Antoinette Estes

The Pacific Reserve Fleet, Long Beach, was established after World War II as part of the U.S. Navy's network of reserve fleets, commonly known as "mothball fleets." Located at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California, it served as a storage site for decommissioned and surplus naval vessels, preserving them for possible future reactivation during times of crisis, such as the Korean and Vietnam Wars. At its peak, the fleet housed dozens of ships, including battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and auxiliary vessels. The reserve fleet gradually diminished in size as ships were either scrapped, sold, or reactivated, and the Long Beach site eventually closed in the 1990s as part of post-Cold War military reductions.