DATE: Saturday, August 30, 1997             TAG: 9708300372

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT 

DATELINE: ABOARD THE CARRIER NIMITZ         LENGTH:   88 lines

NIMITZ CREW ABOUT TO LEAVE WEST COAST PORT FOR LAST TIME

Ignoring the sheets of rain falling from the flight deck overhead, sailors scrambled to load supplies hoisted to the cavernous hangar deck from a naval shipyard pier in Bremerton, Wash.

As denim-clad men and women separated crates of jet engine parts from pallets of coffee and cereal this week, other crew members were making last-minute plans for sea.

``I'm excited,'' said 23-year-old Airman Jody Wang as she and a shipmate paused at the gangway ladder before heading ashore for some late purchases. ``This cruise is something I've looked for for a long time.''

When the Nimitz departs Monday for six months of duty in the Pacific and Persian Gulf, it will mean more than another deployment for the 22-year-old aircraft carrier.

The reason: The Nimitz will not be returning.

Under long-standing Navy plans, the 1,092-foot-long flattop will steam around the world, shifting its home port from Puget Sound to Norfolk, and then make the short trip to a lengthy layup at Newport News Shipbuilding.

Barring unexpected crisis or conflict, the Nimitz and Carrier Air Wing 9 will carry out patrols in both Iraq and Bosnia along the way, the ship's commanding officer, Capt. Isaac Richardson, said.

And within weeks of its arrival in Hampton Roads, the Norfolk Naval Station will bid farewell to the Nimitz's West Coast replacement: The carrier John C. Stennis, readying for its first major deployment next spring, will steam around the world to join the Pacific Fleet.

The Nimitz's relocation has been sparked by its need for a $2 billion overhaul, during which the ship's two nuclear reactors will be re-fueled for the first time since it was commissioned in 1975, Richardson said. The ship will receive other major modifications to its computers and electronics as well as replacement of basic items like piping and electrical wiring.

``We have a 22-year-old ship here,'' said Richardson, a former F-14 fighter pilot. ``But she'll get another 25 years of life on the new (reactor fuel) cores.''

The logistics of moving a family 3,000 miles to a new home has been a major concern of most crew members, said Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Talbert, who has coordinated homeport issues for the ship.

Two-thirds of the 2,900 Nimitz crew members are married and about 40 percent have children, prompting the ship to begin a planning program for the move more than six months ago, Talbert said.

In addition to providing a customized moving plan for each crew member, depending on his or her needs, the Nimitz obtained a waiver to allow families to continue living in Navy housing in Bremerton until June 1998 should they need to, Richardson said.

The Nimitz already has seen 650 families move to Virginia, with another 350 deciding to delay the move because of children's school schedules or other factors, Talbert said. Also, sailors new to the ship have joined the crew knowing it was moving to Norfolk, and about 100 families moved straight to Virginia rather than coming to Bremerton, she said.

Other sailors have managed to get transfers to other ships or shore bases in western Washington or will move on to other assignments, she said.

When the carrier arrived in Puget Sound in July 1987, it was the first flattop stationed in the region since World War II. Senior Navy officials said both the carrier and the region were vital to the Reagan administration's buildup to a 600-ship fleet with 15 carriers to deter the Soviet Union, arguing that a carrier battle group was needed in the North Pacific because of the threat from Soviet Navy units in the region.

In the decade since, the carrier has continued to take its turn with other Pacific Fleet flattops on patrol in the western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, even as the Cold War ended and the Navy found itself shrinking.

Declining budgets, not the Soviet threat, bolstered the Navy presence in Puget Sound. The Navy in 1993 opted to close its massive complex in San Francisco Bay and shift the carriers Abraham Lincoln and Carl Vinson to Everett, Wash., and Bremerton, respectively.

Richardson said he and other Nimitz crew members are sad to be leaving a region that is popular among military personnel and their families.

``I'm going to miss it,'' said Richardson, who took command of the Nimitz last Nov. 8. ``I got here just in time to see the good weather last fall before the snow and overcast.''

His wife, Donna, has already moved to Norfolk to set up their household and to work as a volunteer helping other Nimitz families as they arrive, he said.

``No one is happy about the ship leaving Puget Sound,'' Talbert agreed. MEMO: Staff writer Earl Swift and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Under long-standing Navy plans, the Nimitz will go on an

around-the-world cruise as it shifts its home port from Puget Sound

to Norfolk. From here it will make the short trip to a lengthy layup

at Newport News Shipbuilding.

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