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US to `camouflage' Navy barracks that look like swastika

The US Navy is to spend US$600,000 remodeling a set of barracks in Southern California that resemble a swastika when viewed from above, officials said on Thursday.

From ground level the layout of the four L-shaped buildings at the US Navy base outside San Diego is unremarkable.

But with the increasing popularity of satellite imagery Web sites such as Google Earth, the barracks' swastika formation have attracted wide attention, with Anti-Defamation League campaigners requesting alterations be made.

Now the Navy has agreed to remodeling that will "camouflage" the aerial appearance of the barracks, officials said.

"The Navy has budgeted US$600,000 for work that will effectively camouflage the appearance of the barracks from above," US Navy spokeswoman Angelic Dolan said. "Exactly what shape that work will take has not yet been decided. It could be landscaping, it could be adding solar panels."

Dolan said the controversial design of the building had been drawn up in the 1960s.

"It was an oversight," she said. "We certainly did not want to offend anyone, nor be associated with such a symbol."

It is not known who first spotted the buildings' controversial shape on Google Earth.
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