Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station

As part of a nationwide downsizing, the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station will eliminate 81 civilian jobs, the Department of Navy announced Wednesday. The Navy said it will have to eliminate 1,201 jobs nationwide by July because of declining workload. In hopes of avoiding actual layoffs at the Seal Beach base, the Navy is offering early retirement and "separation incentives" up to $25,000, according to naval officials.

A civilian employee at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station was killed Thursday when he was hit by metal debris after a nitrogen gas tank ruptured. The 53-year-old man was not identified pending notification of relatives, officials said. The accident occurred about 10:45 a.m. as he and two others calibrated submarine depth gauges using pressurized nitrogen. All three worked for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, a base tenant.

The City Council Monday added its voice to the growing opposition to a Navy proposal to build a $200-million expansion of its port facilities at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. Council members voted 4 to 0, with Mayor Edna Wilson abstaining, to formally oppose the expansion project that would change the configuration of Anaheim Bay. The council decision came despite a plea by Capt. Stephen T.

Navy Capt. Rusty Mirick will relieve Capt. Paul Bruno as the commanding officer of the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach in a traditional change-of-command ceremony at the station Friday. Mirick, a native of Lancaster, Pa., and a Naval Academy graduate, has more than 20 years of Navy experience. He has been commanding officer of the USS Hoist; commanding officer of Mobile Diving Salvage Unit One, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and chief staff officer of an explosive ordnance disposal group in Coronado.

The trapping and killing of the red fox to protect endangered birds at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station should continue, but measures should be taken to improve and protect the birds' nesting grounds, according to a federal environmental report released Friday. A federal judge in 1988 ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Navy to prepare the report after an animal rights group sued to halt a program to trap foxes.

A civilian employee at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station was killed Thursday when he was hit by metal debris after a nitrogen gas tank ruptured. The 53-year-old man was not identified pending notification of relatives, officials said. The accident occurred about 10:45 a.m. as he and two others calibrated submarine depth gauges using pressurized nitrogen. All three worked for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, a base tenant.

Red foxes preying on dwindling populations of two endangered bird species at the Seal Beach National Wildlife refuge will be trapped and sent to zoos or released in the wilds in other locations, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official said. Bob Fields, refuge manager, estimated that there are 50 to 60 foxes harassing least terns and light-footed clapper rails on the 1,100-acre salt marsh refuge on the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station is bracing for cutbacks, a spokesman said this week. "There's no question that there will be a reduction in force among the civilian work force," Navy spokesman Danny Johnson said. The facility employs 493 civilians in full- and part-time jobs, along with 134 military personnel. Johnson, himself a civilian, said an official notice is expected within a few weeks. Federal law requires that a notice of 60 to 90 days be given if more than 50 employees are laid off.

There's something incongruous about the proprietors of a site devoted to weapons of mass destruction welcoming bird lovers to their property. It's to the credit of the U.S. Navy on one side and civilian bird monitors on the other that an accommodation has been found at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. The facility has an island where least terns nest.

Bill Sauer sits in a folding chair at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station for four hours every Friday morning, peering at the sky in search of predators on the prowl. Sauer is a volunteer, but he takes his guard duty seriously. The Huntington Beach retiree, along with a handful of others who shoo away ravens, hawks and other raptors, is playing a part in the effort to save the California least tern from extinction.

Bill Sauer sits in a folding chair at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station for four hours every Friday morning, peering at the sky in search of predators on the prowl. Sauer is a volunteer, but he takes his guard duty seriously. The Huntington Beach retiree and a handful of others who shoo away ravens, hawks and other raptors are what stand between the California least tern and extinction.

Two light planes, each carrying two people from a flying club in Long Beach, collided over the San Pedro Channel and plunged into the ocean just outside the Long Beach Breakwater on Thursday. There were no signs of survivors. One of those aboard the planes was identified by his family as Mike Chisholm, 56, owner of a flight school in Chino. The others were not identified.

As flocks of white-and-gray speckled Canada geese circle against a pale pink sun and the evaporating morning mist, only the silhouette of a 4,000-ton guided missile frigate hints at the activities at this wildlife refuge, which does double duty as the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. The base performs a critical logistic function for the Navy: More than 500 military and civilian employees work here, servicing an average of 120 weapons ships a year, base spokesman Gregg Smith said.

Residents and the City Council were introduced to the new commanding officer of the Naval Weapons Station at Monday's council meeting. The new commanding officer, Capt. Paul Bruno, has been with the Navy for 24 years, and will relieve Capt. Thomas Bernitt, who is retiring after 26 years of service. The 55-year-old naval base south of Seal Beach Boulevard services more than 100 ships annually.

A Santa Ana woman died Thursday when the car she was riding in collided with another vehicle near the entrance to the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, police said. Antonia Mendoza, 88, died in the 2:40 p.m. crash at Seal Beach Boulevard and Forrestal Lane, Lt. Kenny Mollohan said. Her son, Alfred Mendoza, 61, was taken to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where he was treated for bruises to his torso, police said.

Biologist Jeff Johnson at first dismissed the rumors swirling among the personnel at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. But the reports kept coming in: a clutch of humongous eggs, resting on a grassy berm on the south side of the base. When he decided to go out and investigate, Johnson found himself staring at seven dark green eggs, each about 6 inches long--larger than any egg he had ever seen--baking in the sun. He hurried back to his office and placed a call to a bird expert. The verdict?

The commander of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and three other West Coast arms depots said he will aggressively work to keep weapons handling under the control of government employees, even as a proposal to seek private bids for the sensitive work moves forward. Capt. Thomas R.