Page 133 - Historical Study of Yerba Buena Island, Treasure Island and Their Buildings

By the spring of 1943, the overall training program of the Pre-Commissioning Training Center
had greatly expanded. Training was not only provided at Treasure Island, but had also spread
out to other local military facilities. The expanded training consisted of the following: Fire
Fighting (at Mare Island Naval Shipyard), Gunnery (at Point Montara), Lookout (at the Navy
Defense School), Gunnery and Gyro (at the Treasure Island Advanced Fleet Training School), as
well as lectures given by the new ship's officers. Frequently, this resulted in a "hit-or-miss"
quality to the training.

To remedy this problem, in May, 1944, the control military training for the servicemen was
placed under the Commanding Officer of the Pre-Commissioning Center. Soon the
concentration was on scheduling training based on classification to ensure that the right man was
being put in the right job in accordance with his field of training. When ships were being
initially manned with fifteen percent of personnel who had sea experience and eighty five
percent of personnel who had never been on the ocean, the importance of this classification
becomes obvious. The school obtained six vessels for use in practical training. These training
vessels included: an auxiliary transport ship (AP), the USS Arlington; a destroyer (DD), the
USS Hanynesworth; a patrol craft (PC) (vessel name undetermined) which was used for training
in submarine hunting; a yard patrol craft (YP) (vessel name undetermined) which was used as a
target; a converted yacht, the Palomas, which was used as a command vessel; and a yard barge
("covered lighter - self-propelled") (YF), the YF-843, which was also used as a target. In the
process of training, each servicemen spent approximately one week aboard the vessels so they
would not be completely "green" when they reported for duty in the fleet. In addition, the
advanced training schools offered included such skills as: Fire Control, Gunner's Mates, Electric
Hydraulics, Gyro Compass, Rangefinder Operation, Advanced Welding, and Underwater Cutting
and Welding.

As mentioned before, even though Japan had struck at US . soil, the war in Europe still took
priority. Consequently, the land and naval forces in ~e Pacific were denied the resources
necessary to prepare for a total war effort against the Japanese. Because Treasure Island was the
closest spot to the war in the Pacific within the continental boundary of the nation, the station felt
the impact of each battle - sending replacements of trained bluejackets (enlisted men) and
officers and new ships, on one hand ... and on the other, giving immediate hospital care to the
wounded veterans and comfort to the weary who stepped off the battered ships. Necessarily, the
rapid expansion of all training programs highlighted those troubled days. Under the command of
TADCEN, the Fleet Operational Training School, Radio Materiel School, and the Advanced
Naval Training School devised new and intensive courses, along with "stepped up" schedules, in
order to successfully meet the needs of the fleet.

2.3.1.4 Hospital

The first "Sick Bay" on Treasure Island opened in July of 1941. Initially the facility was
intended to provide care of minor routine complaints (sprains, colds, headache, and broken
bones, etc.) of those sailors serving land duty at the island. It was not designed, however, to deal
with the large number of men that flooded the island in the days surrounding the events at Pearl
Harbor. To resolve the health care problem, in April 1942, a dispensary opened in the building
which was prevoiusly known as the "California Southern Counties Building" during the Golden
Gate International Exposition. The dispensary building provided room for forty dental units, five
prosthetic operating units, and a laboratory. It was immediately in full operation, and like

September 1, 1995 Historical Study of Y erba Buena Island, 2-29
Treasure Island, and their Buildings