, the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903, and the world wide trek of the steam powered White Fleet from 1907 to 1909 the fact that advanced education for United States Naval Officers could be important soon gained more support.

The Great White Fleet completed its cruise in 1909, and less than four months later on June 9, 1909, George von L. Meyer, Secretary of the Navy, signed General Order Number 27, which established a school of Marine Engineering in Annapolis, Maryland.

This was a small program with only ten students and two instructors, but it would later become what is known as today's Naval Postgraduate School. The school was placed under the direction of the Naval Academy Superintendant, "who was charged with 'securing ample use of the educational plant of the Naval Academy to students and instructors of the school without interfering with the instruction of midshipmen' ". This set aside two rooms in the attic for classroom and laboratory space for the school.

On October 31, 1912 Meyer signed an order to rename the school the Postgraduate Department of the Naval Academy and established courses of study in ordnance and gunnery, electrical engineering, radio telegraphy, naval construction and civil engineering, and continued the original program in marine engineering. It also increased the number of students to 25.

Originally, before World War II, the present site of the Naval Postgrduate School was occupied by one of the finest luxuary hotels in North America, the Hotel Del Monte. Railroad pioneer Charles Crocker first opened the hotel in June 1880. The hotel was completely destroyed by fire in 1887, but a second, more splendid hotel soon opened in the same spot. On September 27, 1924 the Hotel Del Monte was again destroyed by fire, and again immediate construction of a more modern building continued to make the Hotel Del Monte one of the greatest showplaces for the rich and famous in the world.

By the time of the second reconstruction, Samuel F. B. Morse, predisent of the Del Monte Properties Company, had bought the hotel and developed it as a 'sports empire' where guests could play golf, polo, tennis, swimming, yachting, and deep sea fishing. THe hotel was named 'the most elegant seaside resort in the world' and was host to world leaders, dignitaries, American presidents, fild stars and artists until 1942 when it was taken over by the United States Navy and used as a pre-flight school for aviators.

During World War II Fleet Admiral Ernest King, was chief of Naval Operations and commander-in-chief of both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, established a commission to review the role of graduate education in the Navy. It soon became obvious the Naval Postgraduate School at teh Naval Academy in Annapolis would not be adequate for future needs, and in 1945 Congress passed legislation to make the school fully accredited and a degree-granting institution. Two years later Congress authorized he purchase of the Hotel Del Monte and 627 acres of land for the campus.

In December 1951, in a first of Naval education, the Naval Postgraduate School was moved from Annapolis, Maryland to Monterey, California, involving 500 students, 100 faculty and staff and thousands of pounds of books and research materials. The move was supervised by Rear Admiral Edward Hermann.

The main building of the Hotel Del Monte--now named Hermann Hall--contains the administrative offices of the Naval Postgraduate School. The most recent renovations include doubling the usable space of the libray, a new academic building (Glasgow Hall), and a new Mechanical Engineering Building. In 2006 a multi-million dollar renovation of the two wings of Hermann Hall was completed, which provided 140 Bachelor Officers Quarters rooms for international officers. In 2009 Hermann Hall will begin a series of renovations and refurbishments to restore the building's early 20th Century charm. The Naval Postgraduate School celebrates it 100th anniversary in 2009.

A Brief History of Monterey and Hotel Del Monte (Hermann Hall)

(Information Provided by the Naval Postgraduate School)

Hermann Hall, the former Hotel Del Monte, now contains hotel rooms for active duty and retired military to rent while in Monterey. We were amazed at the cost--for under $50.00 we got a suite with a kitchenette. The building was beautiful, and extremely clean. Outside we saw peacocks running around free. The grounds were beautifully landscaped. Below is the history and some random pictures of the building and grounds.

The Monterey Peninusula features Cannery Row (immortalized by author John Steinbeck), Pebble Beach, Cafrmel and the United States Naval Postgraduate School. First sighted in 1542, MOnterey's history began in 1770 when Father Junipero Serra founded the Mission San Carlos Borromeo there as the first in California's famed coastal mission chain.

These Catholic churches are spaced along California's Coast at approximately one day's journey by horseback. Portola was responsible for the Presidio.

Monterey was under Spanish and Mexican rule until 1846. On July 7th of that years Commodore John Drake SLoat, aboard U.S.S. Savannah, captured without ressistance, Monterey and the whole territory in the name of the United States. California became a state in 1850 with Monterey as the first capital.

Monterey established its present reputation as a resort area through the efforts of four tycoons (Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Collins P. Hunting, and Charles Crocker) who established the world famous resort Hotel Del MOnte in 1880.

The hotel, comprised of 126 acres of landscaped gardens planted with over 1200 trees, shrubs and flowers, located such facilities as guest houses, tennis courts, croquet fields, archery grounds and polo fields, not to mention its own railroad station, and a horse stall and 15 acre lake. On these grounds set a hotel, a castle-like Victorian Mansion. . . opulent, elegant and symmetric.

The hotel became a haven for the rich and famous. It hosted 17,000 visitors yearly, almost eight times the population of Monterey, which up until then had been a sleepy village of sardine fishermen, farmers, and reclusive artists. Disaster struck one year on April Fool's Day in 1887 when a fire swept through teh "grand dome of America" and reduced it to ashes. The hotel was rebuilt in only 100 days on an even more lavish scale and this time with two adjoining wings.

During the years that followed, the Del Monte was the place to visit. Notable great included Andrew Carnegie, President Benjamin Harrison, and the Rough Rider himself--Teddy Roosevelt.

In October 1924 fire struck again. To contain the fire, the ballroom was dynamited from the floor below, thus saving the two hotel wings which remain today.

In 1927 the hotel was again in operation as lavish as ever. However, the days of the Hotel Del Monte as a resort were numbered. The Great Depression and World War II proved too much for

the hotel's survival and the management offered to sell the hotel grounds. The Navy exercised its option to buy the hotel and 627 acres of land for 2.5 million dollars.

In 1951 The NAval Postgraduate School moved to Monterey, California from Annapolis, MAryland and adopted the main building of the former hotel as its administrative center. Several modern buildings were constructed as academic facilities.

The old hotel's guest cottages were used to house military staff officers and their families.

The old hotel's heritage is very much a part of the present school. According to local lore, the school has a friendly ghost who presumably is responsible for a variety of mysterious occurances. Over the years numerous people have reportedly seen this ghost in the ballroom, La Novia Room, and the Naval Postgraduate Dental Clinic. Some of the events attributed to the ghost are door opening and closing by themselves, faucets turning themselves on and off, shuffling and walking sounds and the breaking of dishes and glasses.

Whatever his reasons and whomever he is, the middle-aged man with a gray beard remains yet another in the already colorful past.

Club Del Monte

Club Del Monte in Hermann Hall continues the tradition of refinement of the historic Del Monte Hotel.

The original hotel established a reputation as "The Most Elegant Seaside Resort in the World" and "America's Most Loved Resort".

Living history paraded through its corridors as its notable guest list expanded, including Presidents McKinley, Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and Teddy Roosevelt, General William Tecumseh Sherman, General "Black Jack" Pershing, Charles Lindbergh, Hawaiian Monarch King Kalakaua and England's Marquis of Queensberry.

The list of personalities who helped make the Hotel Del Monte "the Queen of American Watering Places" is endless.

The Presidio at Monterey

We also visited the Presidio at Monterey, which is an Army base in Monterey. There really wasn't a lot to see when we got there, but as we drove on the base and went around a bend in the road five deer walked in front of our car--two fawns and three adults. I was really surprised because the area where they were was not woded and there were lots of buildings. I did find the history of the Presidio interesting, and so I am including it here. I got this information from the Official Presidio Site.

The military has played a vital role on the Monterey Peninsula since the area was claimed for Spain by Sebastian Vizcaino in 1602. Vizcaino named hte Bay Monterey, in honor of his benefactor, Gaspar de Zuniga, Conde de Monterey, then viceroy of New Spain (Mexico). The MOnterey Bay area was colonized by a small Spanish expedition that reached Monterey Bay in 1770. Captain Don Gaspar de Portola commanded the military component of this expedition, and Franciscan Father Junipero Serra was in charge of the religious element. Portola officially took possession of Alta (Upper) California for Spain, and Serra celebrated a thanksgiving mass on June 3, 1770. Portolo established a presidio (fort) and mission at the southern end of Monterey Bay the same day, in accordance with his orders to "erect a fort to occupy and defend the port from attacks by the Russians, who are about to invade us." The Monterey presidion was one of four presidios and 21 missions established by Spain in California.

The original Presidio consisted of a square of adobe buildings located near Lake El Estero in the vicinity of what is now downtown Monterey. The fort's original mission, the Royal Presidio Chapel, has remained in constant use since Serra established it in 1770. The original Presidion was protected by 11 cannons located above the port in a small "V" shaped gun emplacement, called El Castillo, built in 1792 on land now belonging to the present Presidio of Monterey. The original Presidio fell into disrepair, as Mexican rule replaced that of Spain in California in 1822.

Commodore John Drake Sloat, commanding the U. S> PAcific Squadron, seized Monterey in July 1846, during the Mexican-American War. He landed unopposed with a small force in MOnterey and claimed the territory and the Presidion for the United States. Sloat left a small garrison of Marines and seamen who began improving defenses, above the former El Castillo, to better protect the town and the harbor. The new defenses were named Fort Mervine in honor of Captain William MErvine, who commanded one of the ships in Sloat's squadron.

Company F, 3rd Artillery Regiment arrived in Monterey in January 1847, and the U. S. Army then assumed from the Navy the responsibility for the continuing construction of Fort Mervine. Two of the artillery lieutenants, William Tecunseh Sherman and E. O. C. Ord, plus Engineer Lieutenant Henry W. Halleck, were destined to become prominent generals during the Civil War, assisted with the project.

During its early history, this fortification seemed to have many names, including Fort Halleck, Fort Savannah, and the Monterey Redloubt. In 1852, the Monterey Redoubt was renamed the MOnterey Ordnance Depot and used as a military storehouse until 1856 when it was abandoned. In 1865, the small post was reopened and renamed, Ord Barracks for a short time before being abandoned a second time in 1866, although the U. S> Government "reserved" for possible future use a 140-acre reservation surrounding the redoubt.

Near the end of the Philippine Insurrection in 1902, the Army recognized it needed additional forts, particularly on the West Coast. As possible sites were being surveyed, the Army "discovered" that it already owned a large area in Monterey that would be suitable for a military post. In July 1902, the Army announced plans to build a cantonment area and station on infantry regiment in Monterey. The 15th InfantryRegiment, which had fought in China and the Philippines, arrived in Monterey in September 1902 and began building the cantonment area around what is now known as Soldier Field. The 1st squadron, 9th Cavalry, "Buffalo Soldiers," arrived shortly thereafter and built four cavalry barracks above Soldier Field.

In 1902, the Army renamed the new post the Monterey Military Reservation. The name changed to Ord BArracks on 13 July 1903, and to the Presidio of Monterey on 10 August 1904. Various infantry regiments rotated to the Presidio of Monterey, including the 15th Infantry (1902-1906), 20th Infantry (1906-1909), the 12th Infantry (1909-1917), frequently with supporting cavalry and artillery elements. The Army School of Musketry, the forerunner of the Infantry School, operated at the Presidio of Monterey from 1907 to 1913. In 1917, the U. S. War Department purchased a nearby parcel of 15,000 acres of land, called the Gigling Reservation, to use as trainning areas for the Presidio of Monterey troops. This post, aupplemented by additional acreage, was named Fort Ord on August 15, 1940.

The 11th Cavalry Regiment was posted at the Presidio from 1919 to 1940, and the 2nd Battalion, 76th Field Artillery Regiment, from 1922 to 1940. During the summer months, Presidio soldiers organized and led Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Citizens' Military Training Corps (CMTC), and Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) camps in the local area.

In 1940 the Presidio became the temporary headquaters of the III Corps, and served as a recwption center untl 1944. Declared inactive in late 1944, the Presidio was reopened in 1945 and served as a Civil Afairs Staging and Holding Area (CASA) for civil affairs soldiers preparing for the occupation of Japan.

The Defense Language Institute traces its roots to the eve of America's entry int World War II, when the U. S> Army established the Fourth U. S. Army Intelligence School at teh Presidio of San Francisco to teach the Japanes language. Classes at the secret school began November 1, 1941, with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field. The students were mostly second-generation Japanese-Americans(Nisel) from the West Coast. Nisel Hall is named in honor of these earliest students, whose heroism is portrayed in the Institute's Yankee Samurai exhibit. The headquarters building and academic library bear the names of the firs commandant, Colonel Kai E. Rasmussen, and the first director of academic training, John F. Aiso.

During the war, the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), as it came to be called, grew dramatically. When Japanese-Amercans on the West Coast were moved into internment camps in 1942, the school moved to Camp Savage, Minnesota. By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling. More than 6,000 graduates served throughout the Pacific Theater during the war and the subsequent occupation of Japan. Three academic buildings are named Nisel graduates who fell in action: George Nakamura, Frank Hachiya, and Y "Terry" Mizutari.

In 1946, after World War II, the MISLS moved to the Presidio of Monterey. It added Russian, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and six other languages to its curriculum, and was renamed the Army Language School in 1947. The school expanded rapidly in 1947-48 to meet the requirements of America's global commitments during the Cold War. Instructors, including native speakers of more than thirty languages and dialects, were recuited from all over the world. Russian became the largest language program, followed by Chinese, Korean, and German. After the Korean War (1950-53), the school developed a national reputation for excellence in foreign language education. The Army Language School led the way with the audio-lingual method and the application of educational technology suce as the language laboratory.

In the 1950s, the U. S. Air Force met most of its foreign language training requirements through contract programs at universities such as Yale, Cornell, Indiana, and Syracuse. During this period, the U. S. Navy taught foreign languages at the Naval Intelligence School in Washington, D. C.

In 1963, to promote efficiency and economy, the three Service language programs were consolidated into the Defense Foreign LAnguage Program and former Army Language Commandant, Colonel James L. Collins, Jr., became the Institute's first director. The Army Language School became the Defense Language Institute's Wesgt Coast Branch, and the foreign language department at teh Naval Intelligence School became the Defense Language Institute's East Coast Branch and headquarters for the program. The Air Force programs were phased out by 1970 and the U. S. Air Force Language School for foreign military personnel at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, became the Defense Language Institute English Language Center.

During the peak of American involvement in Vietnam (1965-73), the Defense Language Institute stepped up the pace of language training. Whlie regular language training continued unabated, more than 20,000 service personnel studied Vietnamese through DLI's programs, many taking a special eight-week military adviser :survival" course. From 1966 to 1973, the Institute also operated DLI Support Command, later renamed DLI Southwest Branch to teach Vietnamese using contract instructors at Biggs Air Force Base near Fort Bliss, Texas. Dozens of the DLI;s graduates gave their lives during the war. Four student dormatories today bear the names of graduates who died in that conflict: Chief Petty Officer Frank W. Bomar (1970), Sergeant First Class Alfred H. Combs (1965), Marine Gunnery Sergeant George P. Kendall, Jr. (1968), and Staff Sergeant Herbert Smith, Jr. (1965).

When the U. S. Army Training and Doctrine Command was established in 1973, DLI was placed under its control. In 1974 the Institute's headquarters and all resident language training were consolidated at teh West Coastg Branch and renamed the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). The Institute continued to operae a small contract foreign language training program in Washington, D. C. and in 1976, all English language training operatons were returned to the U. S. Air Force, which operates DLIELC to this day. With the event of the All =-VOlunteer Forces and the opening of most specialities to women, the character of the student population underwent a gradual change.

Since the end of the Vietnam War, the Institute has experienced an exciting period of growth and change. The DLIFLC won academic accreditation in 199, and in 1981 the position of Academic Dean (later called Provost) was reestablished. A Joint-service General Officer Steering Committee was established in 1981 to advise on all aspects of teh Defense Foreign Language Program. This function is now performed by the Defense Language Steering Committee. In the early 1980s, a rise in student input forced the Institute to open two temporary branches: a branch for Air Force enlisted students of Russian at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (1981-1987), and another for Army enlisted students of Russian, German, Korean, and Spanish at the Presidio of San Francisco (1982-1988). The increase in student input also resulted in an extensive facilities expansion program on the Presidio. Support to command langage programs worldwide grew, with greater availability of programs such as Gateway and Headstart.

DLIFLC was granted academic accreditation in 1979 in recognition of its status as the premier foreign language training institution in the world. During the 1980s instructor-to-student rations increased, with the intrroduction of advanced teaching techniques and information-age technology the average language proficiency of its graduates steadily increased.

For many years, DLIFLC was a tenet activity on the Presidio of Monterey, and the Presidio was a sub-installation of the nearby Fort Ord. When Fort Ord closed on 30 September 1994, the Presidio of Monterey again became a separate installation under TRADOC. It retained some military family housing and support facilities at the former Fort Ord, such as the Post Exchange and Commissary in the 740-acre Ord Military Community. When the Army established the Installation Management Agency, on 1 October 2003, the Presidio of Monterey Garrison was separated from TARADOC, although the garrison continued to support the main tenant, DLIFLC. On 24 October 2006, all Army garrisons were realigned under the U. S. Army Installation Management Command to provide better service throughout the Army.

In 1993, 1995, and again in 2005, the BAse Realignment and Closure Commission, in recognition of the contributions of DLIFLC to national security, rejected suggestions that the Institute be moved or closed and recommended that its misson be contintued at teh Presidio of Monterey. In December 2001, the U. S. Congress gave DLIFLC authority to grand an Associate of Arts in Foreign Language degree. Since DLIFLC first began awarding associate degrees in May 2002, the institute has granted over 3,500 degrees in foreign languages.

In recent years, the Institute has taken on challenging new missions, including support for arms control treaty verification, the War on Drugs, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Restore Hope, and Operations Enduring Freedom and Nobel Eagle. In response to the terroist attacks of September 11, 2001, DLIFLC created teh Emerging Languages Task Force, which serves as the Institute;s quick-response language team that provides rapid solutions to current and emerging mission needs for the ZGlobal War on Terrorism.

The DLIFLC contintues to evolve and expand its language course offerings in the wake of the end of the Cold War and to support the Global War on Terrorism. To accomplish this mission more instructors were recruited and new instructional materials and tests were written. Teaching methodology became more and more proficiency-oriented and new steps were taken to further increase proficiency of graduates with the introduction of the Proficiency Enhancement Plan (PEP). In the more difficult languages, (Category 3 and 4), PEP proficiency decreased trhe student-faculty ration from 10:2 to 6:2. In easier language categories, (Category 1 and 2), PEP decreasedthe student faculty ration from 10:2 to 8:2. The Institute also developed a new series of the Defense Language Proficiency Test, the DLPT 5, delivered through the Web.

The institute also offers continuing education to linguists all over the globe the the establishment of Language Training Detachments locatred at sites with high concentrations of linguists and via Internet training programs such as the Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS). With the increased realization of the importance of knowing different cultures, DLIFLC also offers Web-based area studies courses to non-linguists through Countries in PErspective and direct language and cultural understanding support to deploying troops.

Today, DLIFLC continues to evolve and expand its language course offerings in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Currently training over 3,700 resident students in 22 languages and dialects yearly on the Presidio, the institute also offers over 80 different language programs therough the DLI-Washington contract program.

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California

The Monterey Bay Aquarium (or MBA, founded 1984) is located on the site of a former sardine cannery on Cannery Row on the Pacific Ocean shoreline in Monterey, California. It has an annual attendance of 1.8 million and holds 35,000 plants and animals representing 623 species. The aquarium benefits by a high circulation of ocean water which is obtained through pipes which pump it in from Monterey Bay. Among the aquarium's numerous exhibits, two are of particular note: The centerpiece of the Ocean's Edge Wing is a 10 meter (33-foot) high 1.3 million liter (1/3 million gallon) tank for viewing California coastal marine life. In this tank, the aquarium was the first in the world to grow live California Giant Kelp using a wave machine at the top of the tank (water movement is a necessary precondition for keeping Giant Kelp, which absorbs nutrients from surrounding water and requires turbidity), allowing sunlight in through the open tank top, and circulation of raw seawater from the Bay. The second exhibit of note is a 4.5 million liter (1.2 million gallon) tank in the Outer Bay Wing which features one of the world's largest single-paned windows (crafted by a Japanese company, the window is actually five panes seamlessly glued together through a proprietary process). Sealife on exhibit includes stingrays, jellyfish, sea otters, an 11 lb. lobster over 50 years old, and numerous other native marine species, which can be viewed above and below the waterline. For displaying jellyfish, the MBA uses an aquarium called a Kreisel tank which creates a circular flow to support and suspend the jellies. Visitors are able to inspect the creatures of the kelp forest at several levels in the building. The aquarium does not house mammals other than otters.

Anchovies Set the Water Sparkling

"Sun shines down into the clear blue water of the outer bay. It dances and flashes, lighting a quicksilver school of anchovies. The countless small fish form a living stream that shifts and flows through the sunlit sea. Imagine you're there."

Jellies Drift Through Open Seas

"Because it takes so little energy, drifting is the most economical way to travel the vast open waters. Drifting jellies need only pulse their bells gently as they ride the ocena's currents. As they go, they feed on small fishes, jellies and other small drifters, also along for the ride."

They're Built to go With the Flow

"Alien as it looks, a jelly's soft shape is perfectly adapted to its environment. The animal's thin skin stretches over a body that's more than 95% water (no bones or shells to weight it down). And as the jelly drifts, those dangling tentacles, covered with stinging cells, are combing the water to catch its prey."
We took lots of pictures of the jellies because I think they are so graceful and pretty.

They just float and drift. So perfect.

Lions Mane Jelly (Cyanea capillata)

Jellies are Simply Beautiful

"Watching a jelly up close, you can see it's not a fish--it has no bones or fins. A jelly is a very simple animal . That pulsating umbrella is its body. Underneath are lacy mouth-arms; hidden up inside them is the jelly's mouth. And from the rim trail graceful, stinging tentacles."

Lions Mane Jelly

This Jelly's Tentacles are a Sure Sting

"Not all jellies sting, but the sea nettle does."

"It hunts tiny drifting animals by trailing these long tentacles and frilly mouth-arms, all covered with stinging cells."

"When the tentacles touch prey, the stinging cells paralyze it and stick tight. From there the prey is moved to the mouth-arms and finally the mouth, where the prey's digested."

White Shark

"Our White Shark Caught by Our Husbandry Team"

"With the help of commercial fishermen, our husbandry team caught this young white shark off southern California. Worldwide, millions of shrks die each year as bycatch, in fishing gear set for other animals."

"We need to work with fishermen to find ways to reduce the number of sharks accidentally caught as bycatch."

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is on the end of a pier, much line the one here in Charleston. The Bay is beautiful. When you go out on the pier there are rocks out in the water. If you listen you can hear the sea lions barking. There are telescopes on the pier adn you are encouraged to look through the telescopes at the rocks and bouys to see the sea lions. Mike took this picture through the telescope.

One of the exhibits

This star fish was in the same touch tank as an 11 pound, 50 year old lobster.

Kellet's Whelk

The exhibits were colorful and beautiful

This is a kelp garden. Kelp plants grow an average of about four inches a day and require weekly underwater gardening by scuba divers who untangle the trim and hgte fast-growing plants. Sometimes rock fish can be seen hanging motionless or upside down among the kelp blades. They can hover without sinking or floating because they have a gas-filled sac called a swim bladder that helps them stay put. In the aquarium pumps push up to 2000 gallons of sea water a minute through the exhibit and a specially designed surge machine creates the constant water movement that kelp needs to survive. Giant kelp belongs to a diverse group of organisms called algae. Simpler than most land plants, algae have no roots, stems, leaves or flowers. They range in size from microscopic cells to 100-foot-tall giant kelp. Bull kelp is an annual plant that is ripped loose by stormy waves each winter and grows anew each spring. Kelp keeps a firm grip: What looks like roots on a giant kelp plant is really the "holdfast" that anchors it to the rocky ocean floor. Kelp is one of the world's fastest growing plants. NInety percent of this growth ends up on the beach as drift kelp or sinks into the deep sea where it's eaten by pink sea urchins and other animals. For hundreds of years, people have gathered kelp and its kin for fertilizer, chemicals and food. Cold, nutrient-rich sea water upwells along the coast of Monterey BAy from MArch through August making the kelp forests flourish. The kelp forest The large acrylic windows in the exhibit are 7.25 inches thick, 8 feet wide by 16 feet tall and weigh about 2.8 tons. There are approximately 80 species of seaweed growing in the exhibit. The exhibit holds approximately 333,000 gallons. Monterey Bay Aquarium was the first in the world to exhibit a living kelp forest.

A sea dragon, member of the seahorse family. The males of this species become pregnant and give birth. Seahorse fathers shelter their young in protective pouches, while sea dragon and pipefish carry their young on spongy patches on the undesides of their tails. It is not known how many seahorses exist as they range from microscopic to 14 inches long.

The black Footed Penguin exhibit. Some of these birds didn;t even move the entire time we were there while others played and swam, and still others preened and cleaned themselves.

Many of the ones that didn't move sat with their backs towards the visitors.

Here's one cleaning himself.

And one that was very unsociable.

They were really pretty birds.

And there were a lot of them

This is another picture of a sea lion taken through the telescope.

Moray Eels

Morinas

Eels MAke Homes in Narrow Coral Caves

Moray eels hide all day showing their sharp teeth. They swim out at night to hunt along the reef.

Why are these eels flashing their fierce teeth? Morays open and close their mouths to breathe.

Another exhibit

Finally, there was a huge otter exhibit. I love otters. They were playing and the swimming. The exhibit was fantastic in that oyu could see it from two floors of the aquarium. Otters have the densest fur of all animals in the world--up to a million hairs per square inch. They live in close knit groups called rafts, often sleeping in kelp forests so they don;t drift apart. They do sometimes come ashore, but usually spend most of their time in th ewater. They eat, sleep, mate and have their pups in the water. They spend a couple hours per day groomng to keep their fur in good shape. They are loose-jointed and can groom every inch of their bodies, including the middle of their backs. Males and females live in separate groups. They do not mate for life, but only for two or three days and the female raises the pups on her own. The gestation period for an otter is six months, and females usually only have one pup a year, weighing about three to five pounds at birth.