Nuclear carrier GW on voyage of diplomacy to Japan

NORFOLK

When the George Washington ties up in Yokosuka, Japan, in August, it will become the first nuclear-powered carrier based in the only nation ever to be attacked by nuclear weapons.

While its departure Monday from the East Coast brings both a sentimental and financial loss, its relocation to the Far East means the ship’s crew must bring along as much diplomacy as weaponry.

“What people don’t understand they sometimes fear,” said Rear Adm. Philip Cullom, commander of the George Washington Strike Group. “Sometimes it’s a matter of articulating the story so that people understand it.”

The carrier’s arrival in Japan comes as the Navy looks to improve its reach in the western Pacific and “brings a considerable increase in capability,” said Capt. Dave Dykhoff, the ship’s commanding officer. It will replace the Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s last conventionally powered carrier, which is due to be decommissioned.

Without the need for constant refueling, the George Washington can cover greater distances through the region at higher speeds, Dykhoff said.

It also will be on higher alert once it arrives in Japan as part of the Navy’s new maritime strategy. Technically, the ship could arrive one day and deploy the next. This means safer shipping lanes, deterrence of regional conflicts and more security for Asian nations and, ultimately, the United States, Dykhoff said.

After leaving Norfolk, the strike group heads first to Rio de Janeiro, where it will participate in an exercise with forces from Brazil and Argentina. From there, it will go to Valparaiso, Chile, then on to San Diego, Honolulu and Guam before reaching Yokosuka.

While many of the supply needs on this trip are no different from a standard deployment, the personnel issues are. Along the way, crew members will be coming on and leaving the ship in unusually high numbers. The largest swap will come in Honolulu, when about 900 sailors will “cross deck” between the Kitty Hawk and the George Washington.

Such large-scale moves present puzzles for the officers responsible for making sure the ships are staffed properly to deploy quickly if the need arises.

The George Washington has been homeported in Norfolk since its construction in the early 1990s.

It departs alone; no air wings or other strike group ships will relocate with it. Its move leaves four carriers based in Norfolk.

Since the George Washington will not be replaced in the foreseeable future, this means a loss of roughly 3,200 local jobs. Greg Grootendorst of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission estimates the annual tab for this at about $430 million for the region.

In Japan, the effects of the carrier’s arrival will be less tangible but no less real.

Since 2005, when the Japanese government accepted the Navy’s request to replace the Kitty Hawk, the U.S. government has had to carefully consider which carrier would replace it.

Several candidates came loaded with political baggage.

The Norfolk-based Harry S. Truman was sensitive because of President Truman’s decision to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. The San Diego-based Nimitz is named for Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, who played a key role in the same war, as did Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose namesake ship is now based in Norfolk.

Theodore Roosevelt, whose namesake ship also is based in Norfolk, negotiated what many Japanese thought was an unfair treaty to end the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. The Carl Vinson and the John C. Stennis were named for chairmen of congressional armed services committees.

The carrier George H.W. Bush, which has yet to enter service, was named for a man who, long before becoming president, flew Navy bombers in battles with the Japanese. Norfolk’s Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered carrier to visit Japan, stirred up protests in the port of Sasebo in 1968.

The choice of the innocuously named George Washington hasn’t completely defused the controversy. A group in Yokosuka has been collecting signatures to keep the ship from docking there but so far has been rebuffed by the City Council.

Once the George Washington was agreed upon, the Navy set to work on the diplomacy.

“The public affairs piece is significant,” Dykhoff said. “There’s a, I would say, vocal minority in Japan that are opposed to stationing a nuclear-powered ship there. Certainly we all understand the sensitivities in Japan on the nuclear-weapons issue.”

The Navy’s task, he said, is to distinguish between nuclear weapons and nuclear power, which is readily embraced in Japan, and to be forthcoming about security provisions.

“The easiest thing, the best thing, is to tell the truth,” added Cullom, the strike group commander. “It’s pretty clear that nuclear propulsion is something we’re accustomed to working with. We’ve done it for many years. We have very high, rigorous standards and training.”

He noted that the Enterprise, a nuclear carrier roughly the same age as the Kitty Hawk, has operated safely for nearly half a century.

Another piece of the diplomacy is teaching the sailors who are moving to Japan about their new host country.

The ship’s Web site offers language and cultural instruction, as well as nuts-and-bolts information on driving, moving and the like. Professors from the Naval Postgraduate School will ride for part of the trip to Japan, educating the crew in the cultural nuances that will make for better relations.

Crew members with prior experience in the western Pacific have already begun teaching.

Chief Petty Officer Bradley Donaldson, who oversees the regulation of the ship’s gauges and electronics, spent eight years in Japan and is married to a Japanese woman. He’s been fielding questions on topics such as language, culture, food, money and liberty policies.

Sailors have also been questioning the Japanese government engineers who spent the past week reviewing the carrier’s systems.

Eito Hirokazu and Yoshida Kouichi said they’ve been asked about language, crime, travel, bars, driving, television and Japanese animation. They know they’ll be answering questions back in Japan as well.

“Many people worry about when the nuclear ship is coming, that the sea will be polluted by the reactor plant or the air, or that many Japanese working on the ship will get reactor radiation,” Hirokazu said.

“But it’s not true. It’s better for us to talk to people, to get out the information about the true facts.”

As for the sailors themselves, general excitement trumps all else.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Aaron Gaskins of Landover Hills, Md., said he’s looking forward to the “new experiences of seeing another culture that’s far different from the States.”

Petty Officer 2nd Class Kumba Calvin of Greenville, Miss., agreed.

“That’s what I joined the Navy for.”

Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com