A history of the Long Beach Naval Complex on Terminal Island, California. It covers mostly the shipyard and its special equipment, special projects and most of all the special people who made it the only Naval Shipyard in history to receive the Meritorious Unit Citation. The text deals with some of the special facitlities such as Dry Dock 1 and the German Crane. it also describes various special projects the shipyard worked on such as Sealab II, DSRV, Polaris & Poseidon missile tests and the reactivation and modernization of the Iowa class Battleships. Much of it is written in first person as the author was involved in one way or the other with that project. Therefore he feels that the only way it can be described properly is by "One who was there." The Main Text covers special facilities, special projects and special people. The Appendices list every ship or craft that was ever dry docked and every graduate apprentice by name and date.