After three decades of leading work on Prowlers and Growlers on Whidbey Island, Michael Johannsen is retiring as the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division site manager.
Johannsen has worked on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island for nearly 30 years and is well known among his many colleagues.
NSWC Crane provides the Navy with engineering and technical support for electronic warfare and expeditionary warfare.
After working as a government employee supporting the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, the 62-year-old Oak Harbor resident will continue to support the Electronic Attack Squadrons as a GCM/NGJ logistics manager under a defense contractor.
“I’m not cutting the cord totally,” he said.
GCM stands for Growler Capability Modification, and NGJ stands for Next Generation Jammer. This work consists of modifying planes to accept the Next Generation Jammer, which would replace the system in use since 1971 — the ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System that is currently used on EA-18G Growler planes — and improve their performance.
Johannsen has also been a vice president for the Navy League of Oak Harbor — the civilian arm of the military that connects the Navy with the community — since 1998, and has been working alongside Vice President Steve Bristow.
Bristow described Johannsen as a humble man who was integrally involved with every significant development and modification for EA-18G Growlers for decades and a highly regarded professional within the base’s Growler community.
During times of hardship — when he dealt with inventory shortages and staff fatigue — Johannsen put in the extra work to pull through, at the cost of spending time with his family.
“That was a huge tax to pay for the job we did, but when you’re doing it next to a sailor who’s gone for months at a time, it’s hard to compare,” he said.
Johannsen comes from Long Island, where he developed an interest in planes from an early age as Grumman Airspace Corporation — which produced prowlers — was located in the area. He remembers being a child and seeing the planes fly over him all the time.
He joined the Navy in 1980, leaving three years later to work for Grumman. In 1990, he landed a job at NSWC Crane in Indiana, and was transferred to Whidbey on Valentine’s Day 1990, where he fell in love with the island’s community and climate. After being relocated to Philadelphia for three years, the Johannsens returned to Whidbey in 1996, where him and his wife Anita live to this day.
One of the things that motivated Johannsen’s work was staying on Whidbey, and he was never interested in looking for higher paying jobs in other locations, as it is rare to find a job that offers the opportunity to live in a rural area that is so close to a base that he can hear the national anthem play everyday.
Johannsen counts many awards, including the Civilian of the Year, the Scroll of Honor and The Grady L. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Receiving The Grady L Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award in July was one of Johannsen’s most rewarding moments in his four-decade long career, as Jackson was the first wing commodore he worked for at the base on Whidbey.
“I’ve gotten a lot of awards over the years and I thought I was well past that part of my career,” he said. “All the younger people that have worked for me and the people I’ve managed for the past 10 years deserve all the credit for some of the stuff that I get credit for. But to get that award and to have it presented to me … was an awesome experience.”
Though his last day as a government employee is Aug. 31, many people have shown up to celebrate Johannsen at his retirement party earlier this month.
“Sometimes it takes key personalities in leadership to make it work,” Bristow said. “Anyone can do the job, but there are a few guys that can do it well, and that’s always been Mike.”
