Kitsap Sun article courtesy of CAPT Alan R. Beam
Navy League, city planning new Callow Ave park to host USS Bremerton sail
Peiyu Lin – Kitsap Sun
Published 1:37 p.m. PT June 14, 2024 Updated 1:43 p.m. PT June 14, 2024
BREMERTON — Years after discussions were initiated at the local Navy League about keeping the sail of submarine USS Bremerton (SSN 698) in its namesake city as a monument, the league has made a request to the Navy and completed a preliminary design of a monument that could recognize the vessel and its history in a new city park.
On May 1, the president of the Bremerton-Olympic Peninsula Council of the Navy League Tom Zwolfer and Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler jointly signed a letter to the Navy, making a preliminary request that the Navy retain the components of the Los Angeles- class submarine, including its sail, sail planes, anchor, rudders and stern planes, to create a monument. Jerry Logan, retired Navy Captain, the 10th Commanding Officer of USS Bremerton and chairman of The USS Bremerton Sail Memorial Committee, said the group’s request to use some of those pieces of history as a monument will now move to the next step.
“Once we get our design finalized, we will submit the official request to the Navy for those components that we have in mind here,” Logan said.
Preliminary design of the monument has been completed. The Bremerton City Council reviewed and discussed the project on Wednesday, where Logan, Zwolfer, and Alan Beam of the Navy League — all former commanding officers of the USS Bremerton — presented an update of the project.
With Mayor Wheeler’s suggestion, the Navy League is now proposing to build the monument at a triangular plot of grassy area at First Street and Callow Avenue, near the Naval Base Kitsap’s Charleston gate, tentatively to be named “Navy League Park.”
The approximately 42,000 square feet of land is now the Washington State Department of Transportation’s right of way. WSDOT is in the process of transferring the property to the city at no cost, Wheeler said.
“We do not foresee that (cost of any money),” Wheeler said. “If for some remote reason there was a cost, we work through that.”
Originally, WSDOT purchased the property for the Bremerton gateway improvement project, Wheeler said, an effort from 1998 to 2008 to improve access to the city from the south.
The proximity to the Charleston Gate would make the monument an entry point into Bremerton that demonstrates the relationship between the city, its people and the military history, Wheeler said, and give residents and visitors “an idea of the importance of the military presence in our history.” He highlighted the design in which the crisscrossing grey sidewalks could be a symbol of such connection.
Logan shared similar thoughts.
“I think of it personally as not just a military monument, but hopefully a bigger bond to the city and the relationship with the Navy, and the role Bremerton, Washington plays in the country,” Logan said. “We want to try to capture not just about two Navy ships. We think it’s about the city of Bremerton, certainly, and everything the city has done to create a good relationship with the Navy.”
A sub’s sail plus the cruiser’s anchor
According to the preliminary design, the USS Bremerton monument will showcase the sail of the submarine as well as the anchors of the submarine and the USS Bremerton cruiser (CA-130). The anchor of the cruiser is now placed at Hal’s Corner, between Warren Avenue and Sheridan Road. The cruiser was commissioned in 1945, struck from the Navy list on 1973, and sold for scrap on 1974, according to the Naval Vessel Register.
“We picture the two anchors sort of create the entrance to the monument area,” Logan said.
Benches will be placed at the part to allow people to walk on and stay at the monument, Logan said.
Commissioned in 1981, the USS Bremerton submarine served the country for 37 years before it was inactivated in 2018 and decommissioned in 2021 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, according to Naval Vessel Register. The ship is currently in Bremerton, hasn’t been recycled, and it’s unknown when the Navy will cut it up and make the components available, Logan said. The Navy League hasn’t heard back from the Naval Sea Systems Command regarding the request.
If the plan continues, the USS Bremerton sail would be the fourth submarine sail placed in Kitsap County. The others are the sail of USS Parche, laid outside the Puget Sound Navy Museum in downtown Bremerton, the sail of the USS Woodrow Wilson, at Deterrent Park on Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, and the sail of the USS Sturgeon, at the Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport.
Background: Effort underway to save USS Bremerton sail as monument
The Navy League is fundraising for the monument project and plan to raise approximately $1 million, Logan said. A retired doctor and big supporter of the USS Bremerton, the late Byron Faber, had donated $20,000 to the Navy League as part of his bequest, which stated a desire to use the funding to create a monument for the ship.
Depending on the Navy’s timeline to recycle the submarine and the Navy League’s fundraising progress, construction would likely begin in a two-year timeframe, Logan said.
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About the writer:
Peiyu Lin covers the military and South Kitsap for the Kitsap Sun. Lin joined the Sun in 2021 after she graduated from the University of Arizona and received her Master’s degree in Journalism at UA. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Arabic Language and Culture at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Originally from Taiwan, Lin is a Mandarin speaker and has experience reporting bilingually in the U.S., Taiwan and Jordan.
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LINK TO ARTICLE: USS Bremerton monument could memorialize sub, cruiser in new park
