WASHINGTON, DC - When was the last time one simple decision you made benefitted you in more than one way? Well, if you ride the L’Enfant Plaza to Washington Navy Yard (WNY) Shuttle, that’s exactly what happens.

WASHINGTON – The Navy today announced it has set the departure date of the decommissioned ship USS Barry (DD 933) for May 7 from the Washington Navy Yard.



Preparations have begun to tow the ship down the Anacostia River to the Potomac River and then on to the Inactive Ship Maintenance Office in Philadelphia pending future movement to a ship recycling facility.



 

The Great Green Fleet (GGF), the Department of the Navy’s year-long initiative to demonstrate the sea service’s efforts to transform energy use, is underway across the fleet. Shore installations, too, are doing their part in GGF activities, and Naval Support Activity Washington (NSAW) is no different.

For personnel and visitors who drive to Naval Support Activity Washington fence lines parking can be an issue. Recent changes to the traffic code have helped to ease some of the congestion, but another change is hoped to have an impact as well – stiffer parking fines.

The threat of an active shooter is one that is all too real. In Naval Support Activity Washington personnel are training diligently to make sure that should it happen, they’ll be ready to actively counter that threat.

Finding a spot to park on the Washington Navy Yard after 8 a.m. is almost unheard of, but what if you had a reserved parking space waiting for you every morning? With the New Year ushering in the start of the new Naval Support Activity Washington traffic code, NSAW officials are urging personnel to make use of the carpooling option, thus ensuring a reserved space to park on base before 9:30 a.m.

For those refusing to comply with the traffic code there will now be costly consequences.

A gust of wind ripped along the coast of the Anacostia, enticing a chill into the crisp October air as voices from a former presence seemed to resurface on the deck of the USS Barry (DD 933). The display ship that had remained empty for so long gave off an almost ghostly glow in her final showing hours, with echoes from the past lining her once filled passageway.

Sailors, veterans, family members and Naval Support Activity Washington staff gathered in the Cold War Gallery at the Washington Navy Yard to bid farewell to Display Ship Barry (DD933), Oct. 17.

Commuters of the Washington Navy Yard know the morning routine at the Washington Navy Yard very well. Every morning at peak travel hours they are greeted by long lines of vehicles trailing up roads around the installation. But the frustration of traffic - and the inevitable search for parking - at the yard is easily avoidable. In fact, drivers pass by the solution every day on their way in and out of the gate: pedestrian access gates.

Employees who are participating in the Mass Transportation Benefit Program are not eligible for a Washington Navy Yard parking placard. If you currently are receiving MTBP benefits and have a parking placard, you must relinquish the parking placard immediately.

While the Display Ship Barry is in the process of being dismantled in preparation for its departure from the Washington Navy Yard, many in the community have wondered about the potential history that will leave with it. Fortunately for everyone the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command, and Naval Support Activity Washington are working to ensure that the Barry’s history is preserved for long after it departs from the yard.

The Display Ship Barry has always been a popular spot at the Washington Navy Yard. Located at the yard’s Pier 2, for years it was open to the public for tours and ceremonies. But after more than 30 years berthed at the Washington Navy Yard, time has taken its toll on the ship.

The U.S. Naval Observatory is a very famous place. Most know it as the residence of the vice president of the United States. But what many people don’t know is that it is a fully functioning observatory, determining the motions of celestial bodies and providing astronomical and timing data required by the Navy and other components of the Department of Defense for navigation, precise positioning, and command, control, and communications. But this necessary and precise research is being hindered every night by light pollution, and the culprits often have no idea they are doing it.

If you insist on driving alone to work on the Washington Navy Yard rather than using mass transit, in addition to being a major player in the continuing traffic and parking problem on the yard, you are also emptying your wallet.

For many at the Washington Navy Yard, the convenience of driving to the yard trumps other forms of transportation. But where is the line drawn between convenience and inconvenience? Traffic backups, long wait times at the gates, and the inevitable hunt for an elusive parking spot - if you even have a parking placard - make the prospect of diving a personal vehicle on the yard less enticing. Thankfully there is a better way, and one that pays.