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USS Seawolf (SSN 21) is helped into port by the tug C-Tractor. click image for video

Submariners Return Home For The Holidays

For dozens of Navy families this Thanksgiving is something to be thankful for. Their loved ones who shipped out six months ago are back home on dry land. The timing could not have been more perfect. The submariners are home for the holidays after what has been a very long six months for some of their families. Heath is among the 134 crewmen on the USS Seawolf, the first in its class of Seawolf submarines. The sub left Groton on May 27th in support of the global war on terror. While deployed it conducted exercises with the Norwegian Navy.

Seawolf's commanding officer, Cmdr. Paul T. Stevens thanked his crew for all their work on the deployment. "This is my first command, and the crew is fantastic," said Stevens, "they've exceeded all of my expectations. They rose to every challenge." In true Navy fashion, the voyage provided the Sailors with an opportunity to see the world. They visited Tromso and Haakonsvern, Norway, and Faslane, Scotland, participating in exercises with the Norwegian Navy and the Royal Navy. Rear Adm. P. Steven Stanley, Commander, Submarine Group EIGHT said Seawolf, "performed with the highest distinction, met every challenge and contributed immeasurably to our nation's strategy across the entire spectrum of submarine operations."

This is a time for celebration, but the crew of Seawolf must remain ever vigilant. Cmdr. Stevens said, "We've still got to focus on the job. We're home, and that's great, but our mission goes on." Six of the seventeen submarines based in Groton are out at sea and are expected to be away for the holidays.

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Seawolf Crew Has Much to be Thankful For

The crew of USS Seawolf (SSN 21) and their families celebrated Thanksgiving a day early, as Seawolf returned home from a regularly scheduled deployment to the Atlantic Ocean and European Theater. Children looked on with binoculars, waiting for the first glimpse of Seawolf, as Johnny Phynn, the Morale, Welfare and Recreation dolphin, danced in celebration of his shipmates' return.

Machinist's Mate Fireman Apprentice Michael Palmertree, the man inside the Johnny Phynn suit, was especially excited to see Seawolf return from deployment. He was assigned to the boat after completing his training at U.S. Naval Submarine School (NAVSUBSCOL) while Seawolf was still at sea. Palmertree said he was "thankful for a chance to actually get on the Seawolf."

Seawolf's commanding officer, Cmdr. Paul T. Stevens, thanked his crew for all their work on the deployment. "This is my first command, and the crew is fantastic," said Stevens. "They've exceeded all of my expectations. They rose to every challenge."

Stevens said he was excited to be home with his family. "You get all choked up...I'm glad to make it home." His wife, Karen, said, "we were absolutely looking forward to him coming back. We've got a big banner over the front door welcoming him back. I even made his favorite dinner - beef stroganoff." Stevens hasn't eaten his wife's beef stroganoff since Seawolf departed Naval Submarine Base (SUBASE) New London May 27.

The 134-member crew had to make sacrifices to conduct operations in support of the global war on terrorism and national interests. However, in true Navy fashion, the voyage provided the Sailors with an opportunity to see the world. They visited Tromso and Haakonsvern, Norway, and Faslane, Scotland, participating in exercises with the Norwegian Navy and the Royal Navy.

Rear Adm. P. Steven Stanley, commander, Submarine Group 8 said Seawolf "performed with the highest distinction, met every challenge and contributed immeasurably to our nation's strategy across the entire spectrum of submarine operations."

All of the families were proud of their submariners' achievements during the deployment, but even happier to have their loved ones back home for Thanksgiving. Carol Fronek, wife of Machinist's Mate 2nd Class (SS) John Fronek, said, "It feels very, very, very good to have him back."

Emma Reed, niece of Master Chief Electronics Technician (SS) Kenneth Reed said, "I haven't seen uncle Kenny in a year. He doesn't know we all came from Baltimore to see him come back and to have Thanksgiving together." This is a time for celebration, but Stevens points out that the crew of Seawolf must remain ever vigilant. "We've still got to focus on the job. We're home, and that's great, but our mission goes on," he said.

Journalist Seaman Tim Prunyi, Commander, Navy Region Northeast Public Affairs

Washington Base Is Scheduled To Get 2 Subs From Groton

Naval Base Kitsap is the largest naval organization in Navy Region Northwest and is composed of installations in Bremerton, Bangor and Keyport, hosting many SSN Los Angeles Class attack subs and SSBN Trident missile subs, plus the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier CVN 74 USS John C. Stennis. In 2005, Naval Base Kitsap received the Commander in Chief's Award for Installation Excellence. The base will also receive the SSN 21 USS Seawolf and SSN 22 USS Connecticut by the summer of 2007. When they arrive in the summer of 2007, all 3 of the US Navy's most advanced $4 billion SSN-21 Seawolf Class submarines will be based at NB Kitsap. The move is part of a realignment that will see the current 50/50 submarine split turn into a 60/40 Pacific/Atlantic split by 2010.

The moves will put 60 percent of the Navy's submarine fleet in the Pacific Ocean, a goal laid out earlier this year in the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review. During the Cold War, Phil McGuinn, a spokesman for the Norfolk-based Commander of Naval Submarine Forces, said, 60 percent were East Coast-based. Currently, submarines are evenly split between the coasts.

The final destination for two Seawolf-class fast-attack submarines stationed in Groton will be Bremerton, Wash., the U.S. Navy reported Tuesday. It will be the first time the Navy has permanently stationed fast-attack submarines at the southern port of its Naval Base Kitsap in Puget Sound.

The two submarines will join the Navy's third Seawolf-class ship, the USS Jimmy Carter, at Kitsap. "That's good for maintenance and parts availability — to keep them all in the same neighborhood rather than spreading them around,” said Lt. Mark Jones, a spokesman for Submarine Group 2 in Groton. While Bremerton has never been a submarine's homeport, its pre-existing maintenance and repair facilities provide plenty of room for the two ships, Navy officials said.

By 2010 the Navy plans to reduce the current fleet of 54 submarines by two and station 31 ships in the Pacific, according to the recommendations of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, the latest in the Pentagon's four-year reassessment of the U.S. military. Overall, five submarines — including two from Norfolk, Va. — will move to the Pacific region as part of the realignment plan. Along with the Connecticut and the Seawolf, the Groton sub base will lose the USS Albuquerque, a Los Angeles-class submarine, to San Diego sometime in 2008.

Shifting the submarines west is part of a broader stroke to cleave the Navy from its Cold War tactics and meld it with active support for asymmetric and anti-terrorism war efforts. "The department is continuing its shift from a one-size-fits-all notion of deterrence toward more tailorable approaches appropriate to advanced military competitors, regional WMD states, as well non-state terrorist networks,” said Navy spokesman Lt. John Gay in an official statement.

Underneath the strategic shift, however, is a growing concern in the Pentagon over the strength of China's submarine fleet, said one defense analyst. "While it didn't say it was aimed at China, the Quadrennial Defense Review certainly said it's part of our strategy to hedge against emerging peer competitors,” said John Tkacik, an analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Washington, D.C. "The growth of the Chinese submarine fleet is such that the U.S. Navy is going to require at least one new fast-attack submarine for every Chinese submarine that's launched. And if they want to know where these (Chinese submarines) are, they have to station (American submarines) in the Pacific to follow them.”

John Markowicz, executive director of the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region Corp., who was one of the leaders in the recent fight to keep the Groton sub base from closing, said the loss of the submarines to the West Coast was not a surprise. He said he was more concerned with the shrinking number of submarines in the overall future fleet.

Analysts have predicted the production rate for submarines will be outpaced by the number of submarines going into retirement over the next 10 years, based on the Navy's long-term shipbuilding plan. The plan calls for 48 submarines overall, but that number will likely drop as low as 40 in 2028 and 2029. If this turns out to be the case, "then 40 percent in the Atlantic is not a very large number,” Markowicz said.

Kate Wiltrout. In Norfolk, submarine fleet winding down. The Virginian-Pilot. © June 19, 2006. Richard Rainey. Washington Base Is Scheduled To Get 2 Subs From Groton. New London Day. Published on 4/26/2006 in Military.

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