Camden County residents reminisce Base has seen significant growth during the last 30 years

What was a base with more alligators than people is now a state of the art facility.

"I embrace the changes the Navy has brought to our community over the past 30 years," said State Representative, District 180, Cecily Hill. "The base and the local community have had a growing relationship. Camden County has grown from a sleepy country town to a small town that is progressing and has a lot going for it."

The actual project that led to high-tempo submarine operations at Kings Bay started in 1975.At that time, treaty negotiations between Spain and the United States were in progress. A proposed change to our base agreement with Spain was the withdrawal of the fleet ballistic-missile squadron, Submarine Squadron 16 from its operational base at Rota, Spain. The Chief of Naval Operations ordered studies to select a new refit site on the east coast. After close review and study, Kings Bay was chosen over 60 sites. Congress ratified the treaty to withdraw the squadron by July 1979. Before then, Kings Bay was just an inactive Army terminal to ship ammunition in case of a national emergency.

The first Navy personnel arrived in January 1978 and started preparations for the orderly transfer of property from the Army to the Navy. Naval Submarine Support Base was established in a developmental status in July 1978. The base, now called Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, occupied the entire former Army terminal and several thousand additional acres.

The USS Simon Lake (AS39) arrived in Kings Bay in May 1979. Making Kings Bay its home port four days later, the USS James Monroe (SSBN-622) entered Kings Bay and moored along side the Simon Lake for a routine refit for preparation for another deterrent patrol. Kings Bay has been operating submarine base since that day.

On Oct. 23, 1980, after an environmental impact study, King Bay was selected as the east coast site for the Ohio-class submarine. The Navy called for the construction of three commands, Trident Training Facility (TTF), Trident Refit facility (TRF) and Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic (SWFLANT). Then on Jan.15, 1989 the first Trident Submarine, USS Tennessee (SSBN734) arrived at Kings Bay. At one point in 1997, Kings Bay was the homeport to 10 Trident submarines.

With the end of the Cold War, the Navy had to reduce the size of the submarine fleet from 18 to 14. In order to achieve this, the Navy decommissioned the four oldest Ballistic Submarines and converted them to conventional (SSGN) platform. This brought the two newest submarines to the Kings Bay family, the USS Georgia and the USS Florida.

Today Kings Bay is the home to five ballistic submarines and two conventional submarines and employs 8,500 people. "When I was first arrived at Kings Bay in 1979 and took command there was a few trailers and pine forest on the base," said Retired Capt. Richard Currier. Currier was the second commanding officer on Kings Bay and was in command when the USS Simon Lake and the USS Monroe moored here. "Making do was our biggest challenge as was incorporating change," said Currier. "I had a workforce of 350 total personnel on the base when I started. When I departed, there was close to a 1,000 people working on the base."

MWR is hosting several events this month to commemorate the base's 30-year-anniversery. For more information about the drawings and events scheduled for July, call the Bowling Center at 573-9492, the Pool at 573-3001 and the Golf Course at 573-8476.