As a high school senior in the San Francisco Bay area in a far distant past, our class took a field trip to Angel Island, the largest island in San Francisco Bay. The island had housed Fort McDowell, an Army base during the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine conflict. The buildings on the hilly bluffs were empty and tall wild grasses were reclaiming the island. It was reminiscent of some apocalyptic film where the protagonist finds himself wandering about the vestiges of a once thriving civilization. Another prominent isle in the San Francisco Bay use by the military is Treasure Island, a man-made mud flat that became a naval station during WWII. An isthmus connects Treasure Island to Yerba Buena Island, a hilly enclave that was the site of the first U.S. Naval Training Station on the Pacific Coast.