Navy Admiral stops in Pacific Northwest to see dry dock work, praises submarine community

Mitigation work on four dry docks in Kitsap is moving in the right direction, said Admiral Daryl Caudle, who leads all the Naval forces on the East Coast, homeland defense, and the Navy's Strategic forces that include nuclear-powered submarines, after a visit to Bremerton and Bangor on Friday.

Caudle was in town to tour Naval Base Kitsap facilities and attend the submarine ball in Seattle over the weekend. He said the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Reactors are looking at when they'll be able to return the dry docks to service based on the work that has been completed, and the Admiral anticipated that it will "not be very far in the future," in an interview with the Kitsap Sun Saturday.

"I think it's great progress," Caudle, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said. "I'm very pleased with the progress to date on it."

In January, the Navy announced that it suspended operations in four dry docks — the dry dock at Delta Pier in Trident Refit Facility Bangor and Dry Dock 4, 5, and 6 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard — following an annual seismic assessment. The study identified potential issues that could affect submarine maintenance work if a large earthquake hits the area.

More: Navy suspending use of 4 Kitsap submarine dry docks in light of seismic concerns

In February, the Navy started work to repair two of the four dry docks, one in Bangor and one at PSNS, and said over $76 million would be spent on three of the four dry docks.

On March 28, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday said the dry dock in Bangor will be completed in June and two other docks would be finished in April and May when answering Sen. Patty Murray's question on a subcommittee hearing to review the president's budget request. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard confirmed on April 25 that the three dry docks' mitigation work is still in process.

The Navy is doing construction that shores up the walls of the dry docks so that they won't collapse on a ship in the facility if an earthquake occurs, but can fail in a way "that controls the mechanism by which the wall would collapse," Caudle explained.

More: Navy awards $76 million for work on three dry docks cited for seismic concerns

The few months of dry dock suspension and mitigation work didn't impact any ship's maintenance period and operations, Caudle said.

"We've been able to get these repairs underway and they will complete before any impact to ship operations," Caudle said.

Earlier this year, two Los Angeles-class subs, USS Chicago and USS Key West, arrived in Bremerton for scheduled inactivation and decommissioning in the near future, following over three decades of service. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is the only installation in the world that can dismantle the Navy's nuclear subs.

Celebrate Submarine History

Besides Friday's visit in Bangor and Bremerton, Caudle spoke at the Pacific Northwest Officers’ Submarine Birthday Ball launched in Seattle on Saturday. The annual event celebrates the 123rd birthday of the nation's submarine forces. The Admiral shared his thoughts on the Navy's progress to improve gender equality in submarine forces and efforts to increase sailor's wellness with Kitsap Sun before attending the celebration event.

The U.S. Navy's first submarine, USS Holland (SS 1), was commissioned in 1900, according to Naval History and Heritage Command. The Navy welcomed its first female submarine executive officer and its first female Chief of the Boat serving on a sub in 2022. The two leaders, Amber Cowan of USS Kentucky and Angela Koogler of USS Louisiana, are both assigned to ships homeported at the Bangor base.

Caudle said he was proud to see the evolvement of women's leadership in submarine forces throughout the years. The admiral was once the chief of staff in the Pacific submarine force and was part of the decision when the Navy start integrating women into submarine forces around 2010.

More: 'Upward mobility is there': USS Kentucky now led by first woman to serve as a submarine XO

"What we have found is that women are just absolutely crushing this job on the submarine force," Caudle said, citing female sailors' extraordinary performance he's witnessed in his career. "We're looking forward to these XOs eventually becoming commanding officers, and that'll be happening here in the next couple of years...so it's been just a tremendous success story."

Addressing mental health in the military

The USS Theodore Roosevelt lost three sailors who died by suicide during the 18 months the carrier was stationed in Bremerton from 2021 to 2023. As for the Navy's effort on suicide prevention, Caudle said the Navy is looking into ways to improve the sailor's quality of service and the quality of work.

The Admiral refers to the quality of work as providing good parking, food options, technical capabilities, information technologies, tools, and training to assist sailors to master their job duties with confidence, he said.

"So they feel like they're part of a world-class organization. So they're not frustrated by the bureaucracy that can sometimes accompany a big organization like the Navy," Caudle said.

The quality of life could be offering good housing and recreational opportunities nearby and on-time paychecks, he said.

A sailor's decision to end one's life is complex, Caudle said. By working in the two directions, the Navy tried to reduce the friction that service members could face in their day-to-day life, which could contribute to the complexity in the environment, he said.

"There is nothing more impactful to the Navy than to lose one of our own through suicide. It's something we take very seriously and it's something we're going out at full speed to get after," Caudle said.

Strategic deterrence in Western Pacific

As tensions in the Western Pacific have increased in recent years, the U.S.'s strategy to utilize its Naval forces to deter its adversaries in the region becomes the spotlight of the world frequently.

Last week, the White House announced the Washington Declaration as South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the nation. The joint agreement revealed an upcoming visit of a U.S. ballistic missile submarine to South Korea to enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula, according to the White House on April 26.

The sub's upcoming visit to the country would be the first time a U.S. ballistic missile submarine docks in South Korea since the 1980s. Caudle said the visit is part of the U.S.'s commitment to its crucial partner in western Pacific, from an extended deterrence perspective, to extend the nation's strategic deterrence capability to the countries the United States views as allies and partners.

Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor is home to the nation's eight of the 14 Ohio-class SSBNs. It is unclear if a Bangor-based sub will be visiting South Korea to create the history.

The Navy does not disclose information regarding which ballistic missile sub will dock in South Korea and when the trip will occur due to operational security reasons, a spokesperson at the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense respond to Kitsap Sun's request on Sunday.

Partnership with Kitsap's community

Originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Caudle now assumes command of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command and U.S. Naval Forces Strategic Command. Caudle once served as commander of Submarine Forces before his current duties and has visited Kitsap County several times in his career.

It is important for the Navy to work with the community in Kitsap as a team to promote the country's national defense, the Admiral said.

"The Navy is just very proud of this region. We like being part of the Kitsap area. We have a long history here of conducting Navy operations out of this area, and we want to be a great partner," Caudle said.

Reporter Peiyu Lin covers the military for the Kitsap Sun. She can be reached at pei-yu.lin@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter @peiyulintw

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Admiral Daryl Caudle visits Naval Base Kitsap to inspect dry dock work