This year Memorial Day Weekend coincides with the local Fleet Week. Fleet Week is an event that brings naval vessels into the port. Once this was the largest naval port on the west coast. Now it is gone. We also had a significant Army fort, gone as well. The only military left is, and it is significant the USAF. Unless you count the Coasties (I do, but some insist that they are part of the Department Homeland Security).
I harkens back to my childhood to see sailors wandering the streets of our downtown. Of course gone, long before the base, are the bars, prostitutes and cheap rooms. The main drag of the "red light district" was a street named Beacon Street. It once held the reputation as one of if not the roughest streets in any port town. It's now condo towers.
Growing up, all over town, you could hear Retreat. Reveille and Taps. They aren't played since the Army left. But you can still hear Retreat loud and clear across the town.