For Ed Moore, a visit to San Diego under the shroud of wartime secrecy nearly 57 years ago by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the highlights of his life. Moore, 77, of Pacific Beach, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, says it’s about time the Union-Tribune acknowledges that FDR was at what is now MCRD when he accepted the nomination for his fourth term in the White House.
Roosevelt was at Marine Corps Base, San Diego, now MCRD. He was not at a Pacific Coast naval base, a San Diego naval base or at Camp Pendleton when he accepted the nomination as articles since 1944 have reported. “It churns me up, being a witness to something and not getting it recognized,” said Moore. He was a 20-year-old private first class when assigned to guard the president during his visit.
Although MCRD officials are not aware of any base records that show Roosevelt was there when he accepted the nomination, Robert Parks, archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, N.Y., confirmed Moore’s recollection.
Parks said Roosevelt’s train arrived in San Diego on July 19, 1944, and was parked on a siding at the Marine base. John Robert Limpus of Del Dios, who served with Moore, recalls that Roosevelt’s train, the Ferdinand Magellan, backed into the base on the tracks at the foot of Washington Street.
Roosevelt Library records show that the train was parked at the same place FDR’s train occupied when he was in San Diego for an inspection tour in the fall of 1942. In fact, it was on Sept. 25, 1942, that Roosevelt attended the dedication of Camp Pendleton. That also went unpublicized.
Roosevelt library records — and newspaper articles — show that while in San Diego, Eleanor Roosevelt visited patients at the San Diego Naval Hospital. While acknowledging Mrs. Roosevelt’s visit, the articles said nothing about the president being here even though the Roosevelts visited family members in Coronado. On the evening of the 19th, Mrs. Roosevelt left for Los Angeles. The following morning, FDR went by automobile to Oceanside and from atop a high bluff overlooking the beach, watched an amphibious landing exercise that involved 5,000 Marines and 3,000 naval personnel, library records show. Camp Pendleton, however, has no record of the president’s visit.
Roosevelt was back in San Diego by 1 p.m. and spent the afternoon in his private rail car resting and listening to the radio broadcast of the Democratic convention. That afternoon, he received a telegram officially notifying him of his nomination.
At 8:20 p.m., when he began broadcasting his acceptance speech, FDR spoke from the Ferdinand Magellan observation car. The speech lasted 15 minutes. The library record notes: “He afterwards reread some of the highlights of the address for the benefit of the newsreel cameramen.”
Roosevelt’s presence in San Diego was indeed a military secret in 1944. A story in The San Diego Union on July 20, 1944, said there were reports “that he may be on the Pacific Coast.” The story, which explained “the censorship code restricts the mention of the president’s whereabouts in wartime,” appeared right above the story on Mrs. Roosevelt’s visit to the Naval Hospital here. I suppose the discerning could read between the lines.
On July 21, 1944, a front-page article in The San Diego Union about the acceptance speech said: “Delegates (in Chicago) heard the voice of the president, coming by radio from a Pacific coast naval base. . . . ”
The inconclusiveness of those original reports has resulted in newspaper accounts that mention Roosevelt’s presence in San Diego but do not pinpoint his location correctly. Stories about the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego said that Robert Dole would be the second presidential candidate to accept the nomination while in San Diego. FDR was the other one, but again references were to “a Pacific Coast naval base” and from the Ferdinand Magellan “parked somewhere in the local train yards.” On May 24, an article about President Bush’s visit to Camp Pendleton said: “President Franklin D. Roosevelt made an unpublicized visit to the base for its dedication Sept. 25, 1942, and received word of his nomination to his fourth term while secretly staying at Camp Pendleton in 1944.”
Now, thanks to Ed Moore’s persistence and Roosevelt Library records, we know he made the speech from MCRD.
A May 30 story about President Bush’s visit to Camp Pendleton resulted in letters from Marines who said the newspaper ought to know better. The story said Bush must have decided to speak their language in his address to Marines. He was quoted as greeting them with “Hoo-ah” and the delighted Marines responding in kind.
It turns out neither the president nor the Marines said “Hoo-ah.” The reporter had written “Oorah,” which is closer to the sound the president and the Marines made. Marines who responded to the story said the sound Marines make is “Ooh-rah” or “oorah.” “Hoo-ah” is what the Army says.
The reporter is chagrined. His copy was changed without his knowledge by editors who checked other changes with him but neglected to mention this one.
