The spouse of a Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) crewmember waves goodbye as the cutter departs Base Seattle for a multi-month deployment to the Arctic, June 12, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Annika Hirschler)
Having recently reread the Acquisition Directorate’s In-Service Vessel Sustainment web page, I found this.
Service life extension program for Coast Guard Cutter Healy will occur in a five-year phased production between 2026 and 2030. Healy is a 420-foot cutter, the service’s only active medium polar icebreaker, which was commissioned in 1999. When completed, the SLEP effort will recapitalize a number of major systems and extend the service life of the cutter until the polar security cutters are operational.
This sounds an awful lot like what was done to Polar Star over a five year period. Healy, like Polar Star, is based in Seattle, but Polar Star’s five year rolling Service Life Extension Program was not done in Seattle, it was done in Vallejo, CA. Vallejo is 776 miles from Seattle. These five phased Yard periods were extremely long, so the ship spent about half its down time far from home. I know they tried to mitigate the effect on the crew, but it had to be bad for crewmembers whose families were in Seattle.
I can’t help but think it would have been a good idea to change Polar Star’s homeport to Vallejo or Alameda (water depth at the Support Center permitting). Vallejo is a lower priced area than Seattle and there is property there from the old Navy shipyard that the city is still trying to develop. Pretty sure the city would be happy to have Healy homeported there.
If Vallejo was not possible, it is 31 miles from Vallejo to Alameda. That is not a particularly long commute in the Bay area, for the relatively short time the ship would be in Alameda, and there are relatively affordable places to live in between.
Is it going to be different for Healy?
I also notice this, that the SLEP is intended to “extend the service life of the cutter until the polar security cutters are operational.” Since Healy is nominally a medium icebreaker, I would have thought the Coast Guard would keep her in service until replaced by an Artic Security Cutter (medium icebreaker). Healy was commissioned in 1999, so I would have thought she would remain in service 40 years, until 2039. A SLEP ending in 2030/31 also suggests another ten years of life. Are we going to have to wait until 2039 for the Polar Security Cutters to be completed?
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Why can’t we treat the crew and families like real people? Seems to me that this is a long term project with a long lead time – why not do the work in Seattle or maybe Portland?
Seattle has some large yards at least one that can take the Healy, and the Navy has a large yard across the sound that can take large ships.
Or, the USCG could employ an Owner’s Rep (e.g. local ABS surveyors) to perform in-yard inspections and quality assurance under the direction of a couple/few USCG blue-suiters…it would be significantly less expensive and taxing on crew work-life balance, especially when you consider the hotel and per diem costs of Seattle-based active-duty members being in Northern CA for long periods of time.