*Oh my what controversy this piece has caused!
I would like to make it perfectly clear to those offended the following:
1. I called the photo and the outrage it brings idiotic because I don't believe that the builders had intentionally designed it to appear as a swastika from the sky and once it was discovered they went ahead with the building because they thought no one would realize the design and of course Richard Nixon was in office, there was a war in Vietnam and the money to rebuild and redesign was no doubt needed elsewhere. Remember this was 1969.. Long before the Internet or aerial photos via hundreds of satellites and Google maps were even imagined and only authorized aircraft are allowed to fly over military bases.
2. This photo and others like it also float through the ether of the Internet on various sites, mostly on sites that contain the content of conspiracy theories (which I do find idiotic- give me proof not theory or conjecture.) ( Info Wars , Black Helicopters and 911.
These are just a few off the top of my head and to create the list of sites dedicated to this sort of subject would take volumes and I have better things to do with my time.
3. I don't care for symbols that promote hatred and it is my opinion that if you place too much emphasis on a symbol then you lose the truth. I would be livid however if someone decided to burn the Constitution of the United State because it is a document of laws and principles that defines and limits what the government can and cannot do and I am incensed every day that the present political straw dogs in Washington attempt to change it. Does the sight of a swastika make my stomach turn? Yes it does, the same way the sight of a confederate flag does. But do I think that in 1969 that a naval base in California was deliberately built in the shape of a swastika as some sort of covert, subliminal message to the rest of the world? No, I think it was just another government SNAFU, and the world knows there are more than enough of those in all countries. But if you want to read into it as another way to point your crooked finger at the U.S. and see the devil incarnate then who am I to attempt to educate you. You know what you think you know and you see what you think you see and there is no way to change your mind. Of course it is possible that you are just one of those people who love to pick at a scab until it leaves a scar (or in Internet terms, a flamer) and if that is also the case then you are given my utmost sympathy.
Sweeping Generalizations
Just when I thought that Americans controlled the monopoly on all things idiotic I discovered that idiocy is international. It seems that once again the San Diego Nazi photo is floating around and this time it has reared it’s ugly head on the Le Monde blog community and the reactions are exactly the same as they were 2 or 3 years ago when Google Maps first pointed out the aberration.
While some expressed (in French, of course) absolute shock and horror that this building was constructed in the image of the Swastika others were more rational in their views. I, of course jumped with glee because a new column was handed to me on a silver platter.
Two laws of Gestalt psychology tell us that our minds add missing elements to complete a figure; this is known as The Law of Closure and that we tend to group similar elements to an entity, known as the Law of Similarity. Frankly I think we see what we want to see based on our ideas regarding the subject.
The swastika symbol had been used for centuries in folk art in many cultures as a sign of good luck and only after the adoption by Nazi Germany did it become a notorious symbol of evil. So maybe it stands to reason that due to the current U.S. political involvements, the Crawford village idiot, and of course the Prescott Bush Nazi connection that the Google map keeps floating around on the Internet but the truth regarding the construction of the buildings is true U.S. government irony at its best.
What comes into view on the Google Map as four L shaped buildings are actually 6 buildings (note the two central buildings). These buildings were constructed in 1969-70. 
It wasn’t until after the groundbreaking that it was realized how this building would appear. Now the government being what it is decided that rather than go through all the red tape and oversight approval not to mention the additional funding to redo the project that construction would continue as is because no one on the ground would be aware and only naval pilots would see the building from an aerial viewpoint. HA!
In regard to Google Maps, did you know that there is also a fountain at the city council office in the town of Maasmechelen in Belgium that also looks like a swastika from the air or that the image of Jesus has been located in a Peruvian sand dune?
My grandmother used to say, “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.”
I think it is more important than ever to keep her adage in mind even though the facts should never get in the way of a good story.
Diana Meade
January 19, 2007