SMOKEY POINT – They say Norfolk, Va., San Diego, CA, and even Everett are Navy towns.
But Marysville has its own little Navy town – known as the Navy Support Complex Smokey Point.
Customers are mostly retired veterans from all branches, but it’s also for active military and their spouses.
Many active military at the Navy base in Everett live in the Marysville and Arlington areas.
For many of the workers at this base, it’s all about serving those who serve.
Among the services are:
Commissary
The busiest place on the base is probably the commissary, where military personnel can get groceries and other items at a discount.
Eric Jenkins, the assistant commissary officer, said the store sells about 100,000 items a week, bringing in $210,000, with most items about 25 percent lower than at other local grocery stores.
He said other stores may drop prices on an item to equal what the commissary can do, but they make it up on other products.
“They take a loss to get you in with the hope you will buy more,” he said.
Jenkins said about 50 people work there, along with 20 contractors. “I love serving military people,” he said on why he works there.
Navy Exchange
Robin Dale is the general manager here. “We carry a little bit of everything,” she said, standing in an aisle with a big display of Seahawks gear.
Dale said one advantage of shopping there is no sales tax. Another is they match anyone else’s price. And yet another is 70 percent of the profits goes back into military programs.
“That’s giving back to their own cause,” she said.
The store is like most huge department stores, carrying electronics, men’s and women’s clothes, major appliances, perfume, purses and more.
Dale said all veterans will be able to shop and get discount prices online starting Nov. 11.
“That’s huge,” she said, adding people can find out how my going to vetverify.com.
Like Jenkins, Dale said her customers are great.
“Our mission is to take care of our special customers,” she said.
Fleet and Family Support Center
This department of about 20 employees offers many programs: Relocation assistance, personal finance, deployment support, employment readiness, family advocacy and life skills. There is also new parent support, transition assistance, counseling and command support.
Under those titles classes they offer include: Combat stress awareness, family victim advocate services, parenting classes, stress and anger management, family violence prevention education, couple’s communication, family counseling, sexual assault victim intervention and more.
Many of their programs are proactive and educational.
“A lot don’t know about our services,” Diane Brown said.
Kay Simpkins said there is a stigma that many military personnel have that they can’t seek help or they will be perceived as weak or get in trouble with their superiors. Simpkins said that is not true. She said military personnel can self-refer.
“It’s confidential. The command doesn’t need to know,” she said. “They can retain their career.”
However, if they get in trouble and are ordered to seek help, then the center has to tell the command.
Vivian Trappe added that the local base has an exceptional ombudsman program. “It’s in direct connection with the ship,” she said, adding it can help with even fairly minor family issues, such as a car breaking down, and a wife not knowing what to do.
Simpkins said that is huge. “It was tough in those days to get help,” she said of when her husband entered the military. They said the busiest class is the one that deals with transition. Their Placement Services is able to find jobs for a handful of sailors each week as their military terms end.
She said the “grandma squad” is one of her favorites, as they help moms with babies whose real grandmas live too far away to help.
Navy Gateway Inns and Suites
General Manager Marion Green said the inn is popular with people who want to go to the Tulalip Casino, but don’t want to spend the money to stay there. The inn just went through a major renovation, so there are 72 rooms with all the amenities, including 11 with kitchens. Retirees like to stay there, along with military being trained locally and others from the Department of Defense visiting the local base.
“It’s quiet. Some might just want to get away from the grandkids for a weekend,” Green said.
Green said he retired off a Navy ship in Everett in 1999 and has been at the inn ever since, starting as a clerk.
“It’s my way of giving back,” he said, adding hotel prices there are half what they are in town.
Navy Lodge
Nyisha Jackson said military folks who stay there are usually families that are moving in and out after being transferred. There are 48 rooms that are 96 percent full in spring and summer, but only about 50 percent the rest of the year. Jackson said she likes working there compared with the civilian world because it’s “safe, organized and structured. They know they have to behave,” she said of active duty who stay there.
She also said even though the base is not gated security is high. Military and civilian police cruise the area, and there are also security cameras.
Smokey Point Chapel
Brandon Korter is one of the chaplains. He said the base offers CREDO, which stands for Chaplain Religious Education and Development Organization.
CREDO offers all types of services for sailors and their families, he said. He said the chapel offers Catholic services on Saturdays and Protestant services on Sundays. “We don’t do denominations, but commonalities,” he said, adding Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists and many others attend the services together.
Korter, who has a bachelor’s degree in Theology and a master’s in Divinity, said it’s all about the “need for God’s love.”
Korter is pastor of a Seventh Day Adventist Church in Bellingham but is working some this summer in the Navy reserve.
He said he counsels on many issues. Separation is a key problem in the military. “It wears on a family and a marriage,” he said. “There’s a lot of stress in the military. The civilian community often does not realize that enough.”
Still, he enjoys working there.
“I love people, getting to know them through fellowship and bonds,” he said.
Navy Support Complex Smokey Point:
In 1983, Congress approved the Navy’s Strategic Homeport Initiative to build additional bases and disperse the fleet. Everett was selected in 1984 to homeport a battle group. The installation was dedicated in 1994. The Navy also acquired a 52-acre site in Marysville to locate support facilities for Navy service members, families and military retirees. The Smokey Point Family Support Complex was dedicated almost 22 years ago, on Aug. 25, 1995.
The site, in addition to those featured above, includes: Navy Federal Credit Union, a gas station, Western Union, recreation center and Columbia College.
