Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan steams through the Puget Sound toward its new homeport Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., on Aug. 13, 2024. (Heather C. Wamsley/U.S. Navy)
NAVAL BASE KITSAP, Wash. — Eugene Gardner had come all the way from Parker Heights, Texas, to see the USS Ronald Reagan transit the Puget Sound to the base outside Seattle and welcome home his son.
“Here comes our son’s bedroom,” Gardner said Tuesday into his cell phone to his wife as the aircraft carrier swung into view on the end of ropes tied to two tugboats.
The crew of the carrier lined the ship’s rail in their dress white Navy uniforms. Somewhere in the 2,800 sailors or so was Gardner’s son, Lafayette, an airman. The elder Gardner came prepared to match his son and wore his dress Army 1st Cavalry Division uniform from his 35 years as a soldier.
“I told him that at least once in his career, I would meet him when he came home from sea,” he said.
Lafayette Gardner said he knew what to do when he saw his father.
“Me and my buddies, we stopped, and we saluted him,” the younger Gardner said. “Then I gave him a big hug.”
Rori Fox, 10, performs a handstand to welcome her father, Lt. Cmdr. Joshua Fox, an officer on the USS Ronald Reagan. The carrier arrived at Naval Base Kitsap on Aug. 13, 2024. It will go into a six-month maintenance at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. (Gary Warner/Stars and Stripes)
Moms and dads, wives and husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends, and sons and daughters, plus slews of aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends lined the pier in Bremerton to greet the crew of the carrier at its new homeport after nearly nine years based in Yokosuka, Japan.
The tugs and crews on the pier slowly nestled the 100,000-ton ship into a berth adjacent to USS Nimitz, giving the Navy two carriers homeported in the Pacific Northwest.
The Ronald Reagan arrived for a six-month maintenance at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
The rust spots, scrapes and smudges on the ship belied the Ronald Reagan’s place as the third youngest aircraft carrier in the fleet, commissioned in 2003. Its blemishes stood out compared to the Nimitz. The Navy’s oldest carrier, which was commissioned in 1975, is fresh from a recent tune-up at the same shipyard.
Sailors muster before manning the rails aboard the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan during the ship’s transit through the Puget Sound toward its new homeport at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., Aug. 13, 2024. ( Louis Thompson Staats/U.S. Navy)
USS Ronald Reagan is pulled by tugboats into Naval Base Kitsap, Wash., on Aug. 13, 2024, after nearly nine years deployed as Navy’s forward carrier in Japan. (Gary Warner/Stars and Stripes)
Housing crunch
Having two carriers with nearly 3,000 sailors each in the town simultaneously creates a housing crunch at a base short on residences and an area with a tight housing market.
Though the Navy can send the 2,000 or so personnel assigned to each carrier air wing to air stations, the rest of the sailors who did everything from metal work to food service to communications and navigation stay with the ships.
Naval Base Kitsap officials in spring told some base housing residents that they would have to move out to make way for the influx in active-duty personnel.
Capt. Daryle Cardone, commanding officer of USS Ronald Reagan, said Tuesday that the housing issues should ease as the USS Nimitz is scheduled to depart Kitsap within two years. The Navy has plans to move the Nimitz to the East Coast to be decommissioned in 2026.
Demand for carriers
Cardone said there is a high tempo of activity now for the Navy that has created a demand for carriers around the world.
According to the Naval Institute’s “Fleet Tracker” website, the USS Abraham Lincoln is in the Philippine Sea, the USS Theodore Roosevelt is in the Gulf of Oman in the Middle East, the USS Carl Vinson is on its way from Hawaii to San Diego after taking part in the multinational exercises, and the USS Harry S. Truman is training in the Atlantic. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the USS George H. W. Bush and the USS Gerald R. Ford are in East Coast ports undergoing maintenance. The mid-life overhaul and nuclear reactor refueling for the USS John C. Stennis is happening at a shipyard in Newport News, Va. It began in 2021 and is now scheduled to last into 2026.
The USS George Washington is preparing to depart San Diego to take up the Ronald Reagan’s former position in Japan. The two carriers recently met at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., for a “hull swap” of crew members — primarily operations specialists on the Reagan and other sailors who wanted to extend their service in Japan.
Cardone said about 350 sailors — about 13% of Ronald Reagan’s crew “crossed the deck” to take up jobs on the George Washington and return to Yokosuka.
The Navy has said the Ronald Reagan will remain homeported at Kitsap after its maintenance work. This is a return to the port where the carrier was last stationed in 2012.
Kitsap covers 12,000 acres on a peninsula just west of Seattle across a portion of Puget Sound. It is the Navy’s third-largest fleet concentration in the United States. Along with the two aircraft carriers, it includes 70 tenant commands, and it is homeport to Navy submarines, engineering, fuel and arms depots.
Cardone said tensions throughout the world — from Ukraine to the Middle East to the South China Sea — will dedicate what could be the Ronald Reagan’s next mission.
“Even though Ronald Reagan’s time in 7th Fleet is over, we are still in the fight,” he said. “Everything we accomplished while forward-deployed carries over as we continue to improve the ship and prepare the crew for Ronald Reagan’s next chapter.”
Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Alyssa Rogers of Somersworth, N.H., raises the national ensign aboard the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., Aug. 13, 2024. ( Louis Thompson Staats/U.S. Navy)
Welcome home
The carrier’s arrival at Kitsap on Tuesday meant for crewmembers and their families at least six months of reunions as the ship undergoes maintenance in Bremerton.
Rori Fox, 10, did a handstand to welcome her father, Lt. Cmdr. Joshua Fox, 38, to his new home at the naval base.
“We’ve lived in eight different states in 10 years, so we’re used to a new home,” said Kayla Fox, 36, Rori’s mother. “We were lucky to get housing on-base. It’s an expensive area to live in, but we’re used to that from being stationed before in Hawaii.”
Navy veteran Chip Stewart and his wife, Christine Stewart, traveled from Bay Minette, Ala., to welcome their daughter, Seaman 3rd Class Megan Stewart, 21. They wore T-shirts that read “CVN 76,” the carrier number of the Ronald Reagan.
“She’s been on the Reagan for two and a half years,” Chip Stewart said. “She just loved living in Japan, a beautiful country. We asked what she wanted to do when she arrived today and she said, ‘Go out to eat!’”
Eugene Gardner, a retired chief warrant officer, said despite tumultuous world affairs, he hopes his son signs up for another stint with the Navy.
“I’m hoping he extends in the Navy a little longer, gets some education, thinks about making it a career,” he said.
Navy Airman Lafayette Eugene Gardner, left, is greeting by his father, former Army Chief Warrant Officer Eugene Gardner, on the pier next to the USS Ronald Reagan at Naval Base Kitsap, Wash. (Courtesy of Eugene Gardner)
Lafayette Gardner said his father might just get his wish but with a twist that might surprise him.
“I’m thinking about changing to the Army,” he said. “I love my country and want to continue to serve but I don’t always feel like I am doing enough. I think the Army might be a better fit for me.”
