EVERETT — What at first glance looks like a Monopoly board occupies a coffee table in the office of U.S. Navy Capt. Thomas Mascolo.
Nobody gets to buy Boardwalk, pass “Go” or collect $50.
It’s not a game.
Instead, Mascolo and his staff are looking at “what-if scenarios.”
What if the Navy sends more or different ships to be based in Everett? How will the naval station accommodate and support them? Could the base and surrounding community support more sailors?
Answering those questions is among the first tasks for the new commanding officer of Naval Station Everett. Mascolo last month relieved Capt. Eddie Gardiner.
The new skipper, 48, believes he will remain assigned to Everett for about three years, time in which the mix of ships based here could change.
There’s been talk for a long time of adding more ships or changing the types of ships that are based in Everett. Top Navy brass have inspected the base for future possibilities. So far, however, no decisions have been made, Mascolo said.
The coffee table board sets out color-coded scenarios for berthing a second aircraft carrier, more destroyers or a new class of fighting ships that ply shallow waters. Pieces display the outlines of carriers and the other ships.
Each class of ship carries a different set of shore-side support needs that Mascolo would have to fulfill.
“Our job is to provide the services if asked to,” Mascolo said. “We’re not advocates or lobbyists. We’re just the providers.”
Rear Adm. James Symonds, who heads Navy activities in the Northwest, said he has no idea what he calls “the big Navy” has in store for the base. However, the actions of base-closing panels in 2005 and before have bolstered the Northwest naval presence, he said.
Symonds noted that with Everett, Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, and a strong presence in Kitsap County, the area boasts the nation’s third largest concentration of naval forces.
Mascolo’s job as naval station commander is to support the ships, sailors and their families, as well as provide base security.
The base now is home to six ships, the giant aircraft carrier U.S. Abraham Lincoln, three frigates and two destroyers. In addition, two Coast Guard cutters are based here. There are about 6,200 sailors and civilians assigned to the base.
In the past, Everett city officials have endorsed the idea of the base housing a second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., says the naval station would be a good place to house new littoral combat ships, which are fast and maneuverable and designed for near-shore fighting.
Mascolo said his job is to be prepared for whatever comes his way.
The new base commander is no stranger to the Northwest.
He recently completed a three-year stint in Washington, D.C., working in the Pentagon and serving as an aide to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It was a place where he observed how decisions are made at the highest levels of government.
“It was good,” he said of his Pentagon duty. “It was hard work, but it’s nothing like being in command.”
For the time being, he’s living in Seattle with his wife, Heather, and their twin infants.
At the Pentagon, Mascolo was allowed to put possible assignments on a “dream list” of places he could command.
Everett “was the only thing I put on my list,” he said.
He wanted the Everett job partly because he’s been in the area before. He’s glad he came here.
A former test pilot, Mascolo served tours at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, and commanded a squadron of radar-jamming EA-6B warplanes there from 1999 to 2002.
The Everett base is the newest in the Navy and it was built with protection of the local environment in mind, he said.
He’s also impressed with the level of community support in Snohomish County. “from the congressman on down.”
“I’ve been to a lot of bases. Every community representative I’ve met here, the first thing they say is ‘How can we help?’ ” he said. “That’s an awful nice thing to have.”
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