The Military in Balboa Park 1915 – 1988

The history of the Army and Navy in Balboa Park from 1915 to 1945 beginning with the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, extending through the end of World War II and including the development of the San Diego (Balboa) Naval Hospital up through 1988.  The exhibit focuses on the relationship between the Army, the Navy and the City of San Diego leading to the growth of the importance of the two services in San Diego, their impact in Balboa Park, and how this major Naval presents helped raise the importance of San Diego as a center for commerce on the west coast.

Women’s Military History Room

This exhibit looks that ever evolving roles of women in the military, from the Civil War to today. With the formal acceptance of nurses into the Army and Navy’s officer’s corps in the early 1900s this was expanded during WWI when women were accepted into the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard in a clerical capacity.  In WWII women joined the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES), U. S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, and U.S. Coast Guard’s SPARS (not an acronym).  Their roles and importance as part of today’s military is reflected in service in all aspects of the military including aviation, shipboard, and ground combat arms in addition to the logistical, administrative and medical components.