The USS George Washington has arrived in Coronado to complete a hull swap operation with the USS Ronald Reagan, which is expected to bring an influx of sailors to the city in the coming weeks.
A hull swap, in which sailors from crews of multiple ships trade places, is a practice the U.S. Navy employs to save on relocation expenses and allow sailors to remain in their homeports as ships move locations.
Neither aircraft carrier is homeported at Naval Air Station North Island: The Reagan has long been homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, and will move to Bremerton, Wash. to undergo shipyard maintenance, according to the Department of Defense.
The George Washington, meanwhile, has been in dry dock in Newport News, Virginia, since 2017. It will replace the Reagan as the forward-deployed aircraft carrier in Yokosuka. Hundreds of Japan-based sailors will transfer from the Reagan to the George Washington.
The Washington arrived in Coronado on July 10 ahead of the hull swap, which will take several weeks. During that time, more sailors than usual will be aboard NASNI.
“That’s going to cause a lot of activity,” said Coronado City Council Member Mike Donovan, who chairs the city’s Naval Complexes Coordinating Group. “The (Naval Base Coronado) CO, Capt. (Ladislao) Montero has been working with the city manager and staff to help the city absorb as many as 9,000 people who are going to be here that typically aren’t.”
Donovan spoke during his report at the July 16 meeting of the Coronado City Council.
“Now the good news is, they don’t have cars because they’re not homeported here,” Donovan said. “It’s just a matter of weeks, but we’ll see a lot more activity on the base, and also in the city.”
Donovan noted that residents have mentioned hearing increased jet noise from Naval Air Station North Island (NASNI), and said that the increase was due to summer training for midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy and other Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) students.
