Early in World War II, after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States strengthened the defense of San Francisco Bay from enemy ships by establishing base end fire control stations along the coast. Built to house soldiers watching for enemy ships and equipped with powerful spotting scopes, these stations relayed ship coordinates to a central communications and plotting center so nearby gun batteries could aim accurately. Four historic stations stood here, nicknamed gopher holes by the soldiers. Two served gun batteries in the Marin Headlands, one served Fort Miley south of Ocean Beach in San Francisco, and a fourth was assigned to a minefield that paralleled the shipping channel along the Marin shore. The soldiers' main duty was to scan the ocean for enemy ships, with two men on duty at all times in each station. Most stations were a single room with bare necessities, including two narrow bunks and a stove, and service in them could be cold and miserable. In nearby Muir Beach village, the Army leased cabins in an old motor court for a cookhouse and for soldiers stationed in the area. The climate could be cold, damp, windy, foggy, and isolated even in summer, and during the summer of 1944 an officer requested cold weather parkas and fur-lined boots for his men. When a supply sergeant questioned why coast artillery in California needed Arctic-type clothing because Hamilton Field was only a few miles away and had just received summer shorts and shirts, the lieutenant answered, "You'd have to be from the Bay Area to understand."