A year ago, Erica Lopez was a shining star at the Wal-Mart in Marble Falls, Texas. She was the first person at the big-box store to rise through the ranks and become a four-star cashier in just three months.
But Lopez was looking for something else.
“I didn’t want to make my career at a Wal-Mart,” she said. “I was like, why not try out the Navy?”
Fast forward a year.
Seaman Apprentice Lopez is one of the Navy’s newest sailors on one of its newest warships. Standing near the tip of the USS Momsen as the ship approaches its new home port in Everett, she could throw out her arms and replay the flying scene from the movie “Titanic.”
“It looks like a nice place,” Lopez said, comparing the changing autumn leaves on the Mukilteo shoreline to what she’d seen in Texas.
The Momsen is Naval Station Everett’s newest ship, the first to be assigned here since the USS Shoup arrived in 2002.
Lopez, 20, has been in the Navy less than a year. She graduated from high school in 2003 in a small Texas town on the Colorado River where a sign on the outskirts says “Marble Falls – For a weekend or a lifetime.” Besides visits to Mexico, Lopez had never been out of Texas before she went to boot camp.
The youngest daughter of eight children, Lopez comes from a tight-knit family. Her decision to join the Navy surprised her mother.
“My mom was like, ‘You’re going away?’” Lopez recalled. She added that missing home has been the toughest part of being a sailor.
Lopez is one of 40 women on the ship, which has a crew of 330. She works on the deck crew, a group of 36 sailors who do the grunt work needed on the ship, from handling the lines to maintenance and painting.
The grueling all-weather work hasn’t soured her on the military. She’s thinking about making the Navy a career.
But first, Lopez wants to explore her new home.
Exploring Everett is a common theme on the Momsen. Some sailors have been turning to more seasoned salts for answers, including Petty Officer 1st Class Douglas Robeck.
Robeck, 34, first came to Everett in April 2000 and served aboard the USS Paul F. Foster before it was decommissioned.
“I love it here,” he said. “I love the weather. The people are nice. There’s so much to do – white-water rafting, skiing, deep-sea fishing. Anything you want to do is here.
“I’m going to retire here, there’s no doubt about it,” said Robeck, who grew up in Minnesota.
Many Momsen families have already moved to the Puget Sound area. Thursday’s arrival of the $1 billion destroyer had much the same feel as a deployment homecoming. Anxious families lined Pier B, holding babies and banners high, cheering the sailors as the Momsen pulled into port.
“This for us is probably the greatest homecoming that could ever happen, much more than a regular six-month deployment,” said Cmdr. Ed Kenyon, commander of the Momsen. “This is a huge day for us.”
One of the great-grandsons of the ship’s namesake, Petty Officer 2nd Class Andrew Hailey, is on the ship. Hailey, 30, said the chance to serve on the destroyer was one of the reasons he quit his job as manager of a movie theater in Greenville, S.C., four years ago.
“I’m just trying to honor a family tradition,” Hailey said.
Now that the ship is at its new home, the crew can take time off in staggered shifts. Lopez said she was anxious to visit the restaurants of Seattle, which have gotten rave reviews from relatives.
The Momsen is family now, though.
She recalled how she went on leave while she was with the ship in Maine. Lopez said she quickly started missing her shipmates.
“I was too attached,” she said with a laugh.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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