Pearl Harbor out as carrier berth

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Pearl Harbor has been ruled out as a possible new home port for a U.S. nuclear carrier under a Navy environmental study.

Conservatively, a Pearl Harbor-based nuclear carrier would have meant an annual Navy payroll of $126 million.

The Navy study, which goes out tomorrow for public comment, calls for placing three Nimitz-class nuclear carriers at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego and two in the state of Washington.

Although the final environmental impact statement doesn't specify which carriers will be berthed on the West Coast, it is believed that the USS Nimitz, the USS John C. Stennis and the USS Ronald Reagan, now under construction, will end up in San Diego.

The USS Carl Vinson probably will remain at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton near Seattle, and the USS Abraham Lincoln will stay at the Everett (Wash.) Naval Station.

The Nimitz is undergoing a three-year overhaul and refueling job at Norfolk, Va., and is expected back at San Diego in 2001.

A final decision by the Defense Department on carrier home-porting is expected in the late fall after the public comment period ends Aug. 23.

"Our goal is to have a thorough and complete analysis," said Cmdr. Dave Koontz, Navy spokesman in San Diego.

Gov. Ben Cayetano and political and business leaders several years ago met with Defense Secretary William Cohen in hopes of persuading the Pentagon to berth an aircraft carrier with its crew of nearly 3,000 in Hawaii because of the economic potential it held.

But one of the major drawbacks was the lack of an airfield to base an air wing of supporting aircraft.

Cayetano offered the possibility of joint use of Barbers Point Naval Air Station, which was turned over to civilian authorities July 1.

There are no carrier-based squadrons stationed in Hawaii, and the planes would have had to fly to the islands or the carrier would have had to sail to the West Coast for training.

San Diego is the home port of the only conventionally powered U.S. carrier -- the USS Constellation -- expected to be decommissioned in 2003.