Naval station’s new commanding officer outlines his priorities

EVERETT — Capt. Mike Davis can’t stay away from the ocean.

He calls Florida home, spent the past few years in Hawaii and recently made his way to Washington’s coast.

Davis is the new commanding officer of Naval Station Everett. He arrives as local leaders are lobbying to bring an aircraft carrier to the base. Davis took over for Capt. Mark Lakamp in June. Davis’ main priorities are to keep the base safe and support the homeported ships, he said. He also hopes to carry on the strong relationship Lakamp had with the people here.

“I feel like I’m stepping into some big shoes from him and the way he’s communicated with the local communities,” he said. “I hope to be as successful as he was.”

Davis visited Washington for the first time in May. He expected rain, but was greeted by clear skies. He remembers looking out the car windows, with a view of the Cascade Range to one side and the Olympic Mountains on the other, towering over Puget Sound.

“I was expecting it to be just miserable. I thought it was going to be dark, it’s going to be rainy,” he said. “This is not the Pacific Northwest I have heard about. I think someone was looking out for me, so I didn’t have to deal with it all at once.”

He has been stationed at every other major homeport in the United States, he said.

Davis moved here with his wife, Kristie, and three of their four children. They’re temporarily staying in Marysville, and plan to move to Lake Stevens in August. They’ve been in the area for about a month.

His 22-year-old son wants to go to diving school in Seattle. His daughter, who’s 16, is going to start at Lake Stevens High School in the fall. His youngest son is almost 4. The couple’s oldest child lives in Vermont.

So far they’ve visited Snoqualmie Falls, and went antique shopping in Snohomish. Davis bought an old sextant for his office. He and his wife visited the vineyards at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville.

He hopes for a chance to scuba dive in Puget Sound on a snowy night. He’s a certified diving instructor.

“If you opened my garage, you see dive gear, golf equipment. I rock climbed for a little while,” he said. “I’m one of those people who effectively can’t find anything fun to do, so I try everything.”

Davis enlisted in the Navy in 1988, after he graduated high school. Many of his family members have been in the Navy, he said.

After basic training, he spent four years on a submarine. Later, he was chosen for the Seaman to Admiral program, which trains sailors to become officers. He then went to Jacksonville University in Florida where he studied computer information systems.

He’s especially proud of becoming the executive officer of the USS Rentz warship. His tenure lasted for about a year, starting in 2011. The ship was decommissioned in 2014.

Davis has spent the past three years in Hawaii, where he was stationed at the United States Pacific Command on Oahu. He was responsible for defending against ballistic missiles.

Now that Davis is at Naval Station Everett, he’s overseeing six warships and nearly 3,000 sailors.

Local leaders have been pushing to add an aircraft carrier to the station. A carrier would bring about 3,000 sailors with it, at least doubling the number of jobs at the base.

Everett has been home to two carriers in the past. The USS Abraham Lincoln was the first, and stayed for about 15 years. It was replaced by the USS Nimitz in 2012.

The Nimitz went to Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton for maintenance, and was supposed to return after about a year and a half. Bremerton is about a two-hour drive from Everett. To keep families from moving every couple of years, and to save people a long commute, the Navy decided to keep the Nimitz there. It left about three and a half years ago.

Davis doesn’t know if a carrier is going to come back here. He expects the Navy to release an annual report in August, outlining which ships are moving where.

“I have no idea what it’s going to say,” he said. “I know we can support one. I know it would be good to have the capability back and to be able to support all the personnel, but the Navy is going to get to decide at this point.”

Stephanie Davey: 425-339-3192; sdavey@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @stephrdavey.