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WETSU: a BattleshipNJ Podcast
Captain Kent "Brewski" Smith: Firsthand Experiences with the Commanding Officer of Naval Weapons Station Earle
00:42:26
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- [00:00]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Foreign.
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Marshall Spivak
Man your battle stations. Welcome to wetsu, a Battleship New Jersey podcast. My name is Marshall Spivak and I'm honored and privileged to be the CEO of the Battleship New Jersey Museum of Memorial and to and the host of this podcast. Today we're lucky enough to be joined by Captain Kent Brusky Smith, Commanding Officer of Naval Weapons Station Earl and Mammoth County, New Jersey. Captain Smith is a native of Iowa and was commissioned through OCS in 1998. He earned his gold Wings as a Naval flight officer in January 2000 in Pensacola, Florida. He deployed with Carrier Air Wing One in 2001 on the USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN71, and in 2003 on the USS Enterprise CVN65. In 2004, he reported to the Voice VP10 Lancers, where he was a PC3 Orion pilot who deployed to Italy, El Salvador, Qatar, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and India. He also served at the U.S. naval War College in the VPU 2 Wizards as a department head at U.S. strategic Command as the Commanding Officer of the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Weapons school in Jacksonville, Florida, as a navigator on the USS Harry Truman, where he deployed with Carrier Strike Group 8 in the Arctic Circle in 2018. 2019. In September of 2021, he reported to the Joint Staff J7 where he served as a desk officer for NORAD and US NORTHCOM. And in April of 2023, he assumed duty as the Installation Commander of Naval Weapons Station Earl. Throughout his career, he flew numerous aircraft, including the S3B Viking, the P3C Orion, and the P8 Poseidon. And if you can't tell, he's had a very distinguished naval career. And I'm guessing, sir, I've left things out along the way. So. Welcome to the Wetsuit podcast. Captain Smith, thanks for being here.
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
No, Marshall, pleasure to be here. And I know some of those are a mouthful. Even I have a tough time getting them out sometimes. So you did a great job.
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Marshall Spivak
Thank you. I think there's only really one place to start here and we absolutely have to start with Bruski and how you got the Brusky, your call sign and if there's any sort of story behind that now.
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
So. So I love talking about it, actually. So before I got there, there was a. One of their department heads, a Lieutenant Commander Courtney Smith, whose call sign was Brusque. And she would go out with him and she was fantastic, as most S3 people are, but she was always drinking Miller Light in a bottle. That was her thing. And so she. She kind of earned that moniker when I got there. There was a lot of similarities. I also like Miller. Light in the bottle would be my go to when we're out. The other thing was that for some reason, maybe it's my Midwest upbringing, but we always, we like calling beers brewskis. And so as I would say, brusky and I would do things similar to her. So it came down to two things. It was going to be either Courtney, since we shared the same last name, or brusque. And thank God they, they went with the brewski. But yeah, sometimes it's a hard call sign to live up to when you know you're out having a good time. Everybody expects that. You know, you're, you're able to, to drink all night now, man, it's, it's not that. It really is just I've always preferred beer over liquor and they reminded me, or I reminded them a lot of a former officer that was in my first squadron.
- [03:54]
Marshall Spivak
I love that. That's great. You had mentioned you're a Midwest kid from Iowa. So how does a kid in the middle of the Midwest, not near any oceans or bodies of water, how does a young kid from Iowa decide to join the Navy? And did you always know that you wanted to be a pilot?
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah, you know, honestly, Top Gun, you can blame Top Gun. I was another one of those. I saw Top Gun in high school and when I decided that I wanted to try my hand at military service service, that that movie was fresh in my mind. I'm like, I gotta fly on carriers just like they did in Top Gun. And so that's what, that's what got me there. And it's been amazing. So I am incredibly grateful for the Top Gun movie, lead me that way because I've had an incredible career because of it.
- [04:44]
Marshall Spivak
Well, my next question was going to be why the Navy over the Air Force if you want to be a pilot? But I think you just answered that one. So Top Gun, I love that you've deployed. As I mentioned in the, in the intro, you've served on numerous aircraft carriers and variety of different roles. Do you have a favorite carrier that you served on?
- [05:06]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
You know, I'd have to go with the Theodore Roosevelt, not for the carrier itself, but that was. So we were the first carrier strike group to deploy after 9 11. So we were in the middle of workups, getting ready to deploy already. The 911 happened. So my carrier was supposed to spend a lot of time in the Mediterranean Sea. We were going to do Bright Star in Egypt. We were going to pull into all sorts of ports. But Instead we did not pass Go. We went right into the Arabian Sea and started flying as soon as we got there. But it was just because the entire country was supporting us. So it was flying every single day and night. No breaks, no port calls. But because we were doing what we trained for, we were doing the nation's bidding like most people didn't get a chance to do that, you know, and in peacetime you train and you deploy and it's great port calls and all that, but actually being able to support our nation, the way we train to do was just so enriching that wouldn't trade it for anything. And so it was back in the day we, we set records, we were a six pack crew, as we called it. Every, you know, geez, I can't Even remember every 45 days that you're underway without a port call, you get a, a ration of grog, which for us was two beers. And so we made it 135 days, uh, without a, uh, a port call. And then finally we pulled in just to get a little R and R. But yeah, we were the first one to do that in a very long time. But no one complained because we knew what we were doing was important.
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Marshall Spivak
Yeah, this just referencing the Battleship. When the battleship was deployed in the 80s to off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon, she was on station for over 190 days. And so you certainly understand that you're at sea for that long. Can you give us sort of the experience of living on an aircraft carrier, a floating city sort of similar to the battleship, but maybe even supersized a little bit?
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah. So when you're doing high tempo operations, it really is just kind of rinse, repeat, you wake up, you get some chow, you do some mission planning, you brief, you go fly, you come back maybe get a workout in and some chow and then, you know, do some reading or watch a movie and go to bed and get ready for the next day. And really it's every single day doing that. But because the missions we were doing were into harm's way and the news was covering every single one of our steps and stuff like that, the energy stayed up. Now when you go on other deployments, a lot of it, there's a lot more downtime and that where you got to get creative. So maybe you have a whole day without flying and so you got to find things to do. There's not very far you can go in a carrier and so maybe spend a little more time in the gym. You learn to, you know, different guys have different card games that they grew up playing. And so you learn a lot of those. But mostly we spend our time in the ready room figuring out how to prank each other and just entertain ourselves by, by pulling, you know, a prank on one officer or another.
- [08:29]
Marshall Spivak
Love it. I mentioned a couple of the different types of aircraft that you've piloted and you've flown on. Do you have a favorite?
- [08:38]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
You know, probably not a favorite. You always remember your lieutenant tours and that was my S3 days. The S3 Viking was unique because as a naval flight officer I actually had a stick and a throttle on the right side of the cockpit for me. So. And I gotta tell you, I was terrible at flying. My pilots were always awesome. They're like, hey, go ahead, why don't you fly for a while? And I tell them like, I'll try, but yeah, don't, don't space off. You better pay attention because you may have to save it. There were some other NFOs, man, they were, they were just as good as the pilots and got plenty of stick time. It just wasn't me. I loved, I could, I could always read the instruments real well. I was fantastic in knowing where we were, where we needed to be. So I was a great mission commander and a good backup for the pilot on the left side. But it was kind of fun being able to fly in those days and flying on a carrier is just special. Now the S3 wasn't the, the cool kid on the block but, but she was, it was just awesome. A catapult launch is one of the best rides you can ever have and landing on, you know, bringing it in on the back of a carrier was tremendous. I actually ended just, just one, one tour with VS32 Maulers and ended up with 333 traps. So that was fantastic for one tour, but 333 times I got to enjoy the ride and it was fantastic.
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Marshall Spivak
That's amazing. In 2018 you were, as I mentioned, assigned to the USS Harry Truman as the ship's navigator. What was it like serving as the nav on an aircraft carrier?
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Oh man, it was the most stressful time of my life.
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Marshall Spivak
I can imagine.
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
With an aircraft they move fast, but when you move the, when you move the stick, it does something. Yeah, when you, when you put a, some sort of command into a boat, it is so slow. So I got to give credit to the surface warfare's officer. You have to be ahead of the ship. If you can't make last minute decisions and expect the boat's going to be able to get there. So I happen to be blessed. I had fantastic officer of the decks. They're the ones really controlling the ship. I had a great crew and, and they made my life much better than it was. But I was always stressed out because, you know, you never know what it's going to be. You don't control the other ships. And I knew every one of us knows the captain of the ship, the navigator, all of us, that if we trade paint with another ship out there that we're done. And so it really is nerve wracking. But, but no, we, we did great work. We never have any problems. I, I had two captains that, you know, Blade, the Anna and Hack Hakeems a day. Both were fantastic in their own ways. And so I was truly blessed if I was going to be a navigator on a ship and I'd probably, I don't know, looking back, I don't know if I'd ask to do it again because how stressful it was. But having those two as my commanding officers did make it worthwhile.
- [11:29]
Marshall Spivak
That's great. Then you were also a desk officer at norad, northcom. And so I guess the big question is, besides tracking Santa at Christmas, what does a desk officer at NORAD do?
- [11:42]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
You know, what we try to do is we kind of have what the joint staff is trying to do with all the services and combatant commands. So our job is to work with the NORTHCOM team that does all their training and exercises and just try to make sure that we're all in line, that we're training to the stuff that the chairman believes is important. So the Chairman lets the J7 know this is really what I want my focus to be. And then northcom, they know what their focus needs to be and we just kind of compromise there. We just kind of meld between the combatant commanders ideas and what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff thinks is what's, what's coming down the pipe. And then we exercise those things. So they were ready for any fight. And northcom, you know, you mentioned NORAD track and Santa, which is fantastic. But they, they really, despite the not having kind of the troops everybody else does, they've got maybe the most important mission because they got to defend the homeland. So it was great to be a part of that. And I learned a lot, that's for sure. But they operate on a different level. Working, you know, for the chairman and the four star combatant commander to make sure that we're achieving their direction is a little intimidating, but very rewarding.
- [12:59]
Marshall Spivak
And that was the. And you were out in Omaha, Nebraska, Is that right?
- [13:04]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Now that's stratcom. So the Joint seven. So it's interesting. So you're working for the Pentagon. Yeah, but the J7, so large, we actually had a building down in Suffolk, Virginia is where I was headquartered. I did get my time in the Pentagon. I got sent up for a couple missions up there. We all try to avoid it. It's big and scary. But then when you get there, you're like, all right, maybe it's not as big and as scary as you've heard about. Definitely intimidating with the number of high ranking officers that are in that building.
- [13:35]
Marshall Spivak
Yeah. Oh, I can imagine. In 2023, you assumed your current command at Naval Weapons Stationary in New Jersey. Before you took command there, did you ever spend any time in New Jersey?
- [13:49]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
No, this is my first time in New Jersey. I've been through Newark before, you know, airport and I saw Jersey City and Newark from the air and I, I had an impression of Jersey completely different from what my impression was. I tell people I love this joke, but you guys get a terrible rap. I mean, there's all, you know, where I'm the Midwest from, there's the mafia jokes and there's the, forget about it.
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Marshall Spivak
A lot of Sopranos references.
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah, absolutely. But, but you guys absolutely have incredibly warm people. If, if people like you, they treat you like family and, and that's really, really nice. You know, the only thing that the other joke I like to make is I realize that, you know, pay attention when I'm at a stoplight because then when the light turns green, I got about half a second to go before I'm going to hear a horn. But the other thing, that way. It is, it is, but I get it. It's just them saying hello and you know, all right, got it. I'm, I'm moving. But besides, you know, take taking people in incredibly military friendly state. Maybe the most military friendly state I've been. It's strange. Even the, even the young kids and the teenagers when I go to Wawa and I'm, I'm picking up some snacks or something like that, and I'm in my uniform, they're all, you know, take it, take a moment to stop me and say thank you for your service. And that's very unique to have even the teenagers and stuff do that. Usually most teenagers, other places see in uniform and they try to avoid you because they, you know, they see authority figure in that uniform. But the folks here were raised to just respect the military, and they're very appreciative and it is fantastic place to be. I'm really happy I got a chance to command here and get to really know the real New Jersey. Incredibly military friendly, incredibly warm people. As long as you're on the. On the, on the goods with them.
- [15:42]
Marshall Spivak
Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Naval Weapons Station Earl? What exactly it is that. That you and your team and your command does there give a little bit of a background for anyone? You know, there's a lot of familiarity, I think, with, with the joint. With the joint base. The Navy's got a huge presence here in New Jersey. Can you talk a little bit about what goes on at Earl and a little bit of. Of its history?
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Oh, absolutely. Happy to. So December 1943 is when we were born, for lack of a better word. And so we're named after the former admiral in charge of artillery for World War I for the Navy, Admiral Earl. So that's where we get our namesake. But so in 1943, they realized they needed a place to, you know, store ammunition that was close to this neck of the woods for. For lack of a better word, to get ordinance over overseas. And so there were some other places they were before that, other difficulties, especially being close to high populous areas. So back in 1943, they found there was a kind of wide open space here. And so they. They built our pier here in Sandy Hook Bay so that they could deliver ordinance to that pier and be far enough away from any high populated areas, they could do the dangerous ordinance operations that you can imagine. So some of the things we like to brag about is, you know, off of that, by 1945, we're well established. In fact, we provided the majority ordinance for the Normandy invasion.
- [17:18]
Marshall Spivak
Wow.
- [17:19]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
And so we have a road here that connects my main base with the. The pier. We call it Normandy Road in honor of that. And so really rich history right from the start. And then over the years, we continue to grow and grow all the way through the Cold War as we built up our stock while stockpiles of ammunition. And we continue that tradition today. So today we're really the hub of aviation weapons. And so all the carrier fleet and all the Marine Expeditionary Strike groups from the east coast, they're going to be armed from us. And so we're really proud to be able to support them. So anytime a carrier goes out or a, you know, LHD or Marine Expeditionary Strike Group does good work overseas, we know that we played a part in that. And so it's, it continues to that day.
- [18:09]
Marshall Spivak
That's awesome. When I, the first time I ever came to, to Earl, of course, instead of actually following the directions that were given to me, I just decided to do it on my own and I ended up in Colts Neck rather than at the pier and Leonardo. So not only do you have the main, your, you know, your main base land side and obviously your, your, your waterfront there, but you also have this pier that you mentioned which is not close to, to the main base. So how do you, how do you sort of seamlessly run it all together? And how does, like, how does the, the operations and the things that you do at the pier sort of connect with, you know, the main base down in Colts Neck? Yeah.
- [18:51]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Hey brother, I'd love to tell you I run it seamlessly, but it's, you know, it's a constant challenge. You know, there's, there is a tyranny of distance and the, the main base in Colts Neck is where we store our weapons and then we have to move them all the way out to the pier. And the pier is a fantastic thing and I'd be, you know, if I didn't talk about that a little bit. So it is 2.2 miles from the shoreline of steel and concrete, which is very unique in the entire world. It is actually a fantastic feat of engineering and good on the military. We can, United States military continues to do things like that throughout our history. But, but it's fantastic because what that allows us to do is when I'm loading ships or unloading ships to either going or coming back from deployment, if there were, and you know, it's very, very rare, but if there were some sort of ammunition accident, we are far enough away from land, being 2.2 miles into the water that everybody can feel safe. You're going to hear some noise, you, you'd feel some shaking. But that's one of the reasons they built it the way they did is for the safety of the population. And so, but, but it is, it is unique because trying to run both bases, you know, my, my headquarters is in Colts Neck, but I try to get down to the pier as much as possible. But you know, as yourself know, just, just getting from the main side to the appears of a 45 minute trek and it does require a lot of work. So what that means is the military is really good about, you know, empowering our people. So I have, you know, for the most part, very junior people running the pier, but they do a fantastic job. They understand my guidance, they have My orders and they go and they do. And so I just got to put my trust in my people mostly. And that's how we get things done. And so when I'm down at the pier, it's the same thing on main side, you know, I'm pretty far away. So I got to trust all the people, understand that the guidance and what we're supposed to do and to carry those things out. And I'm never disappointed by my people. That is probably the greatest strength we have. The pier and the engineering and the railroads that go back and forth between are all fantastic. But it's the people that make this place work.
- [21:12]
Marshall Spivak
Absolutely. It always comes down to the people because at the end of the day you can have all the other things in place, but the people is what make, what makes things happen.
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Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Now it's good.
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Marshall Spivak
I, you know, we'll talk about commissioning in a few minutes. But I, you know, when the first time I drove down the pier, I mean, it's just, it's so impressive and to think about what you're doing all the way at the end, but you're driving, you're like, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. Where, where am I going here? I'm just driving in the middle of the water. But, you know, it's just absolutely fantastic place. So you're also the home port to two ships, the USNS Supply and the USNS Arctic Taoe 6 and Taoe 8, both decommissioned supply class fast combat support ships that are now operated by marad. So you also, now you also have two ships that are home ported. And how does that sort of affect, you know, the operations at the pier?
- [22:11]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah, so. So those are fantastic ships, by the way. As a carrier, that's your best friend because they carry the aviation fuel, which is, you know, one of your most important things. And they can carry supplies and they can carry ammunition. So working with those ships is really great because from being a navigator on a carrier, I know how important those ships are to the lifeblood of operations on the carrier. So, so working them is fantastic. But they're great customers. They're constantly, I feel like they're always underway supplying the carriers or other ships that are underway. But whenever they get here, we try to take good care of them. So Military Sealift Command is a civilian mariner organization. So it's a little different. So you know, the master, the majority of the crew, I think usually they have like a supply officer and an ordinance officer that might be active duty personnel. But the majority of the ship, civilian mariners, but, but they're professionals and they're great to work with. So it's just a little bit different from my entire career. I know I be an active duty myself. I know how to work with people in uniform. Being here at the base, you know, my civilian work, my staff, as well as the civilian mariners that are on ships, like the architect in the supply, it's just you, you know, it's getting to know what makes them tick and what motivates them. And you know, mission accomplishment is kind of the, the common thread and all that, but outside of that, we do have different wants and needs. And once I figure out that, it kind of makes it a lot easier. I know how to, how to keep them happy. And if I can keep them happy, then a happy crew accomplishes the mission better.
- [23:55]
Marshall Spivak
Well, I have to throw a quick fun fact at you because when I saw the, the AOE and there was actually, we're here in Camden at The battleship the USS Camden, which was AOE 2 was the 542nd ship built at the New York Shipbuilding Company right here in Camden, New Jersey over 68 years. And the USS Camden AOE 2 was the last ship to ever be built here in Camden by the New York Shipbuilding Company. And if you, and if you saw the little elephant that they've got on their cap, I saw this. I was trying to track down something that says Camden on it and I saw the elephant. I'm like, what is this elephant? I don't know if you ever saw the 1962 John Wayne movie Hatari about, you know, big game hunting. And the Atari theme song was their unrep theme song on the USS Campton. So just a fun fact that I wanted to bring up for people to people to see when they listen to this. But we, we met as weapon station Earl was the Host of the USS New Jersey SSN 796 Submarines Commissioning Day. As a member of the USS New Jersey Commissioning Committee, first and foremost, I want to thank you and your team because our goal was best commissioning ever. And I think this was truly and from what has been told to me by outside folks, that this was the best commission the submarine force has ever seen. And a lot of that's due to the incredible team that, that you've got at Earl. And I know you've had many cool, really cool experiences working in the Navy, but as an aviator, as an aircraft carrier guy, I'm sure hosting a 5,000 person commissioning of a Virginia class nuclear submarine maybe wasn't on Your bingo card. But between all the different departments that have to come together, how do you, how do you make something like that successful? How do you bring together all your departments, all the different folks to, to support, you know, a huge event like that? You know, Secretary of the Navy was here, the governor, so many other folks, and obviously, you know, over 5,000 people on the pier.
- [26:22]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah. You know, it starts with the simple thing, is that the, the people here were excited to do it. They wanted to do this. They thought it was, it wasn't a chore to have to host a commission, but it was a privilege. Most of my folks are, you know, my civilian workforce from the state of New Jersey, they know the history of the battleship New Jersey. They know the namesake, and they were really, really proud to be able to commission something with their, you know, with their namesake. And so most of them were just eager to do it. And so that helps a whole lot. The next part was, you know, my team was phenomenal and I'm really, really proud of them. Absolutely. But you mentioned the commissioning committee. So working with you guys was just easy as can be. You guys did the majority of the heavy lifting, just came with me with the ideas already polished and ready to go, just needing permission. And so that wasn't really hard work on my part. It was just recognizing that you guys really had your stuff together and it was easy to go. And it started with, and not to embarrass you, Marshall, but when we first met was when I came down to Camden when the battleship New Jersey got underway to go to the shipyard. That was a, that was a miserable day, weather wise. It really was.
- [27:35]
Marshall Spivak
Yes, it was.
- [27:37]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
But the crowd was so enthusiastic and all the people up on the dais with you were so enthusiastic. You made it a tremendous event. Everything about it I enjoyed. Like, even though my hands went numb and my ears were ringing because the cold, cold, blistery air that day, I was smiling because it was just the discussion of the history of the battleship New Jersey. And then, you know, everybody seemed to just be into the event and that was something special. I think I told you this when you're on the commission. Kennedy said, I just wanted to be a lot like that. I was hoping ours could be as successful as yours, you know, and, you know, having the Secretary of the Navy and the Governor of New Jersey at. On my base for an event, a little bit daunting. And we wanted to make sure it was smooth as possible. But I had people like yourself that already done big events. Right. You'd already hosted the governor of New Jersey and a whole bunch of other dignitaries. And so you kind of knew how that worked. And so I did. I listened to the experts. I mean, I'm no dummy. I'm a little bit of a dummy, but I'm, I'm smart enough to know that the people that have got good ideas to listen to them. And so really, it's as simple as that. The commissioning committee was amazing. The sub was willing to do just about anything. My staff was eager and excited to host it. And then the entire state of New Jersey, the people, there's so much that they did for the USS New Jersey and the crew. It wasn't just the commissioning ceremony. Everything leading up to it, they did so much. Every time the crew was here, they went out of their way to make them feel special. So I don't know if it was the commissioning ceremony was as good or just the state of New Jersey went out of the way more than any other state has to make sure their namesake felt special. And so at the end of the day, my job was actually fairly bit easy, but I'm just really appreciative of all the different players that went into it that made it such a special day.
- [29:37]
Marshall Spivak
Yeah. I want to thank, first of all, thank you. I appreciate that. I was on the commissioning committee for four and a half years before commissioning day ever came about. So to your point about the planning and execution and having things sort of served up and ready for you just as say yes or no to. It was a lot of long meetings and a lot of definite prep work that went behind it. And to see it all come together, you know, it's, it's. It's still hard to believe that it's come and gone. But you mentioned being with us in March of 2024 when the battleship left for dry dock. First time the ships moved in. 25 years. First time the ship's been on the blocks in 35 years. 30 degrees and 30 mile an hour winds. And then when we came back, I think it was zero mile an hour winds and about 100 degrees. And it was almost similar day to commissioning day, which was a hot one out on the pier at Earl. But then you also came and visited us at the dry dock and you got to walk under the ship as well. What were your impressions of the, the battleship in dry dock and, and the, the tour and sort of that, that.
- [30:50]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Experience that you had, you know, that was a treat. To be able to walk underneath a battleship like that is still to this day the most fascinating thing is it's just those blocks, right? Those blocks don't think like they're anything. They don't look like they're anything special. And I can't remember you told me that it was like 200 or some of those 302 blocks.
- [31:09]
Marshall Spivak
Yep, 302.
- [31:11]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
That's all it takes to hold up a battleship. As massive and, and as amazing as a battleship is that just 302 of those blocks can do that job. But I trusted. I was walking under the battleship with all you, and it was really, really neat to see something that very few people get to like the Keel Man. And it just kind of felt special. And the whole thing, like, the shipyard experience was fantastic. But you have some amazing guys on your staff there that they appreciate the history. I, I love the Navy and over, over years and years and years. The Navy is very proud of their history and heritage. So a little embarrassed that your guys just put me to shame how much they know about the history of the Navy over myself who's been in the Navy for 26 years now. But it's really refreshing to see and I feel bad. I just remember when we were talking because, you know, I've got a, a propeller from a battleship sitting outside my main gate and I've got to give serial picture of the serial number on it. And we were talking about that because I, I can see that. And I'm like, man, I know it's on a battleship. I'd love to know which one. And you have guys that can figure that out. And that is so cool. You know, I could try to Google and. But you have guys that can look through records and microfiche or whatever they got to do to figure something like out. And it's just so cool that, you know, they keep our history alive, man, because, you know, the Battleship New Jersey, she did a lot, you know, the most decorated warship of all time for the Navy. So absolutely something to be proud of. And so I'm glad that you do things like this podcast and you get to teach people not only about the Battleship New Jersey, but now today we get to talk about our new namesake. The. You know, the USS New Jersey is going to do amazing things as the, you know, they tell me she's the Navy's fastest submarine after commissioning. And so.
- [33:02]
Marshall Spivak
Absolutely.
- [33:03]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
That's pretty cool. So the most decorated namesake and now the, the fastest. So the New Jersey's got some, some cool stuff tagged to her name.
- [33:12]
Marshall Spivak
Yes, she does. And I, well, first, I appreciate the comments about the team and the staff. We have an incredible team here and frankly, a lot of us aren't veterans. You know, we just love this. We have a passion for the ship. We have a passion for service. You know, I'm not a veteran and I said before and I sort of view this as my, you know, my higher calling of service and the people here, you know, most people aren't in the museum business for, for money, that's for sure. So you have to have a passion, you have to love what you do. And we are incredibly lucky that we, we have that in in spades here. So we certainly appreciate when, you know, our folks are mentioned. So thank you. You know, between the, and you know, talking about, you spoke earlier about the community and you know, the, you know, the way that the community here in New Jersey, you know, supports the military between Earl, you know, and our friends at Lakehurst. And as I mentioned before, the Navy has a significant presence in New Jersey. Between your, the real estate, the manpower, the resources on all the different, different commands and missions that go on here. You know, can you talk about how Earl is sort of part of the, you know, the greater Mammoth county, the greater sort of Central Jersey community and you know, for those who live on the base, live off the base, you know, what, what, what's, what's that like?
- [34:47]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah, so we are incredibly blessed. Monmouth county is incredibly well run county. And so most of our interaction with the elected leaders is. It feels like I'm, I'm all take no give. They're always calling up, seeing if there's anything I need, ways they can support us. And so I feel bad. The most I can do is there's a lot of ceremonies and other things they have out there and they would just love for the Navy to come out and support that. And so, you know, I've got an honor guard and you know, I'll put on my uniform as much as I can and get out there and just let the community know that the Navy's here and we're a part of their community and they seem to really love that. But as far as things, it seems like they're always doing way more for me than I do for them. And that's at the county level and including like the, you know, the sheriff's office is incredible and they support us with law enforcement as needed to. But there's little things they do. The sheriff, Shawn golden is the Monmouth county sheriff and he does, he started a cremains program where he goes around to the different funeral homes and he'll find that they're veteran cremains that nobody has claimed. And he does this beautiful ceremony where we honor them and then we take them in a huge caravan down the state and I apologize, I can't remember the cemetery they go to, but they take them to a veteran ceremony and they give them their, their proper respects. And it's just stuff like that, like how much they care about the veterans. And these are veterans that, you know, people have forgotten.
- [36:17]
Marshall Spivak
I didn't know that.
- [36:18]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah, it's, it's incredible ceremony and, and you get your usual groups, you know, Rolling Thunder bike group and a whole bunch of folks, they, they love doing stuff for the veterans. And you see a whole bunch of people will come out when they know it's coming. They'll come out on the side of the road and they'll wave at the, at us as we're driving through. And, and it's, it is pretty heart. Like I said, New Jersey loves its military. And it is, you know, every citizen from the elected leaders down to the, you know, just, just, you know, working class Joe. It's pretty amazing to see, but, but it's been fantastic. And then, you know, most of us live. We don't have any housing out in Middletown Leonardo. It's all in Colts Neck. And so they, the wonderful people at Colts Neck are incredibly welcoming to us. They absolutely make us feel like at home. Our kids go to school here in Colts Neck and it's amazing school system and so we're blessed with that. And then, and then, you know, most of my road and my peers out in Middletown and the, the Middletown police and elected leaders again are incredibly supportive. In fact, you know, Mayor Perry, who's the mayor out there, probably did more than anybody in supporting the USS New Jersey and the commissioning his, his town. And all the things they did were just incredible to see. And if you've ever hear him speak about, you know, the USS New Jersey or the military people around is, it's really nice. So it's always. We always know we're supported with the, the people in the places that we live and work here.
- [37:55]
Marshall Spivak
That's great. This is the WETU podcast stands for We Eat this Stuff up. Or you can imagine a slightly more vocal version of that. It was the motto of our last. Our 19th and final commanding officer, Admiral Ron Tucker, who you probably met at some point at Commissioning Day and Commissioning Week. And it's on, on our battle flag replica sitting, standing behind me that we actually found 25 years later in a black garbage bag in a compartment that nobody knew was There somebody, we thought somebody walked away with it during DCOM, but 25 years later, you find something in the black trash bag on board. Joy of working at the battleship. And you know, basically, it's. What it means is, you know, doing grueling and tough work with a smile on your face. We eat this stuff up. We want more. I'm sure throughout your career you've had a ton of, you know, wetsuit moments, but is there anything in particular that sort of stands out? It doesn't have to be at Earl, but you know, from any of your time in the Navy that you could look back and think, oh, maybe that, that's a good wetsuit moment.
- [39:05]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah, you know, I already talked about it a little bit, but it really was the 911 deployment. There's something to be joined the military. Uh, it's a, it's, it's a tough life. Uh, it's tough on the, the folks that deploy. It's tough on the families that stay behind. But when the entire country is behind you, man, that is a fantastic. So you can't get enough of it. Like I said, there was only time to kind of eat, sleep and fly on that first deployment, but I would, I would have kept doing it for, for, you know, months and months more.
- [39:40]
Marshall Spivak
I mean, your whole deployment sounds like a WETSU moment, to be honest. And, and, and it sounds like when you were describing it earlier, that's exactly what it is. So you took command in 2023. Is this at Earl, is this a two year tour or how long?
- [39:58]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Three years. So I'll turn over in 2026. And yeah, so I'm about halfway there. In fact, I'm at my midpoint right now. I know just enough to be dangerous, and there's enough, I don't know, to be even more dangerous, so. Oh, we'll see.
- [40:14]
Marshall Spivak
We've, we've talked a lot about a lot of things today. Is there any, you know, a part of this, as I mentioned earlier, is making sure that the folks who support the battleship, who know what we do here, but also get the word out about what, you know, what our active duty components are doing in the state. We've talked about that. Is there, you know, is there anything else that we didn't mention that you would want to leave a listener, viewer with that to know about Earl and what you guys do anything to, you know, that you want to leave with?
- [40:48]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Yeah, you know, the commissioning, a whole bunch of people I think that had never gotten a taste of Naval Weapon Station Earl got to kind of See, like, you know, the, the immensity of the pier itself. Right. The military does things in a big way. You know, we have hundred, over 100 miles of railroad tracks and we got all these trains and magazine and magazine and magazine full of ammunition. And so we do big things here, but we have very few people. So I guess the interesting thing I would tell people about Earl is we may be small in numbers, but the size of our base and the size of our mission is enormous. And so I can always appreciate that. How much work each and every person does to make sure that just the geography and the scope of our mission gets taken care of on a day to day basis with really as few people as we have working here at the installation.
- [41:52]
Marshall Spivak
That's great. Captain Kemp Ruski Smith, thank you for your service. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for everything you've done for, certainly for the commissioning of the submarine New Jersey. And thank you for all that you and your team do for our Navy at Naval Weapons Stationary right here in the great state of New Jersey. Thank you very much for joining us now.
- [42:16]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
Thanks, Marshall. It really was my pleasure. Talking about myself is my favorite thing to do.
- [42:22]
Marshall Spivak
Thank you, sir.
- [42:23]
Captain Kent Brusky Smith
All right. Keep doing what you're doing. I love you, man.
- [42:25]
Marshall Spivak
Thank you.