UPDATED 5 p.m. Jan. 13 (see text at bottom)

It appears the U.S. Navy has conducted or may conduct simulated combat landings by small groups of SEALs or other personnel onto many public beaches and marinas of Jefferson County. The list includes Fort Flagler State Park, Mystery Bay State Park, the Port Townsend Boat Haven, Mats Mats Bay, Port Ludlow Bay, Toandos Peninsula, Zelatched Point and Indian Island. Most of those are to be the sites of training exercises six to eight times, although the “Port Townsend Marina” is listed to have training 24 times.

The Navy has also targeted several other waterfront sites in the Puget Sound region, 28 in total, according to an apparent Navy list.

We don’t know if those sites have all been used, or will be. But they are all listed as possible training sites in what appears to be an unclassified Navy document disseminated this week by the activist group Truthout. A related but earlier draft of the same document listed 68 sites.

Truthout’s report, by Dahr Jamail, included links to what appear to be Navy Powerpoint documents that outline the training exercises and maps of the training sites. The documents are labelled as unclassified. Leader calls and emails to the Navy seeking confirmation of the documents were unanswered or deflected, as of press time.

The Leader confirmed that planning for the training has gone on for months. Washington State Parks said it was notified and gave permission to the Navy to use some of its state parks for training purposes in 2014, with the permission extending for five years. The parks listed on that “right of entry” agreement are Fort Flagler, Mystery Bay, Scenic Beach, Blake Island and Illahee.

Fort Worden State Park Manager Brian Hageman confirmed to the Leader that some local parks have been used by Navy special forces personnel in the past.

According to the apparent Navy documents released by Truthout, the new round of training is to be conducted from mid-January to mid-April of 2016. The total plan involves 28 waterfront areas around Puget Sound. Both the documents and State Parks officials contacted by the Leader indicate that additional Navy personnel are stationed nearby, on land or in boats, to warn or keep distant late-night beach walkers or campers. The exercises are to involve no digging, no live firearms and no cutting vegetation.

These are not large-scale landings. Instead they involve small teams, as few as one or two combat swimmers or other SEAL personnel landing on beaches or coming on to a target vessel in the dead of night. Some of the training may involve swimming through marinas. Navy documents also describe a possible “Direct Action” training of up to 20 soldiers, with no detail as to whether this would take place on civilian or military public land. The equipment includes submersibles and “simulated weapons,” according to the apparent Navy documents released by Truthout.

These days, national security issues trump many other factors of American life. The plain fact is that our military personnel need and deserve exceptional training to be effective against radical Sunni jihadist terrorists and a renegade nation-state called ISIS, devoted to killing as many Americans as possible, including civilians in completely unprotected settings.

Under President Barrack Obama’s policies, the sharp point of the American military spear consists of highly trained small combat units such as SEAL teams, Delta teams and the special forces of other branches of the military. We support and salute that training, and hope it is successful in making our soldiers and sailors so effective that they all complete their missions and return unharmed.

Still, the local revelation raises two legitimate concerns for me.

The Navy owns miles of beachfront around Puget Sound, including all of Indian Island, extensive coastal territory around NAS Whidbey, Bangor and many other locations. What was the strategic reason that public parks and marinas full of unaware civilians needed to be added to the list?

Secondly, from the Navy on down to the Port of Port Townsend, this is a collaboration between public agencies. While the Navy has understandable secrecy needs, a longterm incursion onto public park lands deserved a more public announcement. The state and more local public agencies, such as Washington State Parks and the Port of Port Townsend, for example, also had an obligation to make public disclosure about military training within their public domains in a timely way. While such disclosures would have drawn an early reaction by some, I don’t see how it would have materially impacted the training itself, especially given that much of it is happening in the dead of night.

It’s possible that something was posted or some obscure notice was given. But nobody involved at any level thought the public really needed to know much about this in advance. That’s a violation of what the civilian public deserves in the free society that our soldiers are defending. Freedom of information from the public agencies that serve us is also part of our national security. We had and have the right to expect ample advance disclosure when our public parks and marinas are used for military training.

— Scott Wilson

UPDATED 5 p.m. Jan. 13

Navy has not asked for special use of port facilities

By Patrick J. Sullivan of the Leader

The Port of Port Townsend has not been contacted by the U.S. Navy regarding possible special use of port property for training missions, Larry Crockett, port executive director, said Jan. 13.

"We have not been contacted," Crockett told the Leader. "If they want to use our facility for training, I would expect them to contact us and we'll go from there."

(Crockett was unavailable for comment when the Leader attempted to contact him Jan. 12 for the news story in our Jan. 13 edition.)

Crockett said he learned Jan. 13 that apparent Navy documents had been published and were the subject of widespread media coverage. He reviewed information on a website that appears to be a PowerPoint slideshow presentation for the Navy. Crockett noted that although Washington State Parks apparently has had a permit agreement with the Navy for special training access at select state parks, the documents that Crockett connects to port property note the need for an environmental assessment and property agreements.

That's not to say the Navy does not already use the port's boat launch. Navy units have used the public ramp at the Port Townsend Boat Haven for training missions off port property, Crockett said.

The port's launch ramp is open 24/7, said Crockett, and the Navy would be expected to use the on-site kiosk to pay a ramp fee the same as any other customer. Along with the recreational and commercial users of the ramp, the Navy, U.S. Border Patrol and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency sometimes use the ramp.