Camp Shoemaker (Dublin, California) | Second World War 1939-1945, closed / former military, United States Navy

USA / California / Dublin / Dublin, California
 Second World War 1939-1945, closed / former military, historical layer / disappeared object, United States Navy
Camp Shoemaker was also known as Fleet City. It served the Navy while Camp Parks next door served the Seabees. It was home to a 3,000-bed hospital and a Naval Training and Personnel Distrobution Center. The last remnants of Camp Shoemaker -- foundations of the former warehouses diagonally positioned northwest to southeast as seen in the topographic view above -- have been completely removed in this updated view. Nothing remains of the old Navy camp, although some of the roads in this area follow the path of the former Southern Pacific spur line's right-of-way.

www.militarymuseum.org/CpParks.html
www.bunnweb.org/histdect/7-28-05.htm
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°42'45"N   121°52'56"W

Comments

  • I was in the Navy during WWII. After boot training, I was sent to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, to be trained as a Radio Operator. After completing my training there, I was sent to Camp Shoemaker in May, 1944, for deployment to the Asiatic Pacific theater. After leaving Camp Shoemaker, I was sent to Treasure Island where I boarded a transport, the SS Sommelsdijk, that delivered me to Borneo. From there, I was assigned to the USS Wachapreague, AGP8, where I served for the remainder of the war.
  • I was discharged from the Navy at Camp Shoemaker in July 1946. What I mainly remember about it was the incredibly long "chow" lines. I have a picture of one I stood in that went all the way down the block, turned and went halfway down the per- perpendicular sidewalk to the sidewalk that led to the chow hall door in the middle of the block. It took hours!
  • Thank you, Pat and Robert, for adding your memories here. There's little, if anything, left of the Navy's presence in this patch of land.
  • My father-in-law Raymond DeLay ran a tug boat in San Francisco Bay while serving in the Navy. His discharge papers are from U. S. Naval Personnel Separation Center, Shoemaker, California. I wonder if he would have been barracked at Shoemaker, I never had the chance to talk to him about it.
  • My birth certificate states that I was born in Shoemaker, CA at the Naval Hospital. Apparently the "town" of Shoemaker no longer exists. Doug McCall
  • My dad served his duty at Naval Shops Stores Shoemaker, CA. He was the commandant's driver.
  • My grandfather, Gene Ramsell, served there from 1944 to 1946 as a member of the Seabees. From what I know he drove primarily trucks and construction equipment.
  • The town of Shoemaker is now part of Dublin, CA. I lived in the area from 1991. Many of the barracks were still there but I'm not sure if they were the once built by the Navy in WWII or by the Air Force in the early 50's. These buildings were between what is now Tassajara and Hacienda exits on 580. For some reason I always enjoyed driving through there. They remained there until the early 2000s when the property was turned over to the city of Dublin. Now nothing remains. I has all been built over with shopping centers, office buildings and homes. Camp Parks and the Santa Rita Jail is the only original piece of land that remains.
  • My father, Dr. Henry Silberman, then a commander in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, served as radiologist at the Naval Hospital at Camp Shoemaker, in a mobile Navy hospital unit known as Lion 8 from August to November 1944, before transferring to San Diego and then to Okinawa in August 1945 just before the end of World War II hostilities.
  • My father was in the U.S. Navy 1942-1946 and he told stories of being tortured at Camp Shoemaker. Has anyone heard of this torture to our own military men/women?
  • I bought a home and lived just one mile from here for 10 years, and all that time I did not realize until this morning that my Dad was stationed here for a short time in 1944 before shipping out of San Francisco to Hawaii. I found his hand-written notes and was surprised that over 70 years later, I probably walked over his same footsteps at what is now a shopping center !
  • I was wondering where Shoemaker, CA was located - My dad served in the Navy Pacific Fleet (USS Bradford DD545) 1942-46 and this is where they processed his separation.
  • The City of Dublin and Parks Reserve Forces Training Area will be opening a history center just outside the main gate in May 2017. It will describe the history of Camp Parks, Parks Air Force Base and Parks RFTA. The Dublin Heritage Park & Museums collects artifacts related to that history.
  • Most of the buildings left at Camp Parks (Parks RFTA) date from the Parks Air Force Base days. Many of them are coming down now (2017). The Camp Parks chapel was built by the Air Force. It is still there. The old Camp Parks main gate sign dates from the Seabee days (circa 1944). It still exists and there are plans to renovate it and move it to the new (2016) main gate area. There is one rebuilt guard tower that dates from the old Navy brig/old Santa Rita Jail period. It's behind the new (1989) Santa Rita Jail.
  • My father, who served in the Navy during WWII, was held in the jail here for four months. It was after the war was over from Feb-May 1947. My mom would travel to visit him from Berkeley. Does anyone know about this?
  • I just found my father's Missouri separation papers stating he was released from Shoemaker, CA. He was in the Seabee's during WWII. Do genealogy/family history go that was quite a treat. My folks never mentioned that so was glad to find the information.
  • I was born at Camp Shoemaker on July 25, 1945. My dad was with the Seabees. He was released on August 1. 1945 We moved to Oregon. I never had a copy of my birth certificate. I really didn't need one until it was time for me to retire. I sent a check off to Alameda County and after waiting three months contacted them wondering where my birth certificate was, I was told there was no such place as Camp Shoemaker in Alameda County. So, I had to send them a link from the internet. A week later I received my birth certificate with a sheepish apology explaining there were only nine births there and they had the city of my birth to simply be Shoemaker, CA. With a current population of Wait For It ZERO Yeah for bureaucracy!!
  • In December 1945, my mother, then 30, my older sister, just turned eight, myself, five, and my younger brother, almost 3, drove to Camp Parks/Shoemaker from Provo, Utah, to meet my dad who had been sailing back and forth between the states and the Philippines. We hadn't seen him for 18 months! We arrived on Christmas day, 1945, and spent the next five months living in a Quonset hut in Camp Parks. When my dad was mustered out in June 1946, we returned to Provo. I don't remember if the school was in Camp Parks or in Shoemaker, but that's where I went to kindergarten.My kindergarten teacher was an English woman named Miss Stevenson, if I remember correctly! I'll never forget the place! He was the chief gunnery officer on the Henry Stevens liberty ship, if that means anything anybody out there. Richard Van Wagenen
  • My mother was also born there Dec 1944. Same thing.. Shoemaker California doesn't pop up, so that's what lead me here searching for " where is Shoemaker CA.?"
  • Dad was a Yeoman 1st Class aboard the USS San Diego (CL-53) and had been with the ship since commissioning. When the ship went for repairs and upgrades in early 1944 he was sent to Storekeeper school. While away he made Chief, and the ship already had two Chiefs, so he was assigned to open a new commissary store at Shoemaker Navy Base. It seems so many military families had moved to the area that area grocery stores were overwhelmed. He spent the rest of the war running the commissary, and my brother and sister were both born at Shoemaker Naval Hospital.
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This article was last modified 7 years ago