A Puyallup native recently recently became commander of one the U.S.'s four naval shipyards.

Capt. William C. Kiestler took control of Norfolk Naval Shipyard, located in Portsmouth, Va. It is the oldest continuously operating naval shipyard, having opened in 1767.

Kiestler is a 1981 graduate of Puyallup’s Rogers High School. Married with four children, he is the son of Patricia Mashburn of Puyallup.

According to a Navy news release, Kiestler supervises approximately 1,000 Navy personnel and 8,000 civil servants who repair, or support the repair, of aircraft carriers and submarines in Virginia, and throughout the world.

The other three American naval shipyards are Pearl Harbor, Portsmouth and, of course, our own Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.

Local troops in the news today:

3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:
4th Brigade Combat Team welcomes new commander during ceremony at Fort Polk (Alexandria Town Talk)

14th Battalion, 555th Engineer Brigade:
1st Cavalry's 4th Brigade Combat team honors FALLEN at memorial (Killeen Daily Herald)

Navy:
Band to salute Navy vet (The Olympian)

62nd Security Forces Squadron
On the Way to the Market (DVIDS)

From the Department of Defense;

Rear Adm. (lower half) Timothy M. Giardina, who has been selected for promotion to rear admiral, will be assigned as director, readiness and training, N4/N7, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Va. Giardina is currently serving as commander, Submarine Group Nine/commander, Submarine Group Ten, Silverdale, Wash.

The U.S. Navy has been shrinking since the end of the Cold War, yet the service is tasked with a wider array of responsibilities. Its ships track Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa or smugglers from South America. Its engineers manage building projects on every continent. And more sailors are stationed in the Middle East than on ships.

It’s part of an evolution that increases the emphasis on "soft power," or projecting American influence through cooperation, the chief of staff of Navy Region Northwest said during a speech in Tacoma on Tuesday.

"Twenty years ago, we were prepared for a showdown with the Soviet Union," Capt. Peter Blake Rush said. "Today we also focus on piracy, disaster relief, anti-smuggling."

Rush was speaking Tuesday at a meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Tacoma, which was presenting the Howard O. Scott Citizen-Soldier of the Year award. That honor went to Tech. Sgt. Joan Colon, an Air Force Reserve mortuary specialist with the 446th Airlift Wing.

Navy Region Northwest oversees installations in Whidbey Island, Everett, Bremerton, Bangor and Indian Island, near Port Townsend. More than 20,000 active-duty sailors and 3,700 reservists are assigned to the state, and the estimated annual contribution to the Puget Sound economy is $4 billion.

The overall size of the Navy, though, is waning. During the 1980s, it boasted 568 ships and about 500,000 active-duty sailors.

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Flipper and Co. could be guarding a Navy base near you.

The Navy wants to use dolphins and sea lions to help guard Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. The program – officially called the Swimmer Interdiction Security System – was first proposed in February 2007. An environmental impact statement will be presented to members of the public in Silverdale on Feb. 11 and in SeaTac on Feb. 12.

From the Kitsap Sun:

The Navy is considering five options: California sea lions and Atlantic bottlenose dolphins; just sea lions; combat swimmers; remotely operated vehicles; and no change. The sea lions-only option was added after the public suggested it in 2007, said Navy spokeswoman Sheila Murray.

The no-action option wouldn’t comply with terrorism-related requirements enacted after the September 11th attacks. The Bangor base, with 4 miles of shoreline, houses eight nuclear-missile submarines, two conventional-missile subs and one spy sub.

The Navy’s preferred alternative is dolphins and sea lions. It has used them for 40 years — including at Bangor’s sister base in Kings Bay, Ga. — while combat swimmer and ROV programs would have to be developed.

The Sun has been all over this story. Check out much more detail in Monday's article.

(Photo: Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd Class Shawn McDonald, a marine mammal handler assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 1, uses tactile reinforcement to bond with his Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. The mammals are participating in extreme shallow water operations during Rim of the Pacific 2008. Photo by U.S. Navy.)

Michelle Kane and her three children arrived at Sea-Tac Airport from their Hood Canal home early Tuesday to board a festively decorated charter bound for Southern California.

“They’ve been looking forward to this all year ¬ really since last year’s trip,” said Kane, 30.

Hers is not a typical American family enjoying a traditional early holiday getaway to Disneyland. The flight was one of six charters stopping in 23 cities Tuesday as part of Snowball Express, a nonprofit that sends children of service members killed in Iraq or Afghanistan on an all-expense trip to the theme park branded as “the happiest place on earth.”

The Kanes needed a big boost of happiness as Christmas approached in 2006.

Two months earlier, Staff Sgt. Joseph Kane had been killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Iraq.

Michelle’s life was in disarray. She and the kids moved to Allyn from Fort Hood, Texas, to be closer to family.

That’s when they took their first ride on Snowball Express.

“This was the first big thing we did since his death,” Kane said. “We were in a jumbled mess. This was really the kids’ Christmas present. It was kind of like their dad’s Christmas gift to them, in a way.”

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The F/A-18D Hornet that crashed into a suburban San Diego neighborhood Monday was returning to a Marine base after training on an Everett-based carrier.

The pilot was returning from the USS Abraham Lincoln before noon when he ejected above the neighborhood. The crash has killed three people.

(There’s obviously tons of more information elsewhere. I just wanted to point out the local connection.)

Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy

For years, Eugene Morgan didn’t talk much about his experiences aboard the USS Indianapolis.

The Seattle man served aboard the Portland-class cruiser during World War II including on July 30, 1945, when the ship came under attack from a Japanese submarine and sank in the Pacific Ocean near the Marianas Islands.

Morgan was one of 317 survivors among the crew of almost 1,200. Eventually, as the anti-war sentiment waned in the decades following the Vietnam War, he began to share his story.

Nearly a decade ago, he shared it with his grandson, Jason Witty of Puyallup.

Witty joined the Navy after graduating from Puyallup High School 11 years ago. Today he’s a machinist mate 1st class.

Morgan died of a heart attack in June at age 87. Among his last wishes was to be buried at sea near the spot of the Indianapolis’ sinking.

His grandson fulfilled that request earlier this month.

=> Read more!

The Navy will commission a Virginia-class attack submarine, the USS New Hampshire, on Saturday in Maine.

And a Tacoma native, Cmdr. Mike Stevens, will be its inaugural commanding officer.

"This is a longtime dream for me," Stevens told seacoastonline.com "Submarines provide the best opportunity to command a ship at sea. When you're 4,000 miles out to sea, you really can't turn to anyone else for guidance. You have to rely on your own abilities, and that appeals to me. You have autonomy."

According to a Navy release, the 7,800-ton New Hampshire "will significantly contribute to the mission areas of anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; special operations forces; strike; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; irregular warfare; and mine warfare."

Stevens will lead a crew of 134. The submarine is 337 feet long and can operate at depths greater than 800 feet.

UPDATE: I was looking for more info about Stevens, to no avail. And by the time I got the release, I couldn't reach anyone in Navy public affairs.

The Peninsula Daily News has an interesting piece about a squabble between the Navy and Jefferson County residents over an expanded undersea warfare test range in the Hood Canal.

Residents worry that expanded range would limit recreational and commercial water access.

From the article, the proposed changes are:

● The Dabob Bay Range Complex on Hood Canal -- comprised of the north and south military operating areas near Naval Base Kitsap Bangor and the area in Dabob Bay -- would increase from about 32.7 square nautical miles to 45.7 square nautical miles, and the number of days used per year would remain the same, at 200.

● The Quinault Underwater Tracking Range between Pacific Beach in Grays Harbor County and Kalaloch in West Jefferson County would increase from about 48 square nautical miles to 1,840 under the preferred alternative to the full size of a current military air space on nautical charts.

● The Keyport range site would increase from 1.7 square miles to 3.7 square miles, and the average use would increase by five days, to 60 days per year.

Check out the article if you get a chance. Lots of good context in there.

Bremerton hosts its 60th annual Armed Forces Day parade on Saturday, May 17, beginning at 10 a.m. The parade route runs through downtown.

The Navy's big boss, Chief of Naval Operations Gary Roughead, is the grand marshal.

Other entries highlighted by the Bremerton Chamber of Commerce:

• A Washington National Guard M1A1 Abrams tank.

• A military aircraft flyover.

• Bremerton's own Navy City Roller Girls roller derby team.

The USS Abraham Lincoln and two other Everett-based Navy ships are on their way to the box March 13 for a global war on terrorism rotation, the Navy said this afternoon.

They could be in for a little extra action if their path takes them anywhere near the Russian air force.

Anyway, the Lincoln, the USS Momsen and the USS Shoup pull out next week and will head to San Diego to link up with the other ships of the Lincoln Strike Group, the Navy said in a press release.

Other Puget Sound Naval units with the task force include Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 131 from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.