Annapolis Naval Support Activity, Maryland
Located across the Severn River from the Naval Academy, Naval Support Activity Annapolis is in charge of enlisted personnel assigned to the Naval Academy. The mission of the Naval Station is to provide material, personnel and service support to the Naval Academy by maintaining small craft, equipment and facilities for midshipmen training and by providing logistical support to the Naval Academy in its midshipmen professional development program.
Military family housing is administered by the USNA Housing Welcome Center. For officers assigned to the U.S. Naval Academy / Naval Support Activity Annapolis, there are 169 units available for assignment. Enlisted housing has 167 units. Eligible personnel are assigned to family quarters in the order of detachment date from their previous command if application is made within 30 days of that date; otherwise, the application date is used. Units are assigned according to family size requirements and designation.
Lincoln Military Housing and the Department of Navy formed a partnership in August 2005 resulting in the privatization of military housing. As part of the Public Private Venture Initiative (PPV), Lincoln provides property management services at Naval Support Activity Annapolis. Service members continue to report to the Navy Housing Welcome Center for onbase and off-base housing referral services. Newly arriving personnel can usually be accommodated through the Rental Partnership program. Through this program families can usually move into one to three bedroom apartments, within a 20-30 minute commute, with no deposit or credit check.
Naval support to midshipmen began in 1851, six years after the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy, when the USS PREBLE arrived at what was then Fort Severn for duty as the first training ship. Upon completion of the Naval Air Station at Greenbury Point in 1911, Annapolis became the home of naval aviation, having both the first naval air station and the first flight from a naval air station to add to its illustrious history.
The first Yard Patrol Craft arrived in 1939, and the Naval Station began to take shape as we know it today. The involvement of the United States in World War II prompted the establishment of the Severn River Naval Command in 1941, to provide efficient and centralized military control over the functionally diverse, yet geographically associated, activities located around the mouth of the Severn River. The Naval Air Facility was reestablished the same year at the present site of the Naval Station to enhance naval aviation indoctrination of midshipmen.
In 1943, 123 additional acres of land were purchased to improve undesirable living conditions for the 800 men living aboard the USS REINA MERCEDES and USS CUMBERLAND, part of the Naval Barracks Command responsible for the enlisted men assigned to the Naval Academy. That same year, the Boat Repair Facility and the Boat Basin were built.
On May 15, 1947, Rear Admiral J. L. Holloway, Jr., father of one of the former Chiefs of Naval Operations, formally commissioned the Naval Station Annapolis. Many large structures were built that year, including the first land barracks, Building 46. The Severn River Naval Command was now expanded to include Naval Station Annapolis, Naval Small Craft Facility, Naval Air Facility and Naval Barracks Command. Each of these commands had a Commanding Officer who reported to the Commandant of the Severn River Naval Command.
In 1962, the Severn River Naval Command was disestablished and all missions and personnel were transferred to the Commanding Officer, Naval Station Annapolis.
Naval Support Activity (NSA) Annapolis was officially established in a commissioning ceremony June 6, 2006, following the retirement of Naval Station Annapolis' colors the previous week. This transition streamlined operations to better support the U.S. Naval Academy, eliminating redundancy and providing a more efficient and responsive organization for the training of Midshipmen and the support of Academy faculty, staff, and family members. The Midshipman training programs and training support operations based at NSA Annapolis remained part of the Academy's Director of Tactical Training, and the mission stayed the same -- to provide underway seamanship and sail training, small arms weapons familiarization, and navigation and engineering professional development for Midshipmen. This includes a fleet of more than 250 Yard Patrol and sail craft, which teach Midshipmen pierside familiarization, basic damage control and underway training, including basic and advanced seamanship and navigation.
Capt. Michael R. Fierro assumed duties as the first commanding officer of NSA Annapolis.
The facilities that all under NSA Annapolis include military housing and Bachelor Enlisted Quarters, the Fleet and Family Support Center, the Navy Exchange and the Commissary. Under Commander, Navy Installations Command, those organizations provide the same services to Annapolis area service members and their families as directed by the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.
NSA Annapolis is home to more than 600 military and civilian employees.