Point Reyes Light - August 9, 2001

Abbott’s Lagoon’s days as bomber run

By Patrik Jorgensen

When the bombers began approaching Abbott’s Lagoon in what is now the Point Reyes National Seashore, the Joe Lunny family would quit their plowing and get out of their pasture.

It was World War II, and some of the US bomber pilots trying to hit a target in the lagoon weren’t all that accurate. In fact, some of their unarmed bombs fell all over the Lunny Ranch.

"The Navy used Abbotts Lagoon as a bombing range," recalled Inverness contractor Jack Matthews last week, "and when I was a kid, we used to find all kinds of stuff on the ground out there."

In the 1950s and 1960s, Matthews said, he found several old, detonated smoke bombs on the ground. Small target bombs would turn up. So would the occasional round tip of a rocket that would measure roughly 30 inches long.

Branson Pepper of Inverness was stationed on Point Reyes from 1943 to 1946 as a corporal in the Air Force’s 24th Fighter Control Squadron, and last week he recalled the training missions that took place. "We used to just sit in the sun and watch," Pepper said, "as the airplanes would fly in and drop their smoke bombs at the targets in the lagoon."

Crash in Drake’s Bay

Pepper also remembers that everything didn’t always go according to plan. "One time we were watching an airplane come in from the ocean" over Drake’s Bay, he said. "It got too close to the water and suddenly we just saw a spray of water before the plane started tumbling and finally disappeared."

The Coast Guard recovered some debris from the accident, but the pilot was not found. These accidents were by no means common, but they did happen more than once. "In 1980," Matthews recalled, "myself and two other skin-divers found the remnants of a plane in the lagoon. There wasn’t a whole lot left, but it had definitely crashed."

John Vilicich, 82, of Marshall, who went into the service right after the war, said there were three rescue boats assigned to Tomales Bay in case an accident happened. "The Army used Mrs. Lorenzo’s dock space, now Tony’s Seafood, for rescue boats that would pick up the pilots if there was a crash," Vilicich said.

Dillon Beach bombed too

Vilicich recalled that he and his brother would walk along West Marin beaches and find remnants of practice bombs on the ground.

"The P-40’s [an old Air Force bomber] would fly overhead and drop wooden bombs, or three-foot steel bombs filled with sand. The bombs would put up a flare so the pilots could see if they hit the target. This went on at both Abbotts Lagoon and Dillon Beach," Vilicich said.

Wartime activity in West Marin also included nightly beach patrols. Pepper said, "They would be on black horses, in black uniforms, and patrol the beach from the Golden Gate to Pierce Point. They patrolled the beach, looking for possible incoming enemy airplanes." The black garb, of course, was to avoid detection by the enemy.

Although the military brass took seriously the threat of attack on the West Coast, Pepper said, "we weren’t really more worried back then than we are now." Nevertheless, blackouts were enforced for the entire coastline.

Blackouts on coast

Pepper, who served as a truck driver during those years, remembers the regulations for nighttime driving. "It was required that the headlights be taped over so as not to give off any light. And all the house lights certainly had to be kept to a minimum."

Pepper explained that he was only 19 when he joined the service, and the war seemed very far away. Still, the grimness of the conflict struck home when he made runs to Hamilton Air Force base in Novato to pick up soldiers who had been wounded and were on their way home.

"There were soldiers coming home crippled. Nobody ever likes seeing anyone banged up, and this is when I realized that it could just as easily been anybody," Pepper said.

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