By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Daniel Squires shrugs off the suggestion that he’s running an armed camp.
Sure, the yellow, offset barricades and armed guards at the main gate along W. Marine View Drive give that impression. OK, the U.S. Coast Guard is patrolling the riverside flank of the Everett homeport, keeping pleasure craft from lingering.
But it’s not an armed camp, said the U.S. Navy captain, the new commanding officer of Naval Station Everett.
"I can still look over there and see houses. I can look over there and see a marina," he said from his third-floor office on the base. "I don’t think Naval Station Everett will ever be an armed camp."
In fact, the compact naval base, home to an aircraft carrier and several frigates and destroyers, was built in plain view of residential and business areas and next to a popular river channel used by private boaters.
"I think it’s always going to be a neighborhood naval station," he added. "It’s just that we’re going to have to restrict access for a while."
Much tighter security measures were thrust into place the morning of Sept. 11, minutes after it became clear that terrorists flew two commercial jetliners into the twin-tower World Trade Center in New York, and a third into the Pentagon.
Since then, deliveries, contractors and just those going on base to watch armed forces soccer games or attend other events have been inconvenienced with intense vehicle searches, or are being banned from the base without a valid reason.
The tight security stands in stark contrast to the image the naval station has projected since it became operational in the mid-1990s. Until now, the base and its leaders had tried to accommodate both the military mission and the community by making available its meeting rooms and an auditorium named after the late Everett Mayor Bill Moore, a staunch backer of the naval station.
Squires, who flies Navy P-3 coastal patrol aircraft, took over as base commander less than a month before the East Coast attacks. He was just getting his feet on the ground, meeting local officials and community members, when the security was tightened.
His previous tour of duty was in Naples, Italy, where security levels fluctuate. To him, the searching of cars doesn’t seem so unnatural, but he can see why local citizens might find that foreign.
"It’s not really so unusual for me to see this. It’s just unusual to see it in the states," Squires said.
He said the people should be able to see the Navy ships and what they’re doing. Indeed, three Everett ships fired up their engines and activated their radars the morning of Sept. 11 and proudly sailed to various parts of Puget Sound and Hood Canal to bolster air-combat defenses.
Squires pointed out that nobody was sure that day how far the threat extended or if another attack would be made someplace else.
The heightened security also affects the channel at the mount of the Snohomish River.
The base nestles up to the channel, the entry point for pleasure craft returning to or leaving the nearby Port of Everett marinas.
As long as boats "keep going and stroll by and stay in the channel, they will always have access," Squires said. "If the Coast Guard closes up that channel, you will know we have some serious terrorist threats."
Squires’ mission tending to the ships might become a little easier.
He got some good news this week from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $6.8 million for construction of a ship maintenance facility at the naval station.
She and Rep. Rick Larsen have been pushing for the funding since Squire’ spredecessor, Capt. Kim Buike, lobbied to replace a couple of World War II-era barges now used for maintenance.
Squires said the funding makes sense because the Navy will actually save money within the first year because the new facility will be more efficient and the old barges won’t have to be maintained.
"It’s a wise way to spend money," he said.
Despite the distraction of an increased threat, Squires said he’s thankful to have command here. He’s spent most of his 23 years in the Navy on the East Coast. This was a chance to live for a time in a different part of the country.
"Then to get the newest, most environmentally friendly, efficient Navy base the Navy has, it was almost too easy," Squires said. " What a privilege it was to come here."
He’s heard talk that the recent threat has motivated more sailors to remain in the service.
"It really does give us purpose," Squires said. "It gives new meaning to the oath that we take to do this."
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447 or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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