The City of Bremerton officially welcomed the USS Bremerton to its namesake city with a ceremony at the Norm Dicks Building March 2.

About 50 civilians, retired Navy and sailors from the Bremerton were on-hand to recognize the Bremerton.

“We love the Navy here and we love having you here,” said Ed Wolfe, county commissioner. “It’s wonderful. Thanks for being here. Thanks for everything you do.”

The Bremerton arrived Feb. 25 and left March 3 for its homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“I would first like to start out saying what a great honor it is to first off be affiliated with a city, a community that has such great support for the military overall,” said Cmdr. Wes Bringham, commanding officer of the Bremerton. “It really is something special that we’re able to pull into our namesake city. It’s like a second home port for us.”

The Bremerton has a crew of 148, 89 percent of whom were born after it was commissioned in March 1981. While young, they’re quite capable, Bringham said.

“They’re just like the city we’re from: they’re proud, they’re dedicated, loyal, friendly,” Bringham said. “And it’s the honor of the lifetime to be able to lead this ship and call myself the captain of the Bremerton.”

The Navy League awarded four sailors with awards for excellence. CS2 Kory Wilson, culinary excellence; MM2 Mason Dixon, engineering excellence; ET2 Logan Neve, navigation excellence; STS2 Shane Madak, weapons excellence.

ETSN Dmitri Yuhasz was awarded his “dolphins,” an insignia worn by sailors qualified as submariners.

At 34 years old, the Bremerton is in the twilight of its career.

Several in attendance expect it to be decommissioned within five years.

After which the city is going to try to bring it back to Bremerton, said Greg Wheeler, city council president.

Wheeler said he’d like to see entire submarine  or pieces  of it back in Bremerton for display.

Also in attendance was former Kitsap County Commissioner Matt Ryan, 80, who served aboard the original USS Bremerton, a Baltimore-class cruiser, following the Korean War.

Ryan recounted a story from his 20-year career that delighted the crowd.

The last ship he was on was the USS Torsk, a World War II-era diesel-powered submarine.

During a night operation, two other ships, a carrier and an oiler, were conducting an underway replenishment.

“Right before the exercise started, the admiral (who was on the carrier) got on the radio and said … ‘Sorry we couldn’t get you a real submarine. This is an old World War II boat.’

“And so it was a night operation and they were doing underway replenishment –oiler on one side and carrier on the other and screening destroyers – and we surfaced on just about the horizon, pull up on the scope lights like we were a fishing boat and drove right straight toward it.

“And then we got even with the screen we fired the green flares and dove and went under the carrier and the oiler who were parting their hoses and then the thing was over.”

The angry admiral asked “Where did you get the idea to pull a stunt like this?”

“Our CO was back there smoking his pipe and he says ‘well admiral you did tell them it was a World War II submarine so we used World War II tactics.’”