Welcome To Your New Home, USS Stennis (Washington State)

KOMO TV (Seattle, Washington) ^ | January 8, 2005

[Stoat]

Welcome To Your New Home, USS Stennis

January 8, 2005
 
By KOMO Staff & News Services
 

 
 

 
 

BREMERTON - Armed with a large red and black umbrella, Beth Wiruth stood ashore in Bremerton and anxiously watched Saturday as the USS John C. Stennis slowly made its way to its new homeport at Naval Base Kitsap.

"The ship is in sight!" Wiruth shouted as she scanned the deck where more than 2,500 sailors wearing their winter dress-blue uniforms stood at attention. "Ahh, it's just the best sight. It's just the best sight!"

Wiruth was one of more than 300 family and friends who stood at Delta Pier in Bremerton, west of Seattle, to greet the carrier Saturday afternoon as it sailed into Sinclair Inlet from its former base at San Diego.

The Nimitz-class carrier, commanded by Capt. David H. Buss, arrived as part of a regular rotation throughout the fleet. It replaces the USS Carl Vinson, which will go to Virginia for a complete overhaul.

The Stennis and its crew are expected to remain in Bremerton for about 10 years, good news to Wiruth and her husband, Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Wiruth. He's an electronics technician who works on combat systems.

Wiruth has gone away and then returned so many times in the 18 months they've been married that the couple has developed a system for finding each other during these homecomings.

Rain or shine, Beth Wiruth holds the same red and black umbrella open so he can spot her on shore, and she knows to look for him next to the enormous, white "74" painted just below the bridge deck. The number signifies the Stennis is the 74th of 77 carriers built.

"He stands just left of the seven," Wiruth said during a telephone interview with an Associated Press reporter in Seattle. She laughingly added, "You can't get more exact than that."

The Stennis left Wednesday from Naval Air Station North Island at San Diego, where it had been based for the past six years.

It will spend the first 10 months in a drydock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard undergoing long-awaited maintenance and updates, said Chief Petty Officer Jeri Robinson, a Navy spokeswoman.

The nuclear-powered ship will replace the USS Carl Vinson, another aircraft carrier that had been at Bremerton since 1997. The Vinson and its 3,200 sailors leave Thursday for a six-month deployment in the western Pacific. In November, the carrier will head for Newport News, Va., for a 3½-year refueling overhaul.

The 1,092-foot Stennis recently participated in the Navy's new Fleet Response Plan. Exercises this summer had seven of the Navy's 12 carrier strike groups deployed simultaneously to test the feasibility of having multiple detachments at sea.

In early 2001, the new FA-18E Super Hornet flew test flights from the Stennis, and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the carrier's aircraft patrolled the skies over Los Angeles.

In November 2001, the ship and its air wing participated in combat operations in Afghanistan.

The carrier is named for the Mississippi senator who during his 45-year congressional tenure was a strong proponent of funding and strengthening the U.S. Navy. It was commissioned Dec. 9, 1995.

[Stoat]

USS John C. Stennis CVN74 Home Page

[TexasTransplant]

Washington State does not deserve this Ship or its Crew, Send it to Alaska, Screw the Shrew that stole Washington!

[shaggy eel]

ping

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

Lessee here, the mooselimbs want to take over the world. How are they gonna pull that off if they can't match our weapon systems? Do they have nuke powered carriers? Howze THAT gonna take place??? She is a mighty fine ship. Hard to believe Kitsap County is a blue county with such a strong Navy presence...

[Stoat]

She hasn't stolen it yet! We're going to have a GREAT rally on Tuesday and we're going to force a re-vote, which she will lose handily.

In the meantime, I hope that Freepers will make the USS Stennis crew feel welcome :-)

[Horatio Gates]

Hard to believe Kitsap County is a blue county with such a strong Navy presence...

Oh I'm sure Rep Norm Dicks had something to do with it.

[Stoat]

Lessee here, the mooselimbs want to take over the world. How are they gonna pull that off if they can't match our weapon systems?

Only by beating us down in Congress, just as Ted (swimmer) Kennedy and John Francois Kerry did in the Vietnam conflict.

Do they have nuke powered carriers? Howze THAT gonna take place??? She is a mighty fine ship. Hard to believe Kitsap County is a blue county with such a strong Navy presence...

Hopefully, Washington Freepers will make the USS Stennis crew feel welcome despite the blue-tinged King and Kitsap counties.  There's a lot of red in Washington!

[zzen01]

Does anyone here have a better place to homeport Large Ships of the Pacific Fleet besides WA and CA. It seems like CA and WA are equvilant in Screweduptedness(I cannot used that OTHER word to descibe those 2 states as I have just got out of Freeper Jail after a 1 day sentence(Be careful what you type in here))! I say we should look at Alaska and Guam. What does everyone else think?

[JennysCool]

I like the idea. The threat of terrorism is much reduced when half the population of the port doesn't support the enemy.

[SC Swamp Fox]

San Diego is red. Every sailor I knew that had been stationed there always wanted to go back.

[zzen01]

I was stationed there 3x. I loved it BUT it got too expensive to live there and CA tuned into a not friendly for families state.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

So, let's see. They just announced here in Jacksonville, a red state with the Presidents brother as governor and we are going to lose the John F Kennedy aircraft carrier and Washington state where the democrats kept counting till they won gets a nuke powerered ship.Yep, I can see the logic in that. NOT!

[TexasTransplant]

As usual the Cooler Heads of FR moderate the Texas Transplant, the New or Re-Vote or New Election or Another Re-Count Including the Military Vote, has yet to happen...


I stand 100% behind my earlier post, Screw the Shrew!
Alaska will not only welcome the Ship and their Personnel, they will Like and Respect them as well, those folks near Seattle will never ever respect them.

[AKA Elena]

My oldest Grandchild, (the one that I raised) is on the Stennis and just called tonight to tell me he had forgotten
how beautiful Washington state is!

Thanks for the article -- I already have the link to their home page.

He had to wait (had duty today) to drive his car around and make sure it was still in one piece after the voyage.

[Paperdoll]

Beautiful pictures! Thank you.

All FReepers who live in Vancouver, WA and can't make it to Olympia on Tuesday, PLEASE be at the rally for revote
10:30 AM Tuesday - in front of the Clark Co. elections office at Franklin and Mill Plain. See you there!

[TexasTransplant]

Dude I was Stationed San Diego three times, 1973 was not a fun time in San Diego, 1980 was not a fun time in San Diego, now that 25 years have passed are you telling me that finally! the US Navy is Welcome in San Diego?

All those people that were spitting on me in '73 must have moved to Massachusetts.

I have loathed any time that I had to spend in that absolutltly gorgeous and beautiful state, The People that lived there when I was there could pass for *cow-pies where I live now. (*typical San Diego types please read "Used Cow Food") Absolute crying shame! I spent 1/3 of of life in California, I know it front and back, Three of my siblings were born there, I was married there, my first Son was born there and what I remember most of the State is the ATTITUDE and POS people that I came in contact with, the spitters the Military Haters, the Socialists and all of the people that made it quite clear that Sailors were not welcome in their State. If things have changed, my lovely bride and I may want to have a second Honeymoon to the Second most Beautiful State in the Union. TT

[TexasTransplant]

Dude I was Stationed San Diego three times, 1973 was not a fun time in San Diego, 1980 was not a fun time in San Diego, now that 25 years have passed are you telling me that finally! the US Navy is Welcome in San Diego?

All those people that were spitting on me in '73 must have moved to Massachusetts.

I have loathed any time that I had to spend in that absolutltly gorgeous and beautiful state, The People that lived there when I was there could pass for *cow-pies where I live now. (*typical San Diego types please read "Used Cow Food")

 

Absolute crying shame! I spent 1/3 of of life in California,  I know the State front and back, Three of my siblings were born there, I was married there, my first Son was born there and what I remember most of the State is the ATTITUDE and POS people that I came in contact with, the spitters the Military Haters, the Socialists and all of the people that made it quite clear that Sailors were not welcome in their State.

 

If things have changed, my lovely bride and I may want to have a second Honeymoon to the Second most Beautiful State in the Union. TT

[newzjunkey]

They tried to steal first home port status for the Ronald Reagan from us in San Diego after it had been promised to us. They ended up with Stennis as a consolation prize.

[newzjunkey]

So what do you really think about us here in San Diego?

Are you sure it just wasn't *you* that was the problem? :)