Riverine force still seeking a permanent home

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The Navy is still examining whether it will relocate its riverine group and its three squadrons.


Riverine force still seeking a permanent home
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 9, 2009 6:12:04 EST

Fleet Forces Command is looking to relocate the Navy’s riverine group and its three squadrons to one of seven locations around the country — or leave them where they are in Hampton Roads, Va.

“The environmental assessment is ongoing,” command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Phil Rosi said. “No decision has been made regarding future homeporting of the riverine forces.”

The group headquarters and two squadrons are based at Little Creek, Va., with the third squadron at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Va. The assessment should be completed this fiscal year. Rosi said nine naval bases are being looked at: Little Creek; Yorktown: New London, Conn.; Kings Bay, Ga.; Mayport, Fla.; Gulfport, Miss.; San Diego; Ventura County, Calif.; and Kitsap, Wash.

He said the assessment began in April 2008 because the current force — which was created in 2006 — is operating out of temporary facilities in Little Creek and Yorktown.

While the East Coast hub for Seabees in Gulfport is on the list, a growing riverine training site already exists just 30 miles down the road. Naval Special Warfare Command’s small-boat unit, Special Boat Team 22, has its base and a foreign forces training facility on the brown waters of the Pearl River inside the 126,000-acre John C. Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi, near New Orleans.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/11/navy_riverine_110909w/