Navy spends $600,000 to hide aerial view of San Diego base that resembles swastika



The Coronado Naval Amphibious Base in San Diego was built for the training and support of naval units on the West Coast.

But when it was designed in 1967 no one had thought of Google Maps.

The new aerial technology has revealed an unfortunate design flaw - the structure resembles a swastika when viewed from above.

Design flaw: The Coronado Naval Amphibious Base in San Diego was built for the training and support of naval units on the West Coast

The shape is most commonly linked to fascism and the Nazis, and the aerial photography has left the U.S. navy scrambling to blur the structure from above and spending more than $600,000 to mask the shape reports Time .

'We don't want to be associated with something as symbolic and hateful as a swastika,' said a spokesman.

That hasn't stopped the internet discussing conspiracy theories about the building's original intention, however.

'German prisoners of war were housed on the base and used as laborers. Since the buildings were not all built at the same time the overall layout got past the navy,' says one comment on Satelitte-Sightseer.com.

Israeli-American researcher Arvrahaum Segol also theorised on some dark motives.

He claimed in the Examiner that the L-shaped buildings were built in tribute to the former Nazi scientists, most notably Wehrner von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, who helped launch the space program.

Although Mr Segol also said that a sculpture of Moses on the campus encourages murder and the sculptor was 'antisemitic'.

While it's true the symbol is linked to Hitler's feared Third Reich, in many parts of the world, particularly India and Tibet, the shape is a Buddhist good luck charm.