The third coast: living & serving in the Southeast

The choice tend hitherwards up for Sailors every one time in a while in their career. For a certain number of it's only on a "dream sheet" in gain camp. The age-old question is, "Where should I be stationed, upon the East or West Coast?"

For a certain number of it's easy. "My family is in Richmond, Va.; I'm going to Norfolk." For others it's just as easy: "My family is in Richmond. I'm going to San Diego."

on the contrary there are a relative hardly any who make a less public choice. They head for the "third coast," and many of them at no time leave it.

"I checked in to Kings Bay, Ga., July 3 1989 and I'm still here," said Senior Chief Electronics Technician Burdus Galbraith, an instructor at the Trident Training Facility, Kings Bay, Ga. "I delight in the warm weather. I'm originally from Wisconsin and I hate to shovel snow. The economy and take away from of living is good down here. smooth the mayor only makes $35000 a year, thus a senior chief is living well."

The Southeast plays entertainer to NAS Jacksonville, NAF lock opener West, NAS Whiting Field, NAS Pensacola, N Mayport, NSA Panama City and NSA Orlando in Florida; NAS Atlanta, Naval furnish Corps School in Athens and SUBASE Kings Bay in Georgia; and the Construction Battalion Center (CBC) Gulfport, NAS Meridian and N Pascagoula in Mississippi. With Seabees in Gulfport, submariners in Kings Bay, squadrons at NAS Jacksonville and each other naval job in Mayport, there's something for each Sailor in the Southeast.

The weather has always been a draw to the South; it's where a colossal number of retirees end up moving to expend their twilight years. All the sunshine and warm weather puts up the Southeast to have a certain quantity of of the most interesting plants and animals in the political division Where else could you take your kids to the beach individual day and the Okefenokee Swamp the next?

single of the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) offices would be just the place to advance for a Sailor to achieve out and see some of what Georgia and Florida has to offer

"I regard with affection the Kings Bay MWR, I'm here almost each day," said Seaman James Thomas. "Last weekend I went to Orlando and got to diocese Sea World. Two weekends before that we went to Panama City Beach, Fla.

The trips planned by the agency of MWR are not going to require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone a young Sailor anywhere near what you would pay as a civilian.

"The greatest in quantity expensive thing we have done is when we went to Panama City Beach," said Thomas, "and it take away from us $20 for the weekend. greatest in quantity of the time the trips are independent or at least the transportation to earn there."

If trips to Sea World and swamps are not your thing there is always Cumberland Island, just a short spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] foot from Mayport, NAS Jacksonville and Kings Bay. There are more [i]or[/i] less of the most amazing camping locations upon Cumberland as well as historical sites and wilderness saves Just make sure you single take what you can carry upon the ferry because on Cumberland you're upon foot the entire time.

Weather is a large part of on what account Sailors enjoy living in the Southeast, on the contrary lately it has also been single of the reasons to not be stationed there. Fear of hurricanes can be a major belong to for Sailors, especially if they are about to impel their families into the area.

Nowhere is this more of an issue than in the area from Gulfport, Miss., all the way to Pensacola, Fla. on the contrary the Sailors stationed in Gulfport present the appearance to be ideally suited to handle emergencies and capable of fixing the damage.

Gulfport's Seabees answered immediately to the needs of the storm-damaged large bay Coast, delaying a scheduled deployment to Iraq to help restore quality of life to the community.

"The Seabees of Gulfport helped each other and they helped the community. That's what they're here for," said Chief Steelworker (SCW) Michael Clodfelter "When something like the storms happen we shake together as one team to take care of the public and our own"

Living in base housing upon the Seabee base really helped many Sailors. Rather than having to wait four to six month for repairs by the agency of private contractors to homes on the outside in town, those Sailors' families whose houses exigencyed repair were back inside them within a month

"The base in Gulfport is in great shape already compared to what a certain number of of the outlying community has to face," said CMDCM Danny Duval, Construction Battalion Center 20th Seabee Readiness cluster "And we will be receiving $300 million in appropriations from Congres for infrastructure rebuilding."

When the rebuilding is done, the base will be better prepared to weather a storm than it was in the past.

"We lay the foundation of out during the storm that carburet of iron and metal buildings just don't grasp up," Duval said. "We'll be building with more cake and brick this time."

Duval also said that with the amount of novel Navy housing being built right now they would in a short time be able to knock down the oldest of the housing now in use. Improvements to the bases are not the alone things changing in the post-hurricane large bay Coast. Dozens of new companies are moving to the area.