Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fixed Navy ship heads for Everett

Bremerton worries about economic void

Ed Friedrich Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, Wash.)

BREMERTON – The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln departed Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on Wednesday after undergoing $250 million in maintenance and upgrades during the past nine months.

The ship, which arrived in Bremerton on April 17, will conduct sea trials, testing and training for about five days before returning to its home port of Naval Station Everett, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. William Marks said.

“Sea trials are a culmination of a year’s worth of diligent planning and hard work,” the Lincoln’s commanding officer, Capt. Patrick Hall, said in a news release. “Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Naval Air Forces and the Lincoln crew really came together as a team to make this a successful maintenance period.”

Work on the Lincoln included replacing flooring, painting, renovating 30 berths, modernizing 11 heads, replacing the sound system, adding training areas and classrooms, replacing the ship’s four propellers with ones of a new design, updating self-defense weapons systems and galley equipment, and completely resurfacing the flight deck, Marks said.

“I’m extremely proud of what this crew has accomplished over the past year,” Hall said. “Lincoln is ready to become operational, execute our nation’s maritime strategy and rejoin the fleet as a global force for good.”

The Kitsap economy has benefitted from having two carriers, the Lincoln and John C. Stennis, in Bremerton since July. Each is staffed by about 2,700 sailors and has a payroll of about $400 million per year. About a third of the Lincoln’s sailors are single and lived in quarters at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, a third live in Everett and commuted on a contracted passenger ferry or the state ferries, and a third live in the Kitsap area, Marks said.

The Lincoln’s departure can only hurt business.

“Intuitively, you would expect 2,700 people to have quite an impact, particularly on retail and maybe to some degree on housing,” said Bill Stewart, executive director of the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance. “Particularly to a small retailer – a restaurant, a tavern, a movie theater – those places do make an impact.”