juan rodrigues cabrillo | Russel Ray Photos

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The last Saturday in September is the Cabrillo Festival at Naval Base Point Loma here in San Diego. It actually is the Navy’s submarine base. Only one day a year can a member of the general public like me get onto the base.

It’s a historic area because it’s where Juan Rodrigues Cabrillo landed his Spanish galleon in 1542. Cabrillo was the first non-Native to visit what is now San Diego.

The 2017 Cabrillo Festival has been on my calendar for a year. I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to walk around the base. Certain areas, of course, were still off limits. One of the first sites I saw was this marker:

Freedom Tree marker at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego

THE FREEDOM TREE
WITH THE VISION OF UNIVERSAL FREEDOM
FOR ALL MANKIND
THIS TREE IS DEDICATED TO
CAPT. HOWARD RUTLEDGE
AND ALL
PRISONERS OF WAR
AND
MISSION IN ACTION
1978

Here’s the Freedom Tree:

Freedom Tree at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego

Capt. Howard “Howie” Rutledge was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on November 13, 1928, and died of cancer in Norman, Oklahoma, on June 11, 1984.

He spent 7½ years as a prisoner of war in the “Hanoi Hilton” after his plane was shot down on November 28, 1965, over North Vietnam, and was released in 1973 as part of the general prisoner release. He later served as commanding officer at a naval air base in the Pacific and retired after 34 years in the Navy.

Rutledge co-wrote a book with his wife, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies,” detailing his time as a POW. Upon being published, it became the first book-length, firsthand account of the experiences of American prisoners of war in Vietnam.

For more on Capt. Rutledge, visit the Pow Network.

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The Maritime Museum of San Diego has one of the world’s greatest collection of historic ships. You can see them downtown on the waterfront, across from the County Administration Building, the tallest building on the waterfront.

There are ten historic ships in the collection, including the oldest active sailing ship in the world, the Star of India, and the official tall ship of the State of California, the Californian.

Currently under construction — Wait! You can’t construct a historic ship! Aw, not-so-wise grasshopper, you can! — at Spanish Landing Park on Harbor Drive is the San Salvador.

The San Salvador will be a full-size, fully functional, and historically accurate replica of the Spanish galleon that brought Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (1499-1543) to San Diego back in 1542. Cabrillo was the first European to explore the western coast of North America and is given credit for discovering San Diego. When the San Salvador is complete, it will be 80 feet to the top of the masts, 24 feet across, 92 feet long, and weigh more than 200 tons.

The project began in November 2010 and is scheduled for completion in early 2013. I go down to the construction site at Spanish Landing Park each month to track its progress.