THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260550
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
With its move this week, the crew of the Coast Guard lifeboat station at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base will travel a quarter of a mile and 60 years.
``We've gone from 1936 to 1996 in our thinking,'' said Master Chief Petty Officer Lorie Pruitt, officer in charge. ``This is all new technology. The only thing left of the old station is the cornerstone.''
The Coast Guard's newest station is a $3.8 million complex built on its original 1936 site. Construction began in November 1994 and, for the past year, the 26-member crew has been living, working and going to sea from a loaned Navy barge docked a quarter-mile away.
The crew, with help from Coast Guardsmen stationed at the Support Center in Portsmouth, plans to be firmly anchored in its new port by Wednesday. A grand opening ceremony is scheduled for May 28.
Right now, the three-story station, modeled on the outside after 1930s versions, looks like a hotel when you step inside.
And, according to Pruitt, who was first assigned to Little Creek from boot camp 19 years ago, life at the station will be almost like living in a hotel.
Each of the 26 male and female Coast Guard service members who live in the barracks section will have private rooms, with private baths. The crew gets a galley with dining room seating for 50. TV lounges, fitness room, laundry facilities and basketball court will be included.
``You could compare the lifestyle to that of firefighters,'' Pruitt said. ``We're either on patrol or waiting for an emergency. With this new facility, we can be under way in about two minutes, less than an hour for a cutter.''
Sending its four in-shore and off-shore small boats out for search-and-rescue and other missions, and deploying the two cutters permanently docked there, will be much easier for the new station.
That's because there's a bigger, better communications center, complete with new computers, cellular phones and radio equipment.
The old cedar and brass lifeboat station was built in 1936 and, until it was razed last year, was one of the oldest Coast Guard stations still in service. The new building is three times larger than the old one.
Set on a five-foot-thick concrete slab, atop 400 60-foot pilings, it is built to withstand a category 5 hurricane. Its protective window shutters can be latched in minutes.
The station complex, which includes a garage and boathouse, is on four acres. Two outbuildings were remodeled, not replaced.
But the complex got a whole new waterfront: water and electrical power to the boats and cutters, a well-lit pier, and a steel and concrete breakwall to stop powerful north winds that used to ice up the vessels.
The 278-foot pier is 50 percent larger than the old creosote wooden one, plus a small floating pier has been built.
Pruitt has been stationed at Little Creek three times. ``It's always been an excellent assignment,'' he says. ``Now it will be even better. Technology was hitting the Coast Guard, but we just didn't have the facility to keep up.'' ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Virginian-Pilot
The Coast Guard's $3.8 million complex at Little Creek Naval
Amphibious Base is crammed with new technology and will make living
there more pleasant for the 26-member crew.
by CNB