Navy Beach Hosts a Fundraiser to Benefit the Navy SEAL Foundation

Navy Beach is honoring Montauk’s Naval history and partnering with the Navy SEAL Foundation to help raise
awareness and funds for the organization. The Navy SEAL Foundation provides each service member and their
family with the confidence and comfort that their family will be taken care of while on active duty, in the days
immediately after a tragedy and in the years to follow. On Saturday, June 1st from 4–6 p.m. Navy Beach will host
a cocktail party to benefit the Navy SEAL Foundation. The cocktail party, “Honoring our Warriors. Supporting
their Families.” will be the official kick-off to a month of fundraising efforts at the restaurant. For a $35 entry
donation, guests will be able to mingle with a retired Navy SEAL and Navy SEAL Foundation representatives as
well as others from the Naval Community while enjoying live music by Nancy Atlas, local wines provided by
Lieb Cellars, beer from Brooklyn Brewery, and light bites. Following the event, the restaurant will be open for
regular dinner service, and reservations are recommended.



Supporting the Navy SEAL Foundation Throughout June


Navy Beach will continue its support of the Navy SEAL Foundation throughout the month of June and into
America’s Birthday enabling guests to support to the cause directly each time they dine at the restaurant. From
May 24th through July 4th, a donation of $1 will be added to each dining check in support of the Navy SEAL
Foundation. Guests will be able to ask their server to increase the value of the donation if they like. Navy Beach
will match the first $2,500 raised through these efforts.



Honoring Montauk's Naval History
“Many friends and guests with ties to the Navy have enthusiastically shared their stories of time spent in the
service while inspired by the nostalgia of our surroundings. With such a rich history in the area and specifically
on Navy Road, we felt it was only natural to honor some of the country’s most heroic service members by
supporting the Navy SEAL Foundation,” said Navy Beach partner Frank Davis.

The Montauk community has many ties to the armed forces. It has been used as an Army, Navy, Coast Guard and
Air Force base. During World War II the US Navy bought most of the east end to use as a military base. Fort
Pond Bay became a seaplane base. The U.S. Army established Camp Hero with 16-inch guns to protect New
York shipping lanes. Several concrete bunker observation posts were built along the coast, including one
immediately to the east of the Montauk Lighthouse. Base buildings were disguised so they would appear from
above as a New England fishing village. The Army wasn't the only military service active in wartime Montauk.
The largest facility was the Navy's massive new torpedo testing plant. Designed to help develop and test the new






































generation of torpedoes that would win the war, it was located on Fort Pond Bay, along Navy Road. Montauk was
a logical choice. Geographically it was close to the only torpedo development facility in the county, the Newport,
Rhode Island Naval facility. It was also a lightly settled area guaranteeing total security, with a body of water at
Fort Pond Bay deep enough for the biggest Navy ships, and a natural bay wide enough to safely test fire and
retrieve torpedoes.

When the Navy commandeered Montauk in the spring of 1942, it took over a sleepy village, totally unlike modern
day Montauk. The bulk of the village was clustered along the shores of Fort Pond Bay, near the current Port
Royal & Rough Riders Communities. There fishing piers jutted into the open bay, crowded with the draggers and
party boats that formed the backbone of pre-war Montauk's economy. The Long Island Rail Road ended there,
providing the only commercial shipping into and out of town. It was there that the homes, shops, and restaurants
were concentrated. Main Street and the current downtown area were almost completely vacant. Besides the
Montauk Improvement Tower, and a few scattered faux-Tudor building built by Carl Fisher in the 1930's, there
was no downtown! The Navy changed all that forever, when it condemned the entire arc of Fort Pond Bay, and
literally moved the old village out, to make room for the torpedo assembly and testing complex.

The base that took their place was massive, with four major buildings covering over 20 acres of shoreline. Built to
withstand aerial bombardment, their walls and ceilings were constructed of 3' thick, steel reinforced, poured
concrete. Inside shiploads of torpedoes were assembled and then loaded onto floating barges moored in Fort Pond
Bay's deep waters, and fired out to sea. Trailing a stream of bubbles from their compressed air driven motors,
seaplanes would follow their wakes out to sea. Once the torpedo's fuel was spent and they had floated to the
surface, they would be retrieved and returned to base. Those that had passed inspection were shipped out, while
defective ones would be scrapped or corrected. Over the course of the war thousands of torpedoes were tested
here, and their success sent hundreds of Japanese and German ships to the bottom.



About the Navy SEAL Foundation
The Navy SEAL Foundation provides each service member and their family with the confidence and comfort that
their family will be taken care of while on active duty, in the days immediately after a tragedy and in the years to
follow. It pitches in to augment and supplement Navy and Veteran Affairs programs to provide financial support
for education, mental health support, family counseling support and tragedy assistance.

The Navy SEAL Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. More than 95 cents of every dollar spent by
the Navy SEAL Foundation directly supports mission programs and services. Independent Charities of America
certifies the Foundation as a “Best in America” charity and Charity Navigator has awarded them their coveted
four-star rating for sound fiscal management. The Navy SEAL Foundation is the highest rated military-related
charity and is ranked third overall based on the well-respected Charity Navigator ratings as highlighted in the
recent MSN.com, Highest Rated Charities in America.