This old soldier saw the Homeport’s birth

Attached to the ceiling of Gary Grayson’s office at Naval Station Everett is a small sign — “Go Navy! Beat Army!”

It’s an affectionate jab at a treasured employee. A nod to the Army-Navy football rivalry, the sign over Grayson’s desk also points to his unlikely path to the Navy base.

“With me, they have someone to beat up on,” quipped Grayson, who has never set foot on the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Army veteran’s voice grew serious when he added, “I couldn’t have had a better job. It’s been a labor of love.”

The most senior civilian employee on base, Grayson, 66, is retiring this month as Naval Station Everett’s deputy public works officer. That title tells nothing of his deep roots at the base. “I was there when the Navy bought the land from Western Gear,” Grayson said Monday.

It was 1986 when the Navy purchased 22 acres on Port Gardner from Western Gear Corp. What’s now the aircraft carrier home port opened in 1994. After 22 years in the Army, Grayson had retired as a master sergeant in 1982. He was a civilian worker at Seattle’s Sand Point naval station when he became immersed in preparations for the Everett base.

“He moved up here when the station opened in ‘94,” said Rick Huling, spokesman for the Everett base. “He is in all respects ‘Mr. Naval Station.’ ”

Cmdr. Steve Bowser, the base public works officer and Grayson’s supervisor, is busy planning a retirement celebration for his civilian deputy. About 200 people, including former commanding officers of Naval Station Everett, are expected at Thursday’s event. As master of ceremonies of the party in the Grand Vista Ballroom at the base Commons, Bowser was working Monday on a fitting tribute.

When he thinks of the tough soldier who went on to serve the U.S. Navy, Bowser keeps coming back to one word — patriot. “Gary is what I would consider the epitome of a patriot,” he said.

“I’ve been deployed once to Iraq, and I’m kind of proud of that,” Bowser said. “Compare that to his experience, it pales by comparison to some of the things he went through.”

What Grayson went through during duty in Vietnam earned him a Silver Star Medal for valor. Army orders announcing the award cited Grayson’s actions on May 18, 1967, near Duc Pho. The Army’s harrowing account told of Staff Sgt. Grayson being wounded in the shoulder and leg when his squad came under heavy automatic weapons fire.

The medal citation said Grayson disregarded his own safety and, although bleeding and in pain, exposed himself to gunfire repeatedly as he fought to establish a defensive perimeter, provided cover as his embattled squad withdrew, and pulled dead and wounded comrades from the area.

“He’s a proven warrior,” Bowser said. Although work as a civil servant would never involve being in the line of fire, Bowser has seen Grayson’s leadership in action. “We have fiscal challenges and project deadlines. That leadership mentality comes out,” Bowser said.

Grayson was 17 when he joined the Army in 1960. He dropped out of West Seattle High School, but later finished his secondary education. Basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, was followed by Army paratrooper training at Fort Bragg, N.C.

He served in Germany; at Okinawa, Japan; and in the 1970s at an Army recruiting office in Everett. By the mid-1980s, he was at Everett’s new Navy base for the groundbreaking. He recalls truckloads of rocks being hauled to the site. He’ll never forget the hammering of pile-drivers as Pier Alpha was being built.

After retirement, Grayson won’t miss his 100-mile-a-day commute from home in Des Moines, south of Seattle. He looks forward to relaxing at Lake Chelan with Sonja, his wife of 42 years. Always, Naval Station Everett will be part of him.

“He’s what we call a plank owner, an original member of the team that stood up this naval station,” Bowser said. “He has this really intense pride in what this naval station is. It pervades everything he does.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.