Presidio Military Exercise Falls to Friendly Fire

Humvees. Fighter planes. Swarms of the finest fighting professionals the Marines and the Navy can muster, staging an elaborately coordinated amphibious assault with deadly precision. So which military hot spot is this -- Baghdad? Tripoli? Actually, it's San Francisco. No, this is not William Cohen's preemptive strike against a reflorescence of the Summer of Love, it's a massive war games exercise scheduled to begin March 14 in the Bay Area that will involve 6,000 troops, five ships, helicopters and F-18 bombers. The maneuvers are intended to simulate warfare in a heavily populated urban area, and to "find the relevancy of the corps in the 21st century," according to Lt. Col. G. W. Schenkel of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab.

But as the date draws near, some custodians of San Francisco's landmarks are having second thoughts about being the theater of action for the four-day exercise, and last week the Presidio, a national park near the Golden Gate Bridge, withdrew permission to use its Baker Beach as a landing site. Something about 400 Marines storming up the shore with 20 five-ton trucks and two dozen 14-ton assault vehicles, and then engaging in pitched battle -- albeit simulated -- on the grounds didn't jibe with the Presidio's more family-oriented mandate as a national park. Undaunted, the best and bravest are training their sights on another choice battleground -- San Francisco International Airport. Check in two hours in advance, fellas.