Over 3200 sailors left what used to be the USS George Washington’s home port - Norfolk - for its new berth in Yokosuka, Japan, this morning.
According to the Virginian Pilot, our city newspaper, “The ship will replace the Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s last conventionally powered carrier, which is due to be decommissioned. Without the Kitty Hawk’s need for constant refuel
ing, the George Washington can cover greater distances through the region at higher speeds.
It also will be on higher alert once it arrives in Japan as part of the Navy’s new maritime strategy. Technically, the ship could arrive one day and deploy the next.”
Despite that we’re suffering dense fog and a misty blanket of rain today, a Navy band played a big send-off pier side at Naval Station Norfolk as hundreds of sailors manned the rails. Family members waved and wept, kids hugged the legs of their stay-behind moms and dads who won’t be seeing their sailors for at least the next year. Not every family wants to make the trek across continents when a permanent home port change to another country occurs.
Still, it’s an awfully exciting endeavor in the lives of sailors and their families who do want to undertake such a challenge.
GW sailors I know left with great anticipation this morning.
“For the first time, Japan will be home port to a nuclear-powered ship,” one first class petty officer who works in the propulsion department of the ship said.
He, as others already serving aboard the aircraft carrier, have expressed great hope that incoming sailors to the Navy will be eager to take billets on the GW in her new homeport.
“This is being part of American and Japanese history. It’s important,” they say.
I wholeheartedly agree.
