THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610090148
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 164 lines
THERE'S A SMALL military city off Ballahack Road in Chesapeake, but few people know about it.
Its presence here gives the city the right to participate in Fleet Week festivities this week in observance of the Navy's 201st birthday.
Naval Security Group Activity Northwest rises out of the cultivated fields and woodlands in the southern part of the city.
On approaching the facility, the first thing one notices is a squat, modern structure with a spire rising above it. That's the base's chapel. Next to it, there are about 140 modern housing units, a medical/dental complex in mid-construction and a new state-of-the-art child development/day care center.
The base has a jazzy, red McDonald's Express restaurant and a small bank kiosk. Beyond that, there's the facility's guard house, where incoming vehicles stop to be checked.
Inside the facility, Marines in camouflage fatigues jog to their duties, sailors in crisp, white uniforms mill about, Navy officers and chiefs in khakis walk by, children run to catch a school bus, and civilians go about their business.
The place has its own fire department, swimming pool, tennis courts, weight training rooms, baseball fields, ambulance service, movie theater, police force, post office, credit union, family/youth services program, housing office, gas station and combination department/grocery store.
Chesapeake's only Navy base is virtually self-contained.
``All we get off base is power from Virginia Power, and if they went off we could generate our own,'' said the base's civilian environmental engineer, Richard Turner. ``We're a city on a small scale. We're even modernizing our housing to make them more efficient geothermal units. We also use wells, and we have two water-treatment plants.''
As part of its mission for self-sufficiency and to act as careful stewards of its environment, Turner said he and his colleague, Pam Couch, the base's civilian natural resources specialist, have helped implement an extensive recycling and conservation program.
``We try not to throw anything away,'' said Senior Chief Mary F. Wadsworth, who oversees the base's community outreach programs. ``We monitor all our waste disposal. We keep track of everything.
``All of our benches, for example, are made out of recycled materials,'' said Robert A. Long, a Tacoma, Wash., native. ``We don't waste a thing.''
Ask most folks in Chesapeake if they know about NSGA Northwest and you'll get a blank stare. Personnel at the base sometimes refer to the facility as ``Chesapeake's best-kept secret.''
``When I talk to some Chamber of Commerce members, they either have no idea we're here or, if they've heard of us, they have no idea where we are or what kind of facility we are,'' said Senior Chief Sean K. Wines.
``I get the reaction of surprise when I tell people that the city has its own Navy base,'' said Sharon Hoggard, public information coordinator for the city of Chesapeake. ``They usually want to know where and what it is. Most people aren't aware of it at all.''
Base officials want to increase NSGA Northwest's visibility in the community. That's the purpose of the many public service and public outreach programs supervised by Wadsworth.
``Any major event in the city, and we're there,'' Wadsworth said proudly. ``We have great concern for the community. You learn in the Navy to take care of your own shipmate. We just carry that idea further to include the community. We've always believed in sharing our resources.''
Wadsworth wasn't just bragging.
``Last year, we won the Volunteer Group of the Year Award from Volunteer Hampton Roads,'' she said. ``Then we have individuals who coach youth recreational sports teams and work with Scouts.''
Over the years, the facility has been active in Clean the Bay Day, the Chesapeake Jubilee, Chesapeake Public Libraries, Harborfest, the Neptune Festival, Special Olympics, Paint Your Heart Out Chesapeake, the Day of Caring, Autumn Care - Great Bridge, Meals On Wheels, Black History Month, Adopt-A-Highway, National Night Out Against Crime and Earth Day.
Each year, the base holds a variety of holiday observances at its chapel, which is used regularly by the neighboring community. Base personnel work with the Red Cross at Christmas and Thanksgiving, helping fill and deliver food baskets and participating in relief campaigns for the city's needy.
The base participates in educational partnerships with several local public schools and invites upper-class and graduate students from all over the country to study there.
``We took first place in school partnership from the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce,'' Turner said. ``Last year, we brought in over 700 area students and (Boy and Girl) Scouts into our facility for nature, conservation and environmental study.''
Base personnel engage in role model/tutor and partnership programs with Hickory Elementary School and a partnership program with Great Bridge High School, Turner said.
It offers environmental/earth sciences studies for upper-class and post-graduate college students through a special program with the national Student Conservation Association.
``We've hosted over 30 students, who come and spend several weeks with us,'' Turner said. ``We've gotten students from Old Dominion University, Oregon State, Penn State, Ohio State, North Carolina State, UNC-Wilmington, Oklahoma State and many, many others.''
``We have a great relationship with the city,'' said Capt. Sharon A. Peyronel, the facility's commanding officer. ``Mayor (William E.) Ward, other members of the council and city government have been out here many times. Hopefully, we're a good citizen.''
Peyronel has 460 Navy and about 100 Coast Guard personnel under her command. During training sessions, the base has an additional 200 to 300 Marine trainees. It also has a smattering of Air Force, Army and even foreign military personnel, and it employs 170 civilian workers.
Situated on 3,900 acres of farm land, forest, wetlands and swamp, base officials are proud of its programs in conservation, responsible wildlife/land stewardship and recycling.
It's been so effective in its maintenance of land and wildlife that Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt made a visit to the facility last year to praise its efforts.
Under Couch and Turner's supervision, NSGA Northwest has been actively engaged in threatened and endangered species management, migratory bird study, wetlands conservation and enhancement, fisheries management at its own small man-made lake, Atlantic white cedar planting and regeneration, a prescribed burning program and a program to lease agricultural land.
It also strictly manages about 2,000 acres of open-to-the-public hunting grounds complete with 81 hunting stands, offers extensive camping for area Boy and Girl Scouts and includes a three-quarter-mile nature boardwalk used by nature lovers and college students.
``This is a sportsmen's paradise,'' Long said. ``Living here is like living in the woods. It's nice and quiet here. I love it. It reminds me of my home.''
Although the Navy wants everyone to know about the base's educational, civic and environmental work, its main mission is somewhat secret.
The name ``Security Group Activity'' means the base is chock-full of high-tech listening, transmitting and cryptological equipment manned by skilled technicians who are on constant loan to other nearby military installations, fleets and overseas bases and deployments.
``We send people to augment crews,'' Peyronel said. ``They bring in their own particular brand of expertise. Training and skills they receive here.''
The base provides vital communications for the Navy and Defense Communications Systems along with direction-finding assistance to navigational aid and air-sea rescue missions, said Long, who has been working at the base's communications center for two years. It's a Coast Guard communications base and a top secret electronic warfare operational programming facility as well, he added.
``We provide information and warfare support to the fleet and the joint command,'' Peyronel said. ``We're a major hub for communications for the fleet and shore.''
In addition, the base is a training area for Marine Corps security forces. According to Marine Warrant Office Phil Grasty, in charge of the base's pistol and shotgun ranges, the base trains Marine security personnel that are sent all over the world.
The range, which is considered one of the best open-air firing ranges in the area, is also used by Chesapeake law enforcement personnel.
Beside firearms training, Grasty said Marines are given instructions in anti-terrorism, physical security and the use of deadly force along with skills in hand-to-hand combat.
As both a Marine security training center and an important communications center for the Navy, NSGA Northwest is in little danger of falling victim to the Navy's down-sizing effort.
The base has recently taken on the work of the Charleston, S.C., NSGA, which was closed, and will soon receive the mission from a similar facility based in Hawaii.
``We're here to stay,'' Peyronel said. ``We're getting a lot of high-tech jobs. We're expanding. We have a good future and there's lots of great things happening on this base, for both the Navy and the community.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos including color cover by L. TODD SPENCER
Besides offering important communications support, the base also is
the site for Marine personnel to be trained in various security
skills, such has weapons use.
Like the self-contained community it is, the base has a fast-food
franchise. by CNB