Things might look a little lonely along the berths at Navy Base Everett right now.
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, originally scheduled to return to Everett this year, instead is not expected home until 2019. And the USS Momsen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, left Friday for a deployment to the western Pacific, leaving its sister ship, the USS Shoup, and two Coast Guard vessels at the Everett base.
But expect to see increasing activity in coming months, the base’s commanding officer, Capt. Mark Lakamp reported Thursday during his first State of the Station address at the base before local officials and local business representatives, an event hosted by Economic Alliance Snohomish County.
Lakamp, who arrived at his post in May, said the earlier-announced arrival of three more guided-missile frigates — the USS Gridley this summer, the USS Sampson in the fall and the USS Kidd in late fall or winter — will be joined sometime in 2017 by the USS Ralph Johnson now under construction in Mississippi.
The news that the Nimitz’s return had been delayed was a disappointment to the community, Lakamp acknowledged. But with a deployment coming between scheduled shipyard work in Bremerton, Navy officials wanted to limit the moves for Nimitz families and extended the aircraft carrier’s assignment to Navy Base Kitsap.
“This community’s leaders understood that this was the right decision for the families,” Lakamp said.
The address was as much a report on the state of the Everett base’s servicemen and women and their families and the support they receive from the community, as it was on the base, itself.
“This is the most Navy-friendly community I’ve seen in 24 years of service,” Lakamp said. And it’s support that he and his sailors depend upon, noting that with the addition of the four new ships, the base will add about 1,240 additional servicemen and women and approximately 5,000 Navy family members to the surrounding communities.
The relationship is mutually beneficial, of course; the community offers Navy families good schools and other public services, and in return the area benefits from the added firepower of about $318 million in economic activity, including about $43 million in base salaries.
As Navy-friendly as Lakamp says Everett and Snohomish County are, we may be a little out of practice in extending a hand in welcome.
Bill Rode, area director of group sales for the 360 Hotel Group, has assisted with and secured sponsorships for homecoming celebrations each time a ship has returned home from deployment, welcoming sailors and providing food and entertainment for families as they wait for the ships to tie up. In 22 years of homecomings, Rode said, he’s missed only two. But while it was easy to gather sponsorships and organize activities when the Lincoln or Nimitz were returning, it’s been harder to generate as much enthusiasm for the smaller ships, he said. Rode asked those attending to increase their support for those homecomings and extend the welcome when the homeport’s new ships arrive.
When it was announced late last year that the Nimitz’s return would be delayed, there was some anxiousness in the community that the Navy was questioning the homeporting of a carrier here. Lakamp sought to allay that concern.
Considering the base’s relatively young age, its deep-water port and its location, “I don’t see how the Navy would not base a carrier here,” he said.
Maintaining that Navy-friendly reputation won’t hurt either.
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