Navy is retiring the last of its storied cruisers. To San Diego veterans, they were ‘the pinnacle of

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Navy is retiring the last of its storied cruisers. To San Diego veterans, they were ‘the pinnacle of naval power’

By GARY ROBBINS THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE •
 
SAN DIEGO (Tribune News Service) — Falling in love can happen in a snap. Dave Hatzenbuehler knows this from the way he responded nearly a half-century ago upon noticing a big, brooding presence in San Diego Bay. He’d caught sight of a Navy cruiser, a famously dynamic type of ship that had been turning heads since the 1880s.

This one was the USS Long Beach, a muscular brute measuring 721 feet from stem to stern. It also was the world’s first nuclear-powered missile cruiser. “It was so powerful and sleek and beautiful,” recalled Hatzenbuehler, who was vacationing in San Diego at the time. “I joined the Navy as soon as I went home to Dallas.

I wanted to be on a ship like that.” This wasn’t a singular response, or a random one.

Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2025-08-17/san-diego-navy-cruiser-18790655.html
Source - Stars and Stripes