In early 1975 after we had left Mare Island we came to Alameda for a couple of
weeks aboard the USS KILAUEA I never berthed here while sailing with MSC. The
SAN JOSE returned from Westpac the day that we moored here. One of the Nuke
Carriers came in here one time and we could not get back to the ship because
they were taking on Nuclear fuel or they were transferring special weapons to
us. We could not return to the ship until about 0600 so no sleep that night.
Alameda is in close proximity to Oakland so I would take the city bus to
downtown to catch the movies and go to the local USO. I was the minority in
Oakland, I had come from a small town in New York before joining the Navy and I
had never seen so many black folk in all my life. I missed that old theatre in
the 90's when I returned to that area. I think the one I went to was called the
Roxie and they sold pizza in the window outside of the theater. The downtown
theaters just could not compete with the multi screen jobs opening at the malls
. The Navy used run passenger planes out of Alameda between Pearl and San Diego.
You can find a write up about it on Wikipedia I believe.
