Naval station begins to return to full power

Published 1:30 am Monday, January 16, 2017

EVERETT — Naval Station Everett hasn’t been a ghost town.

But it hasn’t been exactly packed to capacity either.

The naval station, long one of Snohomish County’s biggest employers, has been in transition for the past few years.

The base’s biggest vessel, the USS Nimitz, a carrier with 3,000 sailors and personnel, has been undergoing scheduled maintenance since 2015 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.

And three Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates that used to be based in Everett — the USS Ford, USS Ingraham and USS Rodney M. Davis — have been decommissioned.

The Ford was decommissioned in 2013 and the Davis and Ingraham both in 2015.

Each of those ships had about 200 sailors aboard.

The Nimitz was originally scheduled to return to Everett this year, but the carrier has been delayed until at least 2019.

But the Navy is homeporting four newer, more technologically advanced destroyers in Everett.

The USS Gridley arrived in July, the USS Sampson in September and the USS Kidd arrived in November.

The final new destroyer, USS Ralph Johnson, is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2017.

It has been under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, last year.

Those four destroyers will join two destroyers that had already been stationed in Everett, the USS Momsen and the USS Shoup.

All of the destroyers are Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers.

After all the ships arrive, Naval Station Everett will have the carrier, six destroyers and two Coast Guard vessels, said Naval Station Everett public affairs officer Kristin Ching.

This full complement of ships would bring the approximate number of Naval Station Everett’s active duty military, reservists and federal civilian personnel to an estimated 7,000.

The base is also working on a 20-year development plan, which includes constructing new barracks for unaccompanied sailors, and also improving ship maintenance and waterfront facilities.

The base produces $318 million in activity per year, according to Gov. Jay Inslee’s office.

The arrival of the four destroyers will amount to an additional $43 million in salaries alone coming into the region.