Sunshine State News: Florida's Senators, John Rutherford Want Navy to Keep Ships at Mayport for Maintenance

Florida’s two U.S. senators--Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio--and U.S. Rep, John Rutherford, R-Fla., are pressing the Navy secretary on why some ships are not having their maintenance done at Mayport on the First Coast. 

On Friday, the two senators and Rutherford wrote U.S. Navy Sec. Richard Spencer on the matter, insisting the Navy was not following the law as it maintained three patrol crafts and displaced sailors and their families. 

“We write to you today concerning recent decisions to remove ships from their homeport for ship maintenance that is scheduled to take less than 10 months, even though it is not necessary to do so,” the senators and Rutherford wrote. “In the past year, policy changes implemented by the Navy’s Southeast Regional Maintenance Center (SERMC) have led three (3) Patrol Craft (PC) ships (USS Zephyr, USS Shamal, USS Tornado) and their sailors to be removed from their homeport of Naval Station Mayport for a Docking Phased Maintenance Availability (DPMA).  All of these DPMAs have been removed from Naval Station (NS) Mayport even though adequate competition existed and the initial Period of Performance was less than 10 months in duration.  The most recent action taken by SERMC for the USS Zephyr DPMA in March involved increasing the period of performance from less than 10 months to over 10 months after establishing competition existed.  This behavior demonstrates a clear and constant pattern of removing PCs from their NS Mayport homeport. 

“These moves appear to be a potential violation of law and are detrimental to the quality of the life of the sailors and their families,” they added. “After overseas deployments and training exercises away from their families, sailors rely upon the period in homeport as a time to reconnect.  However, when decisions are made to remove ships, like the USS Zephyr, USS Shamal, USS Tornado, sailors are unnecessarily subjected to additional stress and pressures.

“In addition to the impact on quality of life, the removal of these DPMA’s from NS Mayport increases the volatility of the local ship repair industrial base work load.  A healthy industrial base is crucial for the readiness of all the ships homeported at NS Mayport.  The Jacksonville ship repair industrial base has weathered years of reduced ship counts and it seems counter intuitive to exacerbate the situation by removing ships from the homeport when competition exists,” they continued.

The senators and Rutherford asked if their were firms who could have done the work at Mayport and if any such firms were solicited. 

“Please provide a detailed timeline of decisions made regarding this contract award including:

Moriginal solicitation, cancellation or delay of solicitations, decision to change the vessel’s homeport," the senators and Rutherford wrote. “When determining to reissue the solicitations for the USS Zephyr, USS Shamal,and USS Tornado with an expanded range of availability from the homeport, did the Navy include the costs of moving the ship and its crew when considering what bids may be fair and reasonable, and if so, what were those costs? Thank you for your service and dedication to the Navy and the quality of life of its sailors and Marines.  Your answers to these questions will ensure that we continue to assist you in doing everything we can to make the Navy and its families stronger and more resilient.”

Rutherford weighed in on the letter on Friday. 

“As we continue to grow the fleet, the strength and sustainment of our industrial base only becomes more important,” Rutherford said. “Conducting maintenance on these ships outside of their homeport adversely impacts Jacksonville’s industrial base and the quality of life for our sailors. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Navy as we review these actions and grow our ship repair industry.”

Last year, the two senators, Rutherford and the entire Florida delegation urged the Navy to port an aircraft carrier at Mayport. 

In recent years, two Republican congressmen who are now out of the House--Ander Crenshaw of Florida and Randy Forbes of Virginia--clashed on the issue. 

Back in 2011, the House Armed Services Committee voted to gut funding that was allocated for improvements Mayport needs in order to house a carrier. Forbes, who at the time chaired the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and who was looking to ensure Norfolk would be the only naval base on the East Coast with a nuclear carrier, crowed that slashing $30 million in funding from Mayport would help the Old Dominion.

Crenshaw fired back, noting that Pentagon officials maintained America needed two ports for nuclear carriers on the Atlantic seaboard. While Mayport has traditionally housed aircraft carriers, there have not been any stationed there since 2007 when the USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned.

After sixteen years in Congress, Crenshaw decided not to run for another term in 2016. Forbes wasn’t so lucky. In a nasty primary back in June, former Navy SEAL Scott Taylor beat Forbes 52 percent to 40 percent. While there had been talk that Forbes could end up as secretary of the Navy in the Trump administration, he was passed over and is now a senior fellow at the Naval War College.