The ePilot

August 30, 2016Leave a comment

Vol. II, No. 16, August 2016

Wooden Ships

One of the McNish Classic competitors at berth in Channel Islands Harbor

Home of the “Hidden Deployment”

The view from the pier at San Nicolas Island

Congressmember Julia Brownley (D-Port Hueneme, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks) along with several local officials including Port Hueneme City Councilmember Sylvia Muñoz-Schnopp, were the guest of Capt. Chris Jahnke in a tour of the Naval Outlying Field at San Nicolas Island.

“There is nothing easy about owning an island,” Capt. Jahnke said. Everything on San Nicolas was brought in either by sea or air. The salt air and harsh weather also take their toll.

Capt. Jahnke referred to duty on the island 50 miles off the coast as a “Hidden deployment”. The typical rotation for Navy personnel is 18 months with two weekends off per month. Civilian employees can expect to work 35 weekends per year.

In such an environment, accommodations are important. The Navy is in the process of completing a major renovation to the facilities at “NicTown”. The cost for materials and labor on the remote island is 30% more than similar projects on the mainland.

Capt. Jahnke shows off the new Chief Petty Officers’ Lounge

In addition to its military mission, the Navy is also a steward of the ecosystem. Environmental Program Manager Valerie Vartanian explained that 51% of the plant species on the island are exotic imports. There is a Navy greenhouse that is growing native plants such as the cactus favored as habitat for the Island Night Lizard which has recently been removed from the Endangered Species List.

The native plant nursery in NicTown

The primary purpose of the Navy’s presence on San Nicolas Island is to provide an offshore base to support the Pacific Sea Range. Stretching across the ocean all the way to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, the range is a unique asset that provides an unmatched environment for the evaluation of both surface and airborne systems.

Presently occupied with final testing of the F-35, the Range has been used to test missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and shipboard offensive and defensive weaponry. San Nicolas is also ideally suited for testing laser and directed energy weapons.

Historically, the famous Israeli “Iron Dome” missile defense system was first tested on San Nicolas Island.

Capt. Jahnke’ parting words were emphatic, “If I can leave you with one message, it’s this: the Sea Range is a strategic asset.”

—Ed.

An island fox skeptically regards the visitors

The Legend of the Don

Gerry Olsen tells the story of Adolfo Camarillo

Upon the death of his father in 1880, 16 year old Adolfo Camarillo became the master of a thousand acre ranch stretching from Somis, up the Calleguas Valley, and all the way down to the present California State University, Channel Islands. From then until his death in 1958, Don Adolfo was one of the leading citizens and founding fathers of modern Ventura County.

In a recent presentation at the Port Hueneme Historical Museum, Gerry Olsen discussed the life of this legendary figure.

Through shrewd management and unlimited energy, Camarillo became one of the most successful ranchers in the county. Cattle, walnuts, citrus, and lima beans were the top crops. In fact, for a time the town of Camarillo was known as The Lima Bean Capital of the World, complete with an appropriate festival and a presiding Lima Bean Queen.

In 1901, Don Adolfo became a director of Port Hueneme’s Bank of A. Levy. In those days before computerized credit ratings, the directors had a simple way of determining the credit worthiness of clients. Levy and Camarillo would get up good and early and pay a 5 AM visit to the family homestead. Those who were up and about were deemed to be industrious enough to merit loan funding. Those still asleep were denied.

Camarillo’s commitment to civic life was remarkable — he was a member of 38 different organizations — but his loyalty to his workers was extraordinary.

When Joel McCray who owned the ranch at the head of the valley remarked that there were too many workers on the Camarillo Ranch, Don Adolfo replied, “Maybe I don’t need them, but they need me.”

In 1924 Camarillo spotted a seven year old boy walking home from school. Meliton Ortiz would go on to spend the next 50 years working as the trainer for the legendary Camarillo White Horses.

Such long relationships were not unusual for the man who said, “Caring for others can change the world around you. Service to others can and should be a part of everyone’s life.”

—Ed.

Isabel and Adolfo visit the Hueneme Museum

Jeannette Moranda

It is with sorrow that we have learned of the passing of Jeannette Moranda. She was the widow of the late Walter “Bill” Moranda, the first professional city manager of Port Hueneme.

A great supporter of many civic organizations, she was recognized as the 2004 Citizen of the Year by the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce.

Ever gracious and charming, Jeannette Moranda was one of the last links to the early days of Port Hueneme cityhood. She will be missed.

—Ed.

The Most Important Meal of the Day

There was a recent oil tank fire in the Ojai area. An Air Pollution Control District inspection had been scheduled for that morning. When the inspector arrived, the operator asked him to wait for a few minutes so that the operator could pick up a burrito. These few minutes proved to be more important than they could have realized. Had they gone straight up and started the inspection, both the inspector and the operator would have been at the tank when the explosion occurred.

Thanks to a breakfast burrito, both the inspector and the operator escaped a dangerous situation.

—Ed.APCD Photo

History By the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Let’s face it, we’re all busy people. We’d love to learn more about our hometown but who has the time? This column will feature highlights that can be read in a minute or two. And rest assured, the information comes from the considerable resources of the Port Hueneme Historical Society. If your interest is piqued to learn more, visit the museum on Market Street or send your questions via email to kelley@callutheran.edu.

As mayor, Ray D. Prueter faced a plethora of problems. The previous decade saw a veritable population explosion—from 3,024 in 1950 to 11,067 in 1960. In fact, by the end of 1963, Port Hueneme became the fastest growing city in Ventura County. Yet the 4.5 square-mile-city was too small to support an industrial base, income levels were lower than state or county averages, and renters significantly outnumbered owners.

How could “a seedy little sailor town” amass the resources that the vigorous port city envisioned by Port Hueneme’s leaders would require?

Expansion of the harbor became Prueter’s top priority. He did not consider development a four-letter word. Not only was a planned senior community realized with Hueneme Bay and adjacent shops on Channel Islands Boulevard but Prueter also paved the way for the upscale condos along Surfside Drive which would generate badly needed tax dollars and boost property values.

Owners of neglected properties and ramshackle buildings were introduced to code enforcement. Blighted neighborhoods were replaced by a series of urban renewal projects that changed the face of Port Hueneme.

A community center provided a gathering place and a spanking-new post office replaced the 27-year-old structure on Market Street. The pier, which had become “sand-locked,” was extended.

Finally, the development of 20 acres of prime beachfront property offered recreational opportunities for residents and visitors alike.

Brick Wahl

Two Giant Tiny Civilizations Trying to Conquer the World Beneath Our Feet

Nazi ants? I’d never heard that one before. But a friend said it, referring to the long columns raiding her kitchen night after night. Effing Nazi ants, she said.

The tiny insects had gone from being household pests to threats to civilization itself. Civilization? Well, my personal civilization, she said, her clothes and cats and knick-knacks and foodstuffs. There’d been a blitzkrieg just that morning, an Effing Nazi ant column seizing the high ground around the cat food dish. She really didn’t like ants.

I mentioned that, coincidentally, there are certain ant species that are informally classified by myrmecologists as fascist, world domineering species. The catchline is that if those species had nuclear weapons the world would have been blown up long ago. Luckily, I added, ants are tiny and somewhat technologically incompetent.

“You’re scaring me,” she said.

“Buy a can of Raid,” I said.

It’s funny, when I was a kid ants were stubborn, pesky rubber tree movers. “Whoops there goes another rubber tree plant” sang Sinatra in a song he probably did not sing too often if he could avoid it. Antz and A Bug’s Life were late reflections of that sort of ant. Cute ants. Hard working ants. Ants, tiny little things that together seemed worthy of anthropomorphism.

The first books on ants I read were like that. Of course, there were also the Nazi/Mongol/Evil Empire army ants who ate people in The Naked Jungle. But army ants lived in jungles, far away. Everything was scary in jungles. In America ants rhymed with rubber tree plants. Cute.

Then myrmecology became popular, mainly because of E.O. Wilson. That huge book he and Bert Hölldobler did back in the 1990’s, cleverly titled The Ants, actually became a best seller. It’s a door stopper and quite technical, but had lots of great photos and several hundred Americans bought it. Go figure.

It was followed by a whole series of books on the romantic lives of myrmecologists and on ants themselves. I’ve probably read all of them. I have a miniature myrmecology library. As people became more myrmecological, the trend in the perception of ants moved from Sinatra to fascist. Ant societies became these incredible superorganisms (in fact, The Superorganism by Hölldobler is sitting in my “to be read” stack) that would be absolutely terrifying if they weren’t so damn small. Perhaps the fire ant invasion and the killer bee invasion suddenly made social insects into scary things.

But Argentine ants are kind of unsettling too.

You probably remember when you were a kid in California that there were several different kind of ants in your yard. I remember little black ones, littler black ones, big red ones, little red ones, and medium sized black and red ones. I remember seeing some of these in Hollywood and Silver Lake back in the 80’s still. They are all gone now. Only Argentine ants remain.

In brutal tiny wars we never saw they annihilated every other ant species they came across in California’s urban and suburban areas. Only the big red ants survive, but they exist in areas away from people and a regular water supply.

Argentine ants like water. Hence they might be in your sink right now. (We just had a swarm of them on the fish tank.) Fire ants, incidentally, the only ant in the United States that can actually kill people (given enough stings and anaphylaxis), need even more water than Argentine ants, so large parts of southern California are out of bounds for them. Not suburban lawns, though. We water those. Perfect for both species.

Somewhere out there in Orange County right now a war to the death is going on between fire ants and Argentine ants. The Argentine ants, here, are winning. They’ve lost in Texas and the deep south where there is sufficient rain. But the limited fire ant invasion in southern California thus far is due mostly to a combination of our dry climate and our annoying Argentine ants.

Curse them in your kitchen, spray them, stomp them, sprinkle them with Borax, but be glad they are outside on the sidewalk, in the garden, in the lawn. Otherwise you’d have fire ants everywhere in southern California. Argentine ants are our deliverance, like Stalinist Russia destroying the Third Reich. Two giant tiny civilizations trying to conquer the world beneath our feet.

Briefs

The Suburbs of St. Petersburg?

A cold wind blows on the Baltic.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/newt-gingrich-trump-would-reconsider-his-obligation-to-nato/

Dysfunction Junction

The 100th anniversary of two pieces of legislation that have shaped the world we know.

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/little-known-anniversary-transportation-dysfunction

Santa Barbara Desalination Plant Behind Schedule

No drinking water from the ocean until January at the earliest.

http://www.keyt.com/news/desalination-plant-wont-start-up-on-time-in-drought-dry-santa-barbara/40899188?ens=1&utm_source=Local%20Breaking%20News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=KEYT-KCOY-KKFX%20Breaking%20News%20Alerts_53b1c0e70cf2a9cbf9156e38_sb&utm_content=20160727_1234

At the Museum

Bard Descendant to Speak

Georgia Newton Pulos has graciously agreed to speak about her 98-year-old mother Joanna Bard Newton (daughter of Richard & Joan Bard and granddaughter of Thomas & Mollie Bard) at the Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum (220 Market Street) on August 20, 2016 at 11:00AM.

Richard Bard met his future wife Joan Boyd (who was raised in the Santa Ynez Valley) on a camping trip during August 1915. When they eventually married in Santa Barbara, Richard had just returned to Hueneme after serving in the US Army Artillery in France.

Joan gave birth to their first child Joanna Bard (Newton) on November 12, 1917. In addition to raising four more children (Kitty, Richard, Archie and Margaret), Joan was heavily involved with the Hueneme Public Library, the Women’s Improvement Club and the Presbyterian Church.

This presentation will provide the perfect opportunity to see rare images of early Hueneme and to discover what life was like from 1917-1951. The Museum is delighted to report that the Newton family (including Joanna Bard Newton) have agreed to be present as well.

For more information, call 805 488-0363. email kelley@callutheran.edu

Hidden Track: Terrance Simien — “Franklin’s Tower“

Our mailing address is:

editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher

The Hueneme Pilot

August 9, 2016Leave a comment

The ePilot

Serving Port Hueneme, Oxnard, and the World!

Vol.II, No. 15 July 2016

Pokemon Heroes

Pokemon Go brings crowds to the Beach Park gazebo.

Campaign Kickoff

Julia Brownley shares a moment with Moorpark City Councilmember Keith Millhouse

26th District Congressmember Julia Brownley (D-Port Hueneme, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks) kicked off her re-election campaign before a packed house at her Thousand Oaks campaign office. Speaking before a crowd of military veterans, local officials, and party regulars, the Congressmember pledged to continue working for a more equitable society.

During her time in office, Member Brownley has devoted particular effort to veterans’ affairs, support of Naval Base Ventura County, and funding for sand replenishment at Hueneme Beach.

She was emphatic in her praise for her campaign volunteers saying, “We’ve got not just a great ground game, we’ve got the best ground game in the country. … They come after me with money, but we win with volunteers.”

Recalling her last nail-biting victory over Jeff Gorrell, the Congressmember said, “My greatest wish is that on election night we can all go home and celebrate and not have to wait for days and days to find out who won.”

—Ed.

Walking the Coast

Sen. Pavley greets the Coastwalkers at Ormond Beach

1972 was a heady year for advocates of the California Coast. While Proposition 20 which created the California Coastal Commission got most of the attention, the voters also approved an initiative that stated, “A hiking, bicycle, and equestrian trails system shall be established along or near the coast” — the California Coastal Trail.

The original plan, which included such ambitious, if fanciful, amenities as a pedestrian ferry across the mouth of Hueneme Harbor, has yet to be fully completed. Yet, under the leadership of the California Coastal Conservancy about two thirds of the 1100 mile California coastline is walkable or at least accessable by bicycle.

Starting in May at the Oregon border, two UCSB alumnae, Jocelyn Enevoldsen and Morgan Visalli, have been walking and bicycling the length of the trail to gather attention and support for completing the remaining portions.

At Ormond Beach they were greeted by an enthusiastic local delegation that included State Senator Fran Pavley who in 2001 authored the legislation that designated the Coastal Trail as the “Official State Trail of California.”

Oxnard Mayor pro Tem Carmen Ramirez pointed out that Ormond Beach was the largest intact coastal wetland in California.

Exhibiting boundless enthusiasm, Enevoldsen, a Ventura High grad, told the crowd, “To see people mobilized on coastal issues is really inspiring for us.”

They expect to reach the Mexican border by the end of summer.

Follow the Coastwalk at https.//www.instagram.com/mojocoastwalk or https://www.facebook.com/mojocoastwalk

—Ed.

A Positive Message for Local Business

Jacqui Irwin brings the good news to the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce

44th District Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin addressed a meeting of the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce, touting an improved business climate and numerous initiatives to bring investment, jobs, and training to Ventura County.

The Assemblymember pointed out that since 2009, California leads the nation not only in the number of business start-ups, but also in the 5 and 10 year survival rate of new businesses. “447,000 jobs were created last year. That’s more than Texas and Florida combined,” she said.

Ventura County is one of four “Innovation Hubs” in California. Mentioning Naval Base Ventura County as a major employer, Ms. Irwin said, “There’s a huge need in the district for STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math] workers.” Consequently, she took the lead in developing an engineering program at California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI).

Additionally, out of the $60 million budgeted statewide for community colleges, $1.5 million apiece will be coming to Oxnard, Ventura, and Moorpark Colleges for remedial education. “This will be transformative for students,” the Assemblymember said.

Ms. Irwin took particular pride in her AB 2664 Legislation that established business incubators through the University of California system. So far 19,000 start-ups have generated nearly $14 billion in revenue. The California Chamber of Commerce designated this legislation as a “No. 1 Job Creator”, no mean achievement for a Democratic bill.

Member Irwin has also been appointed to the Select Committee on Cyber Security. Citing the need for better oversight, she said, “New laws and spending aren’t always necessary.” A concerning fact is that only 20% of state departments have done any sort of security assessment. Pointing out that 80% of cyber cases are the result of employees clicking on phishing email, she said, “It all starts with us.”

Finally, she was pleased to announce that Port Hueneme business Stellar Biotechnologies was honored as Business of the Year in the 44th District. Stellar raises limpets for medical research. Limpet proteins can be used to stimulate the immune system and may play a role in immunization against certain diseases.

—Ed.

Cal Lutheran receives $1.2M federal grant

TRIO programs will now reach county’s junior highs

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded California Lutheran University a $1.2 million grant to provide Ventura County’s only federal TRIO program serving middle school students.

The Talent Search program targets disadvantaged middle school and high school students, helping them to success in high school and college. Cal Lutheran will serve 500 South Oxnard students annually over the next five years with the grant. One hundred will be chosen from Channel Islands High School and another 100 from Hueneme High School. Sixty will be selected from each of the high schools’ feeder schools – Blackstock Junior High, E.O. Green Junior High, Haydock Junior High, Lemonwood School and Ocean View Junior High.

The launch of the new program will more than triple the number of pre-college students that the university serves through federal TRIO grants. The university already has two traditional Upward Bound programs and an Upward Bound Math Science program for disadvantaged high school students. To help low-income Cal Lutheran students graduate, it has a federal TRIO program called Student Support Services.

Talent Search targets low-income students who have the potential to succeed in higher education but would be in the first generation of their families to attend college or other postsecondary education programs.

Cal Lutheran decided to serve South Oxnard because of the area’s high poverty, student-to-counselor ratios and dropout rates and its low standardized test scores, rates of participation in rigorous courses, and numbers of college graduates. Only 28 percent of seniors from the target high schools are eligible to apply for four-year California colleges and universities, 13 percent lower than the state average. Illustrating the area’s high need, Cal Lutheran has had to turn away nearly 150 Upward Bound applicants from Channel Islands and Hueneme high schools annually during the last three years. The students denied admission this year will now be offered the opportunity to participate in Talent Search.

Beginning in September, participating students will receive information and support to help them graduate from high school and college. Students will attend workshops and receive individualized academic, financial, career and personal counseling. Staff members will also organize visits to college campuses and assist students as they prepare for college entrance exams, apply for college admission and financial aid, and transition from junior high to high school and from high school to college.

The university will hire a director and two academic specialists to administer the program as well as part-time instructors, mentors and tutors.

History by the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Many Port Hueneme folks recognize the name of Ray D. Prueter because it appears in huge metallic letters on the front of the glass-walled structure with all the books located at 510 Park Avenue.

Many more, especially during the nearly 60 years Prueter resided in Port Hueneme, however, called him “friend.”

A position as auditor at the Bank of Hueneme brought Prueter and his new bride Laura Margaret O’Donnell here in 1950. Prueter retired for the first time in 1991 after 35 years with Flesher-Lawrence-Prueter-Dodds Insurance.

He retired for the second time in 2001 as founder and executive director of the Ventura County Contractors Association, which created a scholarship in his name.

He was the kind of man who was more interested in learning about others and their personal passions than he was in talking about himself and his accomplishments, which were both numerous and extraordinary.

Not only did Prueter head up the city during the pivotal years in Port Hueneme’s history (1962-1974), but he also held the distinction of being one of only two mayors in Ventura County to be elected president of the League of California Cities.

Brick Wahl

Benadryl, Betty White, and the End of the American Dream

Written while high on Benadryl….

Hay fever season…yesterday the allergy/arthritis synergy was at its peak, and I was on allergy pills all day. Alas, you can’t mix epilepsy meds and daytime allergy pills, so the wife was graced with sweet silence from her zoned out husband.

I pulled out one of those Mill Creek Entertainment eight zillion classic television shows on 900 disc sets I picked up for a dollar somewhere and spent hour after hour somewhere between 1948 and 1960. The writers then had all been in radio for years, and were sharp and funny, and especially in the earliest days were writing for hip urban audiences–Bob Cummings quoting Voltaire, and in French.

The actors, too, had mostly come out of radio, or the stage, and many of the comics went all the way back to vaudeville. An ancient Victor Moore (you’ll recognize him as the plumber in The Seven Year Itch) singing a jazzed up 45 Minutes From Broadway (the George M. Cohan tune he’d first sung in 1906) on the Ed Wynn Show in 1949. I’m feeling groovy he says, grinning, stoned without being stoned, following the ultra hip vocal quartet offstage. The be boppers must have loved it (though the silver hairs in the audience preferred it as he’d sung it earlier in the show, a gentle, almost stately waltz, with Cohan’s ragtime inspired tempos softened by time and nostalgia).

The variety shows could be flat out surreal, fading actors making jokes about being reduced to appearing on television in subtitles they hold up on boards. It was a live medium–live broadcast at first, and then live in front of a studio audience–and the fourth wall was violated regularly so that at times the audience nearly became part of the show.

The writers on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show went so far as to remove the fourth wall and have George talk to the audience–both in house and out there in the dark–like a Greek chorus commenting on the plot, and he would also sneak off to tune in his television set to see what was happening in the scenes he was not in, talking to the audience the whole time, and sometimes phoning the characters to comment on what they were saying, to their confusion. All this within the classic show within a show premise that Jack Benny had introduced back in the 1930’s.

It was all pretty avant garde and a far different sort of comedy than came out in the early sixties. There were no Gilligan’s Islands in the mid fifties, no Hazels or Petticoat Junctions. It wasn’t yet Newton Minnow’s vast wasteland…though you could see it getting there as the fifties ended.

Sometime past midnight I woke up on the couch and had no idea what time it was, let alone what decade, and it occurred to me through all the antihistamine that people were watching this show in this very room when it was new, and looking out the same panes of glass (they are so old the glass has flowed downward and distorts the view), and perhaps someone in them acting like an idiot had been at one of the hip Silver Lake parties here and left the stains in the ancient wood floor, uncovered when we tore up the carpeting (there were ancient tacks in the floor from the 1930’s) and drunkenly dropped the cigarettes that left scorch marks a half century later.

I reached for a Pall Mall but there were none (do they even make them anymore?), and all the people I can remember who smoked them are long dead. On the screen there was Betty White, impossibly cute, telling her sitcom husband that when she is 95 years old she’ll be something or other, I can’t remember what. I was just struck by the fact that Betty White actually is 95 years old now, a realization that zapped me back into 2016, and I sneezed.

Wow. Somewhere between thick skulled William Bendix’s cozy union job in The Life of Reilly and today that whole middle class world disintegrated. Unless the characters were rich–John Forsyth in Bachelor Father, for instance–none of the premises of any of those shows would make sense today. That was my parents’ world, the World War Two generation. Since then we’ve stopped smoking, and we have seatbelts in our cars, but we’ve screwed everything else up as far as the standard of living goes.

These middle class people goofing around in those sitcoms seem impossible now, unreal. They bask in economic security. Their place is assured. Nothing was left to chance then. Barring the prospect of nuclear annihilation, it was all dull, predictable and secure. Imagine that.

But you can’t.

That brief interregnum of widespread middle class security between the end of the Depression and Reaganomics was perhaps the one time in American history since the middle of the 19th century that the economic pyramid was flattened and ballooned from the middle. To have begun then–I was born in 1957, the peak year of the baby boom, we were born like rabbits that year–makes today’s reality that much harder, and nostalgia far too easy, almost narcotic.

It’s no accident that nearly 50% of patients being treated for opiate addiction today are between fifty and seventy years old…up from 10% twenty years ago. You can imagine them high, on the couch, watching old syndicated teevee shows. The advertisements are aimed at them–reverse mortgages, payday loan sharks, ambulance chasers, miracle products that will patch up all the old things in the house they can’t afford to replace, then back to the old television reality where everybody worked forty hours a week with benefits and lived in houses they could afford on a single salary.

I got a taste of that narcosis yesterday in a fun and feverish, zoned out achy anti-histamine day, reliving 1950’s America.

The last thing I remember was Betty White in some fluff called Life With Elizabeth, and I passed out in a perfect residential neighborhood somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, circa 1954.

I woke up hours later, put the last disc back in the box and put the box back, way back, out of reach.

Briefs

Trump Ambivalent on Baltic Security

Will NATO stand up to Putin when the chips are down?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/world/europe/donald-trump-nato-baltics-interpreter.html

SecDef Has “Heartburn” with Defense Bill

“The House bill fails to provide our troops with the resources they need to fight our enemies around the world,” says Carter in letter to Congress.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/287796-pentagon-reissues-veto-threat-as-defense-bill-conference-kicks-off

DARPA Contract Addresses Cyber Threats

Complex systems vulnerable to long term stealthy hacking. As many as 30% could be affected.

http://gsnmagazine.com/article/46833/galois_wins_darpa_contract_addressing_network_thre

Don Adolfo at the Museum

Don Adolfo Camarillo

Gerry Olsen will be speaking about Adolfo Camarillo at the Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum 220 Market Street on July 30, 2016 at 11:00 AM.

Don Adolfo Camarillo may have been small in stature, according to author Gerry Olsen, but he made a big impact on the community—including Port Hueneme.

Camarillo, who only stood about five feet tall, worked closely with Hueneme’s Achille Levy to bring lima beans, walnuts and other crops to the region.

The lumber for his spectacular Victorian home (Camarillo Ranch House) was unloaded at Thomas Bard’s wharf.

Adolfo Camarillo was a horse breeder (Camarillo White Horse), a rancher (Rancho Calleguas), a philanthropist and volunteer who belonged to nearly 40 organizations.   Even late in life, he sometimes attended two or three meetings a day.

Two years ago, Gerry Olsen published a biography titled Don Adolfo Camarillo:  A Living Legend—it was released just in time to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Don Adolfo Camarillo’s birth.

Olsen is a former public information officer for the Ventura Community College District, a member of the Camarillo Ranch Foundation, and retired newspaperman.  He also wrote a biography about his Norwegian immigrant grandparents, Nils and Ellen Olsen, who settled in the Conejo Valley in the late 1880s.

For information contact Beverly M. Kelley kelley@callutheran.edu

—BMK

Mariachis at the Beach

Oceanview Pavilion Performing Arts Theatre by the Beach, in collaboration with Mariachi De Mi Tierra Presents a Free Community Concert

THE 2ND ANNUAL MARIACHI EXTRAVAGANZA!

The Oceanview Pavilion Performing Arts Theatre by the Beach located at 575 E. Surfside Drive, Port Hueneme in collaboration with Mariachi De Mi Tierra is hosting the 2nd Annual Mariachi Extravaganza July 28, 2016, which represents the culmination of local High School Mariachi programs.

This free community event features many talented locally known Mariachis such as Hueneme High’s spirited and award winning “Mariachi De Mi Tierra” and “Mariachi Aguilas de Oxnard” who performed for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s “Get Out the Vote” event June 4th, at the Hueneme High School.

With performances by, Mariachi Camarillo, Mariachi Cihualteco, Mariachi Orgullo de Mexico and more, this is an event you will not want to miss! The concert will showcase and portray Hispanic culture and promote the many wonderful Mariachi groups in Oxnard.

Without the help of Antonio and Dominic Rivera, teachers in the Oxnard Union High School District for over 7 years, none of this would have been possible. These two exceptional brothers are very talented Mariachi instructors and musicians that go to each and every high school in the Oxnard Union High School District five days a week to inspire others to develop a passion towards Mariachi, as they have developed their own throughout the years.

According to Antonio or “Tony”, who has been playing the guitarron for 22 years, “Mariachi is my life, there is nothing I wouldn’t do to help others understand how beautiful Mariachi is.”

From being a part of the Mariachi program for years, his brother Dominic believes that “Music speaks what some people wish to say and it also soothes the mind, heals the heart and soul. In my opinion Mariachi has helped me learn to appreciate my Hispanic culture and be able to express my love for it. As a teenager, I always felt Mariachi as a positive hobby, but today, I see it as another half of who I am. It has really connected me to school throughout musical education and if it weren’t for Mariachi, I wouldn’t be who I am today.”

Our goal for this event is to raise over $5,000 — and the students need your support! There is no better investment for the children in our community, such a great way to give back to our Future America.

Through sponsorship opportunities, and raffles these funds will be used toward music, instruments, uniforms, transportation and field trips. It is amazing to see so many exceptional groups contribute their talents, time and tireless energy, come together to express their love for music through Mariachi.

Free parking in “Lot E” has been provided by The City of Port Hueneme for your convenience.

For more information regarding the concert and sponsorship opportunities contact Antonio or Dominic Rivera (805)795-6021 or via e-mail: a.rivera@aol.com

Reach Summer Fun Without Driving

Although July 4th has passed, there are plenty of Ventura County summer adventures remaining before school begins. Here is a list of hot spots accessible by bus:

Sun and Sand
Thousand Oaks Transit (TOT) makes five round trips each weekday to Zuma Beach through August 19. Round trips cost only $6, $3 for seniors and riders with disabilities. Cash only, dear readers. The TOT Summer Beach Bus also travels to San Buenaventura State Beach (Lot C) and Surfers Point, across the street from the Amtrak station.

You can download the flyer here, visit http://www.totransit.org or call 805.375.5473.

Sunset Yoga and Cycling
If you are looking to combine summer workouts, you can take VCTC Intercity Transit to Ventura College and then cycle north to Arroyo Verde Park in the City of Ventura. Once there, you can join a Sunset Yoga Class from 6 to 7pm.

Concerts by the Sea
If you like listening to music by the Pacific Ocean, attend the Saturday Concerts by the Seaseries at Peninsula Park in the Channel Islands Harbor. The concerts continue through August 27, from 4 to 6pm, and Gold Coast Transit can carry you from the Ventura County Public Health Building to the edge of the concert area, where you can walk or ride to your seat, dreaming of music rather than finding where to park.

Close Encounters and Summer Camp
Moorpark Zoo, which calls itself “America’s Teaching Zoo,” can be reached by the VCTC Intercity East County route (via the Moorpark College stop) on Saturdays. The zoo is only open to the public on weekends, 11am to 5pm. Admission for adults is $8, while admission for children and seniors is $6.

Ask about the 2016 Jr. Safari Summer Camp sessions to be held July 18-22, July 25-29, and August 1-5. You can find more information online. Full-day camps run from 8:30am to 4pm. If your child is unable to attend a full day, the camp offers “early bird” and “night owl” options.

Shopping Without Burning Gasoline
The Camarillo Outlet Mall and its 160 stores can be reached by VCTC Intercity’s Highway 101 route, which is available on weekdays and Saturdays. The mall’s weekday and Saturday hours are from 10am to 9pm.

The largest shopping center in western Ventura County—Pacific View Mall—adjoins the Ventura Transit Center. Consequently, several VCTC routes stop here. You can reach the one-million square-foot mall via VCTC Intercity’s Coastal Express, Highway 101, and Highway 126 lines.

If you prefer The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks VCTC’s Highway 101 service will take you there Monday through Saturday. Check out the Young Art—Summer Camp available Monday through Friday until September 2.

Pool Time
Fillmore Aquatics Center offers a variety of swimming programs, including Mommy and Me classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Make your plans now because the last day of swimming at the pool is Labor Day, September 5, 2016. The Valley Express Fillmore Circulator will gladly take you to the Aquatics Center. More details at www.valleyexpressbus.org.

Summer Theater
If you prefer to escape the summer heat in a darkened theater, Simi Valley Transit can take you to the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. From July 23 through August 28, Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Simi will present Peter and The Starcatcher a musical prequel to the Peter Pan story told in books, plays, and movies. Routes A or B will drop you off across the street from the arts center.

https://visitventuraca.com/family-fun/

Want more Ventura County transportation news? Visit our blog.

Hidden Track: The Boomtown Rats — “I Don’t Like Mondays“

Our mailing address is:

editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher

The Hueneme Pilot

August 9, 2016Leave a comment

The ePilot

Serving Port Hueneme, Oxnard, and the World!

Vol. II, Number 14 July 2016

The Trucks Are Back!

Sunset Suppers return the second Tuesday of each month featuring a stunning array of the best food trucks around. Next: August 9, 5:00 – 8:30PM. Brought to you by the Hueneme Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re Pretty Vulnerable”

Capt. Jahnke addresses the Association of Pacific Ports as Capt. Downey looks on

Recently the world came to Port Hueneme. With participants from as far afield as Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Taiwan, The Association of Pacific Ports held its annual conference at the offices of the Oxnard Harbor District.

One of the most significant presentations during the two day confab involved U.S. Coast Guard Captain Charlene Downey, Sector Commander, USCG Los Angeles/Long Beach, and U.S. Navy Captain Chris Janke, Commanding Officer, Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC), discussing “Pacific Port Security: Where We Are Today”.

Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin welcomed the attendees

Capt. Jahnke described the Port of Hueneme, with it’s combination of Navy and commercial traffic, as “cats and dogs”. While commercial users have only 72 hours to clear out in the event of an emergency situation, the enhanced lease revenue they bring is an important income source for NBVC.

Likening himself to a city mayor, Capt, Jahnke stated his mission is to “support our customers”. Citing a busy schedule of Navy activities, he asserted, “We are not Sleepy Hollow.”

With a small staff, the Port of Hueneme is not a port with “heavy security”. “Without co-operation with the Coast Guard,” said Jahnke, “we wouldn’t get it done.” “We’re pretty vulnerable … I’ve got cars and guards at the gate, but someone out of the water? I just yell ‘Stop!’.”

Capt. Downey commands an area that includes the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Port Hueneme, and El Segundo. Out of the $100 million appropriated for the National Port Security Grant Program, she was pleased to report that $9.3 million was coming to Southern California to develop responses to such challenges as underwater terrorism, marine transportation recovery, and nuclear threats.

Cyber security is of particular concern to Capt. Downey. Citing energy, transportation, and critical infrastructure, “Everything works off of technology these days,” she said.

Information security is an inter-agency effort. The Coast Guard is making use of Army National Guard Cyber Response teams. The Captain is also looking to fill new civilian positions focusing on cyber-security.

The work of port security never ceases. “We are working around the clock,” she said. “Any time we get through the day [without an incident], it’s a blessing.”

—Ed.

“We Need Them to Understand How Serious It Is”

Co-Chair Gene Fisher Reports on RDP-21 Lobbying Trip to Washington, D.C

Regional Defense Partnership for the 21st Century (RDP-21) Co-Chair Gene Fisher recently reported to the membership on the annual lobbying trip to Washington, D.C.. RDP-21 is a consortium of local governments, industry professionals, and military experts formed to support the interests of Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC).

Citing recent successes such as the five year effort to secure a Coast Guard detachment at Point Mugu, Mr. Fisher said, “We had a lot of closure last year.” “This year we woke up to the issues of infrastructure.” Mr. Fisher explained that the Navy has been underfunding infrastructure to have money for operations.

Congressional dysfunction was cited as a significant problem. Present Congressional rules prohibit “earmarks”, a procedural mechanism that allows Members to direct money to specific local projects. “It used to be so much easier,” Mr. Fisher lamented, “you could actually get something in the budget.”

A series of continuing resolutions also froze the budget for several years in a row. The continuing resolutions “severely impacted the the test and evaluation world,” Mr. Fisher remarked. “The system is not supporting them well.”

Noting that the funding process has become increasingly political, Mr. Fisher pointed out that “More than ever we’re in the education business.” In the matter of infrastructure investment he pointed out “We need them to understand how serious it is.”

As an example, he cited the fact that the Pacific Test Range is down to only one 35 year old support aircraft. A new aircraft is due to arrive in 3 or 4 years, but may not arrive in time. Any mechanical problem with the old airplane can result in millions of dollars in lost time.

Terry Clark, the former Director of Naval Air (NAVAIR) Ranges pointed out that testing for the F-35 can cost up to $7 million a day, yet “Nobody has figured out the calculus for the cost to the taxpayers.” It may be necessary to “spend $100 million to save a Billion”.

—Ed.

History By the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Even though the usual practice is to designate buildings in the name of folks no longer numbered among the living, that’s not the way things were done during the last century in Port Hueneme. So, Ray D.Prueter was able to enjoy the occasional visit to his namesake library—in fact, he cherished his strolls among the stacks.

As then head librarian Cathy Thomason recalls, “Ray was very proud of the library; he laughed about telling the children he was Mr. Prueter … and the children [aware of his commanding portrait in the library lobby]—their eyes would get really wide when he told them this.”

When Prueter, who passed away in April of 2008, and wife Laura retired to Montana, the Friends of the Prueter Library presented him with the greatest of all possible gifts—the greatest of all possible gifts for a bibliophile, that is. The organization created an ongoing book fund in the amount of $1,000 per year

for the purchase of selected tomes in the couple’s honor.

Further, Prueter would have been pleased and grateful, especially during the almost decade-long economic downturn, that his library was still gifting the citizens of Port Hueneme with recreational reading material, employment information, movies, story times for children, book clubs for all ages, help with homework and sorely needed internet access.

He also loved reminding people, with a twinkle in his eye, of the words of his favorite Henry Fielding: “Read in order to live.”

Brick Wahl

Barber Shop Quartets

Barber shop quartets. No one thinks of them anymore. Not even in jokes. Not even in commercials. They are gone. They were everywhere, once, sweet adelining in four part harmony, but they’re gone now. Extinct. Like dinosaurs in candy striped shirts. “When you hear music, after it’s over, it’s gone, in the air. You can never capture it again” Eric Dolphy said. Though I doubt he was thinking about barbershop quartets.

There are lots of cemeteries out near Palm Springs — Sinatra’s out there, and William Powell — full of past generations, and there are thrift stores, full of those past generations’ stuff. Flip through the record bins and you will find barber shop quartet LP’s by the dozen. Four guys in candy striped shirts with vast mustaches waxed like my neighbor’s Camaro. They stand mouths agape, and there’s a barber pole and a guy in a barber chair swathed in shaving cream, looking disturbed.

You will find all kinds of these albums in thrift stores in Palm Springs, every one of which opens with “Bill Bailey”, and finishes with “Sweet Adeline”. I was always terrified of the idea of a barber shaving me while singing Bill Bailey. Syncopation and straight razors never make a great combination. Sweet Adeline would be OK, though.

The old people–our fathers, probably your grandfathers–also had collections of albums of forgettable music with unforgettable models on the covers in various states of undress. Come hither they whispered. Zowie. How many of my generation lost their imagination’s virginity looking at dad’s records? We didn’t have internet porn then, and Playboys were locked away, so all we had was the thrill of those women and wondering if they really do drape themselves across pianos like that.

They don’t.

The bins are also full of the greatest generation’s Dixieland records. They made the world safe for democracy, that generation did, and then they listened to Dixieland. Not while saving the world for democracy–Basie and Ellington and the Dorseys and Glenn Miller scored those scenes–but afterward, when they settled down and grew vaguely nostalgic about the music their own fathers listened to.

As the originals were all ’78’s few could play them, even by the fifties. So they went out and bought records by the Firehouse Five Plus 2, Turk Murphy and a thousand similar bands across the country. Those records are fun, actually, even a blast, and a lot of the bands are first rate. A little hokey, sometimes, redolent of good times and happy funerals and riverboats slapping the Mississippi into white foam. It was a fairly innocent jazz.

The Firehouse Five Plus 2 played Disneyland. They never played in whorehouses or got in knife fights or suffered acute alcoholic psychosis that landed them in the loony bin for the rest of their lives. No, this was all straw hats and banjos and good times. But I like them. My dad loved the stuff. I have a mess of them tucked away in the record cabinet, segregated from the real jazz that my real jazz friends listen to. That way nobody gets embarrassed.

And then there were sound effects records that were ideal for early marijuana experimentation, replete with prepared piano dissonance and percussion that would boing from speaker to speaker. Remember those? No? My dad had some, a bunch of them to go with the giant hi-fi console and speakers in the living room. We’d sit in the dark and listen to funny sounds pan from one end of the room to the other.

My favorite was the fireworks show. Ten minutes of people listening to fireworks, oohing and ahhing and breaking into applause, big booms and whistles and bangs in the background. Wintry nights in Maine pretending it was 4th of July.

There are scores of these records in the bins. Not sure why I never pick any up. They certainly were popular with the exotica crowd a few years ago. They’d put on Tiki shirts like their dads are wearing in the old photographs, and mix long forgotten martinis and listen to Martin Denny records.

Somehow these people always thought that I, a jazz fan, was therefore a Martin Denny fan. Funny how wrong people can be. I never made the mistake of thinking the Tiki crowd was nuts about Dixieland, however. Or Cecil Taylor.

You can listen to Martin Denny, though. Listen to a lot of those old space age pop records, if only for the jazz players mentioned in Stan Cornyn’s liner notes.

With patience, you can hear some terrific soloing. Those records helped an entire generation of musicians who’d once had steady work in swing bands now make the rent. I still catch myself picking up the occasional LP because a favorite jazz player–Buddy Collette, say, or Don Fagerquist–are in the credits. Jazz on the cheap, sort of.

Then there is Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald. The gene that made those records listenable seems to have disappeared from the genome.

What sounded like real music to our grandparents sounds like torture to us now. Their albums stuff the Palm Springs thrift store bins where they sit forever, unwanted. Let’s just say that Gilbert and Sullivan did not age well for the rock’n’roll generation. It must sound like gas music from Jupiter to the hip hop generation. I hear Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald and I thank god for Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald and the others who saved my people from operetta.

Though personally I never minded a barbershop quartet.

Briefs

Sharks in Carp

Hungry Great White on the prowl in Carpinteria.

http://www.keyt.com/news/beach-warning-in-carpinteria-after-feeding-shark-sighted/40732106?ens=1&utm_source=Daily%20News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=KEYT-KCOY-KKFX%20Noon%20Headlines_53b1b6c10cf2a9cbf9156e16_sb&utm_content=20160716_1400

The Importance of Military/Community Partnerhships

The community and the base both benefit from working together says Rand study.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1419.html

The Russian Navy’s Biggest Enemy

Thanks to “shambolic shipbuilding” more Russian warships have been lost to shipyard fires than any enemy action.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-russian-navys-biggest-enemy-isnt-nato-its-fire-16888

Don Adolfo at the Museum

Don Adolfo Camarillo

Gerry Olsen will be speaking about Adolfo Camarillo at the Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum 220 Market Street on July 30, 2016 at 11:00AM.

For information contact Beverly M. Kelley kelley@callutheran.edu

—BMK

Mariachis at the Beach

Oceanview Pavilion Performing Arts Theatre by the Beach, in collaboration with Mariachi De Mi Tierra Presents a Free Community Concert

THE 2ND ANNUAL MARIACHI EXTRAVAGANZA!

According to Antonio or “Tony”, who has been playing the guitarron for 22 years, “Mariachi is my life, there is nothing I wouldn’t do to help others understand how beautiful Mariachi is.”

Hidden Track: Memphis Nighthawks — “Shanghai Honeymoon“

Our mailing address is:

editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher