The US Navy will spend thousands to camouflage a California barracks resembling a Nazi swastika after the embarrassing shape was revealed on the internet.
Navy officials said they became aware the barracks looked like a swastika from the air shortly after its 1967 groundbreaking — and had decided not to do anything.
According to The New York Times the resemblance went unnoticed by the public for decades until it was spotted in aerial views on the internet.
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The Navy now plans to spend $682,000 on "camouflage" landscaping and rooftop adjustments to hide any aerial view of the San Diego barracks, known as Naval Base Coronado.
"You have to realise back in the 1960s we did not have the internet," base spokeswoman Angelic Dolan said. "We don't want to offend anyone, and we don’t want to be associated with the symbol."
Ms Dolan said when officials first noticed the swastika look there was "no reason to redo the buildings because they were in use".
But an anti-bigotry group based in San Diego is not impressed.
Regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, Morris Casuto, said: "We told the Navy this was an incredibly inappropriate shape for a structure on a military installation."
He said his group "never ascribed evil intent to the structure's design" and praised the Navy for recognising the problem and "doing the right thing".
The naval spokeswoman said the barracks were in a no-fly zone that was off limits to commercial airlines, so most people would not see the offending building from the air.
US Navy Building in the Shape of the Swastika
Originally Posted by Leon Blum - For All Mankind
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