The USS Abraham Lincoln will not return to Everett this month as planned, the Navy said Thursday.
The aircraft carrier was expected to return to its home port following 11 months of maintenance work at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.
The Lincoln now will go straight to sea for training when it leaves the shipyard next week, said ship spokesman Navy Chief Petty Officer Doug Stutz. The Lincoln is now expected to return to Everett in late June or early July.
“Now that we have finally wrapped up our extended maintenance period, we need to get the ship and the crew all operationally ready and recertified in everything that we do at sea,” Stutz said.
The Lincoln came home from a 290-day deployment to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on May 6, 2003. The warship’s return to Everett was marked by a massive homecoming celebration and parade downtown.
But the ship and its sailors left the next month for the overhaul, which cost approximately $300 million.
Since it returned from its last deployment, there has been substantial turnover among the 3,300 crew members.
“There is a lot of new folk on here,” Stutz said, adding that the turnover rate has been 40 percent. And with the maintenance period ending, it’s important to quickly start training again for the next deployment.
“We’re going to crawl before we walk, and walk before we run, in handling everything we do at sea,” Stutz said. “And it takes time.”
Training begins today, and the crew will work through the holiday weekend. Sailors will have to stay aboard the ship because the gangplanks will be pulled up though the ship will remain at its berth in Bremerton. “As soon as that’s done, we are gone,” Stutz said.
While the delayed return may mean bad news for Snohomish County businesses, there’s a silver lining for sailors stationed at Naval Station Everett.
Some describe the base as a ghost town while the carrier is away. That description Thursday fit the Commons, the complex that houses restaurants, a movie theater, an arcade, a gym and athletic courts. All were largely vacant.
No one was in line at McDonald’s. Just one sailor was checking e-mail in the computer lab, and just one of four racquetball courts was in use. All that was missing to complete the empty look was a rolling tumbleweed.
It’s a different story when the Lincoln is home, said Rachel Clark, a fitness specialist in the Commons. Workout machines in the fitness center, for example, are quickly snatched up when the carrier is in port.
“It’s a lot more crowded, especially during the lunch hour,” Clark said.
Though the lines are shorter when the carrier is gone, there are downsides, said Seaman Bryan Lamphere, a signalman on the USS Shoup. It’s harder to find people for pickup basketball games in the gym, and the buses on base don’t run as frequently as when the Lincoln is home, he said.
“The buses run all the time when they’re here,” Lamphere said.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
