Call it the Three Presidents Crew.

In a historic game of naval musical chairs, sailors from San Diego’s aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan will serve on three different flattops over the next six months.

The Navy is saving $41 million by doing a massive, complicated crew swap involving 9,000 sailors and the carriers George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt, in addition to the Reagan.

At the end, the U.S. Navy will have a new face in Asia, and an American aircraft carrier will enter a mid-life nuclear overhaul that was at one time uncertain.


Also, San Diego will have a new hull number on its skyline – CVN 71, affectionately known as “The Big Stick” as an homage to the 26th U.S. president, namesake Theodore Roosevelt.

It’s the first time ever that three of the Navy’s 10 active-duty carriers have changed home ports all at once.

“It’s pretty hard to do something that’s never been done before in the history of the Navy,” said Spike Call, the Reagan’s command master chief.

”We’re getting an opportunity to do that, and that’s special in itself.”


(Beto Alvarez)

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But it’ll take some doing.

Step 1: The George Washington will arrive in San Diego on Monday. It left its home in Japan in May for the trip eastward and some regional exercises.


Look for hull number 73. It hasn’t been seen in these parts since August 2008.

Step 2: The majority of the GW and Reagan crews will swap ships during a turnover period at North Island Naval Air Station piers.

Step 3: The Reagan will depart San Diego in late August and sail west toward its new home in Yokosuka, Japan, headquarters of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. On the way it will do a short deployment, arriving in Japan in the fall.

Step 4: The GW will sail around the tip of South America toward a shipyard in Newport News, Va., where the 23-year-old flattop will begin a mid-life nuclear overhaul.


Step 5: In late fall, the Theodore Roosevelt will end an around-the-world trip by sailing into San Diego Bay, its new home. This is the first time -- ever -- that hull number 71 will be part of the San Diego skyline.

Step 6: The Roosevelt’s crew will fly home to Virginia, to shepherd the George Washington through its period in the shipyard.

And, finally, Step 7: In late December and January, the Reagan’s original crew will fly home to San Diego to man the Roosevelt.

About two-thirds of the San Diego-based crew of the Reagan will remain stationed here, after the carriers reach their final homes.


About 1,400 Reagan sailors will be members of the “Three Presidents Crew” that did back-to-back stints on all three.

Logo created by sailors who will serve on three aircraft carriers in the space of six months. ( / Image courtesy of Navy)

This carrier roulette is especially noteworthy because -- for the first time since 2007 -- no U.S. aircraft carrier will be on duty in the Persian Gulf for up to two months this fall.

The timing is significant in geopolitics.


Jets from the Roosevelt have been delivering airstrikes against the jihadist group Islamic State, or ISIS, in recent months.

The nominee to next lead the Navy, Adm. John Richardson, last month told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the lack of a carrier in the Gulf will be a “detriment to our capability.”

However, he said that land-based aircraft will help fill the gap.

Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, the Coronado-based commander of naval air forces, said the sea service is playing catch-up on maintenance after a busy decade or more. Carrier deployments have stretched to nearly 10 months, instead of the typical half year.


The demand for two carriers at once in the Persian Gulf during 2011 and 2012 took a toll on the nation’s fleet of 10 flattops.

“That demand signal essentially wore out the carrier fleet,” Shoemaker told the Union-Tribune this week.

The Virginia-based carrier Eisenhower is in the shipyard nine months longer than planned. When maintenance workers opened her up, they found more problems than expected. Furloughs among shipyard workers didn’t help the schedule.

“We learned our lesson here on Eisenhower, but her delay contributed to the number of carriers we could rotate through,” said Shoemaker, who added that he thinks the Navy has now “turned the corner” on keeping up with maintenance.


Part of the carrier calculus also involved delicate diplomacy with Japan.

For example, the United States couldn’t station the aircraft carrier Truman in Yokosuka.

Some Japanese are already touchy about the U.S. military footprint -- particularly the nuclear presence -- in their country. A warship named after the president who ordered atomic bombs dropped on Japan in World War II would likely cause tension.

The Navy was close to losing a carrier.


For a time in 2014, the $4 billion tab to refuel the George Washington’s nuclear core was caught up in the political debate over how to handle the deep budget cuts known as sequestration. The overhaul requires four years of work.

“That’s a stress on the force that I’d rather not have to worry about,” Shoemaker said.

The nation’s newest aircraft flattop, the $13 billion first-in-class Ford, is slated to be delivered in the spring.

With the “Three Presidents Crew” maneuver, the Navy is saving an estimated $41 million by allowing the majority of the three carrier crews to remain stationed in their home ports.


Otherwise, taxpayers would have to cover the cost for a Ronald Reagan sailor -- and dependents -- to move from San Diego to Japan, for example.

Only the nuclear departments and the command staffs will stay with the carrier they started on.

Shoemaker said that each nuclear reactor is different enough that Navy brass wants continuity there.

For the sailors who will be hull-jumping, these will be busy months. But there’s a wow factor.


“It’s a ton of work -- much more work than we would normally do on an aircraft carrier,” said Call, the Reagan’s top enlisted sailor.

“So many things that have to go right, and there are so many people working incredibly hard to make sure it goes right.”

Some wags came up with the label CVN 220, adding the hull numbers of the three carriers.

That’s because the sailors usually identify with their ship. But this crew will be hopping between carriers and ship captains -- becoming almost visitors in their own work spaces.


“CVN 220 gives us an identity. We know we are a force multiplier for the Navy,” said Reagan public affairs officer Lt. Cmdr. Lara Bollinger.

“We are taking the helm of our experience and making it the best it can be.”