CENTRAL KITSAP –In an era of shrinking military budgets, Naval Base Kitsap is a growth area. That’s what Capt. Thomas Zwolfer, commanding officer for NBK, told attendees at a Bremerton Chamber of Commerce meeting May 19.

Zwolfer said one of the questions people often asked him was about the “B-word.” That’s B for “BRAC,” an acronym for “Base Realignment and Closure.”

“Is Naval Base Kitsap going to be BRAC-ed? To my knowledge, no,” Zwolfer said.

“Defense (overall) has been shrinking over the last 10 years. You can look at the defense budgets. You can look at the number of ships,” Zwolfer said.

Zwolfer showed a slide detailing increased activity and growth at NBK.

“You can see that Naval Base Kitsap has been growing over the last 10 years. And we have the largest military construction project going on in the Navy right now – that’s the EHW-2 (Explosives Handling Wharf 2) pier that’s being built up in Bangor. We just completed the PIDAS fence (Perimeter Intrusion Detection Assessment System), which is the large security fence up in Bangor … I don’t think that we have much to worry about there.”

“I’m not in congress so I don’t get to make that decision, but if you look at what’s really going on at the base there I think we’re a growth industry right now in the Defense Department.”

Zwolfer, a 1988 graduate of the Naval Academy, served as commanding officer of the USS Bremerton submarine and later worked at the Pentagon before taking on his current role as commanding officer for NBK.

Zwolfer said his job was to be the “landlord” for NBK. That meant handling maintenance and security on the base.

He gave a brief run-down on why the base was important.

NBK encompasses five local major areas: the Bangor submarine base, Bremerton with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility and aircraft carriers, a fuel depot at Manchester, research and torpedo maintenance facilities at Keyport and housing at Jackson Park.

Additionally, NBK includes two areas outside of Washington state: the Southeast Alaska Acoustic Measurement Facility in Ketchikan, Alaska, as well as radio towers in British Columbia, Canada.

“I would argue that besides being the third-largest base we’re probably the most complex base. We have the most missions of any other base in the United States,” Zwolfer said.

“The strategic deterrence mission in the Pacific has increased in importance. We’ve gone from six Trident ballistic missile submarines to eight. We also have two of the guided missile submarines.”

The Ohio-class ballistic submarine mission was a key leg of the nuclear deterrent triad. The Air Force provides the other two legs with bombers and Minutemen missiles.

“We’re here to stay for a long time with that mission,” Zwolfer said of the Ohio-class submarines.

Decommissioning older submarines will also be a factor at NBK.

“We anticipate that we will see a continual inflow of submarines over probably the next five to 10 years as the Los Angeles class submarines start to decommission.”

Zwolfer said NBK was unique in that it hosted all three types of submarines – ballistic, guided missile and fast attack.

“There’s no other submarine base in the U.S. that has all three types of submarines. We also have the Seawolf class. There’s only three of those and all three of those are here.”

“We’re also the only base on the west coast that has a dry dock that’s capable of docking a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. So all the carriers in the Pacific eventually make their way to Naval Base Kitsap.”

“The Nimitz will be here for about a year and a half and then she’ll leave and then I think about six months later we’re going to get another carrier. I don’t know which one yet … it’s going to be pretty cyclic like that between one and two aircraft carriers probably for about the next 10 years.”

Economic impact of NBK

NBK has 1,853 buildings spread out over 11,200 acres.

Citing 2009-era data, Zwolfer said NBK had a huge economic impact on the area. NBK’s annual payroll was more than $2.3 billion for its 14,500 military personnel, 17,000 civilian personnel and 7,500 contractors.

The direct impact outside the base, Zwolfer said, provided for 21,700 jobs and $833 million in earnings, with an output of another $2.3 billion.

The the Navy’s total economic impact in Kitsap County – both inside and outside the base – was thus more than $4.6 billion per year.

70 tenants and ‘packed to the gills’

Zwolfer said NBK had around 70 tenants including members of the Coast Guard, Marines and the Army.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Maritime Force Protection Unit provided surface escort for the submarines under way from Bangor until they reached the vicinity of Port Angeles, he said.

A contingent of 1,100 sailors and Marines at Bangor provided security for the Trident missile system.

“My smallest tenant command is the Army veterinary clinic which is 11 people. And I mention them because with the Army I have almost every service on board the base with the exception of the Air Force.”

Zwolfer joked that he asked Air Force recruiters at Kitsap Mall if they were interested in operating at NBK so all five branches could be represented by NBK. They declined.

Submarine workers and support staff comprised the largest share of NBK’s uniformed personnel. Personnel with the Stennis and Nimitz carriers comprised about 20 percent each of NBK personnel. Hospitals and clinic staff were the fourth-largest group on NBK.

The addition or removal of a single carrier at the base “has a significant impact on the installation because it’s about 20 percent of our total population that we serve,” Zwolfer said.

With both the Stennis and Nimitz here, “Bremerton is pretty much packed to the gills right now. We’re designed to have two aircraft carriers but it’s very, very tight.” He said the barracks were at 99.5 percent capacity.

Zwolfer said in the past NBK has hosted three carriers at a time.

The base also has a bowling alley, child care, access to education and two free museums: The Puget Sound Navy Museum and Naval Undersea Museum.

“If you had asked me 25 years ago when I joined the submarine force if I thought I’d be managing child development centers or bowling alleys I probably would have laughed and said, ‘Well, I drive submarines.’ But those fall underneath my responsibility.”

Increasing base energy efficiency with LED lighting and geothermal heating and cooling and working with tribal governments for fishing and shellfish harvesting were also some of Zwolfer’s duties.

Zwolfer concluded saying NBK’s features made it the “home port of choice” for those working there.