COVERING PUGET SOUND NAVAL NEWS FOR BREMERTON | BANGOR | KEYPORT
Kitsap
VOLUME 1, NO. 45 | 3 FEBRUARY 2012
www.kitsapnavynews.com STENNIS ABROAD
Partied-out sailor jumps into wrong bed By GREG SKINNER gskinner@soundpublishing.com
A long Saturday night of whiskey, beer and video games ended with a shriek when a drunken sailor passed out in the bed of an unwitting senior citizen. Dalton Pierson, 24, left his buddy’s apartment in the Vineyards complex sometime around 6 a.m. Sunday and entered a neighboring abode where he stopped to pee in one bedroom before crawling into bed with 80-year-old Evelyn Whitey in another, according to
SEE BED | PAGE 2
Aviation Electronics Technician 3rd Class Jonathan Fox, assigned to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), plays basketball with boys and staff members at Boy’s Town during a community service event in Singapore. See stories abot Stennis’ visit and liberty on page 2. U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 3RD CLASS KENNETH ABBATE
Navy’s Keyport Range Complex faces federal lawsuit By JJ Swanson jswanson@soundpublishing.com
Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit Jan. 25 on behalf of six environmental groups, including the People for Puget Sound, challenging the Navy’s underwater warfare training exercises in the Keyport Range Complex. The Navy was permitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2010 to conduct tactical training operations in the area. Activities include the use of sonar as part of training to detect submerged submarines and mines, said Sheila Murray, spokeswoman for Navy Region Northwest. Sonar is critical in Navy’s operations to “protect global commerce and the nation’s security, in addition to Navy
and other ships,” Murray said. However, environmentalists with the Puget Sound group argue that the impact on endangered species is too high and that the NMFS did not do its job in protecting endangered species such as orcas and leatherback turtles as well as non-endangered fish populations from Navy training through the language of its permits. Earthjustice is suing National Marine Fisheries Service for issuing permits to the Navy which give the military “unrestricted access to areas that are sensitive habits without ensuring the proper protections,” said Heather Trim, director of policy for People For Puget Sound. She added that marine fisheries service has the years of expertise on staff and decades of research on native species so they know the “specific breeding,
feeding and migration” patterns and how they should be protected. “The Navy proposes to do its exercise, but it is NMFS’s job is to use it’s scientific wildlife expertise to ensure protection. They know where these species are,” said Kristen Boyles, attorney for Earthjustice. “Our contention is that they didn’t do their job.” NMFS could not be reached for comment. The area where the Navy trains includes the Dabob Bay Range Complex Site on Hood Canal and the Quinault Underwater Tracking Range Site situated along the Pacific Coast in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. The lawsuit focuses on the Quinault range which was expanded to 38 times its
SEE LAWSUIT | PAGE 8
THIS EDITION Stennis leaves Singapore cultured .................pg. 2 Ode to the soon-to-disappear Bravo Charlies ........pg. 4 Joint Chairman, transition challenges ahead ...pg. 7 USS Maine’s demise to remain mystery ......pg. 9