Civil War Memorial at Memorial Park in Pasadena (Photo – W.K.)
The Navy Seals are the silent military option. There is a Navy Seals Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida, where their story began. But the headquarters of the US Navy Seals is in San Diego. By the end of 2024, there will be a second Seals Museum in California at 1001 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego.
By Christopher Bonin
On May 30, 2024 a new memorial was inaugurated as part of the 80th anniversary of D Day in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer (Normandy, France) near Omaha Beach—The US Naval Combat Demolition Units Scouts & Raiders Monument Park. The “frogmen” or “naked warriors” who made up these units are the ancestors of today’s Navy Seals.
The history of America, France and the American Navy are linked. John Paul Jones, the “father” of the United States Navy, lived in Paris for a long time (19 rue de Tournon, 6th arrondissement). He was first buried in Paris in the Saint-Louis cemetery in 1792 before his remains were transported to America in 1905. He was reburied in 1906–and again in 1913–at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Not far from John Paul Jones, Draper Laurence Kauffman is buried, one of the founders and first instructors of these special units of the United States Navy. Before becoming a “naked warrior,” he had been a volunteer ambulance driver in France during the First World War.
Strangely enough, an American Civil War battle was fought in France, off the coast of Cherbourg in Normandy. The June 19, 1864 cannonade between the CSS Alabama and the USS Kearsarge lasted almost two hours. The Confederate ship is still at the bottom of French waters today. The wreck was discovered in 1984. Three graves near a small monument pay tribute to soldiers of both sides of the American Civil War. In 1864, a Union soldier, William L. Gower, and two Confederate soldiers, George Appleby and James King, were buried at the “Aiguillons cemetery” in Cherbourg-Octeville, Normandy—almost 80 years before D-Day.
The Pasadena Civil War Round Table offers regular tours and educational lectures at the Mountain View cemetery (2400 North Fair Oaks) in Altadena, where 600 soldiers, blue and gray, are buried among the 70,000 graves.
A statue at 142 N. Raymond Avenue in Pasadena also helps perpetuate the memory of the Union men.
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