Carrier, gator among 13 options for Mayport

[unhappycamper]

A glimpse at Mayport’s future?
Options include homeporting assault ships


Carrier, gator among 13 options for Mayport
By Mark D. Faram - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 27, 2008 20:20:07 EDT

NAVAL STATION MAYPORT, Fla. — Navy officials have identified 12 possible plans for moving new ships into Naval Station Mayport, Fla. — but reserve the right to do nothing at all.

It’s all outlined in a Navy environmental impact study scheduled to be released Friday, a draft copy of which was obtained by Navy Times. In it, the service that spells out everything from leaving the base alone to options that not only homeport a nuclear carrier in Mayport, but also add seven more surface ships as well — including a large-deck amphibious ship to the base’s dwindling ship population — and more than 7,000 sailors.

“It’s a beautiful EIS, in that it does outline a lot of options and leaves the door open for the Navy to do a variety of things here,” said John Meserve, mayor of Atlantic Beach, the city outside Mayport’s gates and a retired Navy captain who commanded Mayport’s naval air station from 1987 to 1990.

“But that’s also the problem with the study. It leaves all the doors open. The Navy has yet to make a decision or state when they plan to do so, nor given a timetable as to when they will.”

If left alone, Mayport’s dwindling population of ships is going to continue to decline, and that worries local officials. When the study began in 2006, the last full year of service for the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, there were 22 ships based there, with 13,272 sailors calling the area home.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/03/navy_mayportoptions_032708w/