Naval Base Ventura County Sponsors Media Day
By Tim Pompey
From the Pacific Coast Highway, you can’t see much of the base. Mostly the Air National Guard and its assortment of large-winged aircraft.
But drive on to what’s known as Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) and your viewpoint immediately changes. An actual city tucked into an alcove just north of Mugu Rock, what locals refer to as Point Mugu Naval Base.
It’s big. It’s varied. And with all its surrounding marshlands, it’s the beautiful home to many of the Navy’s top warfare commands. And today the media has been invited to take a tour. As part of that media, it’s the first time I’ve ever been on the base. Truly, it’s an eye-opener.
Captain Chris D. Janke, the commanding officer of NBVC, refers to himself as “mayor” of the city. He’s the officer who makes sure the base runs efficiently.
Captain Chris D. Janke, the commanding officer of Naval Base Ventura County, and Lieutenant Thomas Wieland, Command Officer, Station Channel Islands Harbor
It’s a massive job. Eighty tenants. Nineteen thousand employees (easily the largest employer in the county). Sixteen thousand facilities. Home to three Naval warfare centers. And most recently, the new interim base for the former L.A. Coast Guard Station, now known as the Blacktip station.
Janke compares the tenants at NBVC to a Target store. “I’m concerned to support them,” he explained. “Fire, police, infrastructure, utilities, security, those type of things, but I don’t necessarily get into the business of what’s inside of their store.”
As for the base’s impact on the county, it’s huge. Almost two billion dollars flow into the local economy. Sixty six percent of the NBVC workforce are civilians. In addition, the base supports a highly skilled workforce such as aerospace engineers, environmental specialists, and financial experts. Good paying jobs.
It takes a lot of air space and sea space to do training and testing for naval warfare. For instance, the sea range for this base is about 36,000 square miles. Here at Point Mugu, you can find such aircraft as the Coast Guard’s E-2D, the MQ-4C Triton for high altitude surveillance (for which they’re building a new center on the base), and even unmanned aircraft such as the Navy’s Fire Scout.
Unmanned MQ8 Fire Scout for Navy reconnaissance
It also stretches across two Naval bases. Point Mugu is aviation based. It includes a runway about two miles long that can land any aircraft in the Department of Defense. Port Hueneme is the home of the west coast Seabees, the Naval Construction Battalion Center. They have three battalions stationed there, each with about 600 soldiers.
In addition to the Navy, another branch of the U.S. military has recently been added. According to Captain Kent Everingham, commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco, the Coast Guard came here after they lost their lease at L.A.X.
“We had a permanent footprint at L.A.X. for more than 50 years,” said Everingham. “But with midfield renovations going on, our lease was going to expire as of September 30, 2017.”
The Coast Guard knew it was important to find a new home near enough to service the L.A. region.
“The Coast Guard understands the vital importance that Coast Guard aviation resources have to the greater L.A. region,” Everingham emphasized. “With L.A./Long Beach being a large cargo port, and with the location of the largest cruise ship port on the West Coast, having Coast Guard aviation resources that provide aviation response and security in the region is vital.”
They did their homework and decided to come to Ventura County.
As Everingham observed: “We went through some studies to figure out where would be the best place to keep an interim until we could figure out where a permanent facility could go. And for an interim facility, we decided to come to Ventura County. We’re now known as Forward Operating Base, Naval Base Ventura County.”
The Coast Guard’s MH-65D helicopter, used for search and rescue missions.
The Coast Guard likes being up here. “We’re better able to serve our partners a little further north,” said Everingham. “We’ve bolstered our relationships with the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the Ventura County Fire Department and the National Park Service, because with our location here we’re able to do a lot more support to the Channel Islands.”
Standard equipment used for airlift and rescue of injured or stranded victims
They have been at NBVC since last May. Their resources include two MH-65 Deltas (known as Dolphins) that are deployed down here from San Francisco. They rotate a new crew down every two weeks. This station has ten permanent airmen embedded in the community, with twelve other folks rotated in biweekly.
The Coast Guard provided a demonstration of a simulated water rescue, with a Dolphin helicopter and its crew hovering above a ship, and a rescuer showing how they can pull stranded people out of the water. It’s not as easy as you think. Location. Balance. Timing. It takes two pilots, a flight mechanic, and a rescuer to make sure that everything goes smoothly.
Coast Guard demonstration of a water rescue
The Coast Guard has been busy since they arrived last May. 560 sorties, 1040 flight hours, and 65 search and air rescue missions. They have saved 38 lives, gone out on 3 pollution response cases, and assisted with 4 law enforcement cases, one of which included the apprehension of 3 smugglers and nearly two-thousand pounds of marijuana valued at 1.78 million dollars.
Currently, the Coast Guard is in conversations with the Navy to have a permanent home at NBVC. When they finally move in, it will include four aircraft and eighty to ninety folks permanently assigned to the base.
Lt. Thomas F. Wieland, Commanding Officer for Station Channel Islands Harbor gave an inside look at one of the cases they assisted with. It shows why having the Coast Guard nearby is helpful to local law enforcement.
“One thing we do very well,” said Wieland, “is that in a water emergency, you get a rapid response, especially shoreside.”
A recent case included a boat traveling along the coastline that caught fire near county line and Malibu. A former auxiliary Coast Guard boat member happened to be passing by and showed up to the boat fire. They found people in the water, including their dog. With the help of the assisting boat crew, they were able to get the passengers out of the water.
“The Coast Guard was able to pick them up and give them first aid right away,” said Wieland. “Then within seconds after us, we had L.A. County and Ventura County come down with their fire boats. We had flyovers and air support as well.”
From air support to warfare testing to search and rescue, the Naval Base Ventura County remains an important part of the military’s operation, and a vital resource for our local communities.
Plus there’s so much surrounding beauty, from the Santa Monica Mountains to the wetlands to the ocean. Standing on the beach, I had to admit. The weather, the view, the water. If you must have the Navy, Coast Guard, and the National Guard in your backyard, this is a pretty nice place to put them.
Air view of base looking out at Channel Islands
Photo Credits: Tim Pompey
Tim Pompey, a freelance writer who has done lots of local affairs and entertainment/cultural writing, lives in Oxnard. Tim is also a fiction writer (Facebook Page). You can learn about his books on Amazon.com: amazon.com/author/booksbytimpompey.
Mr. Pompey’s Newest Book:
Deep Down is another roller coaster collection of short stories by author Tim Pompey. A mortician with ghost problems. A humanoid stranded in outer space. A B-17 bomber pilot haunted by voices from his past. These and other stories dig beneath reality and crawl through hidden tunnels to a world that exists without and within us. From childhood to old age, these stories are locked inside the mind, waiting to be discovered.
Go deep. Very deep. Find out what lies buried within your own imagination.
Deep Down On Amazon
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