The new base chaplain at NAS Whidbey, Cmdr. Michael Hakanson, considers the Northwest his home.

He was the command chaplain for Naval Station Everett, he owns a house there and he has relatives from Portland to Sea-Tac.

As he begins his tenure at NAS Whidbey Island, the twenty-year veteran is looking to serve the Sailors and Marines here, but he wants to get to know the base and the people more, too.

“I want to be a link in the chain for the Sailor who is on the flight line and is far from home,” he said. “I want to know what he or she may be missing in areas of personal faith, or how I can help him or her connect to resources such as Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR), Fleet and Family Services, or get help like substance abuse counseling.”

Hakanson is a Seventh Day Adventist which he describes as a Methodist who doesn’t know what day of the week to go to church on.

And he will draw on his extensive experience with Navy and Marine Corps personnel to help out or counsel.

One such experience was war in the Middle East. While serving in Everett, Hakanson volunteered for individual augmentee (IA) duty and spent a year in Iraq in 2005.

“I wanted to understand first-hand what Sailors in a war zone go through and come back to,” he said.

Hakanson said 2005 was an extremely turbulent and stressful time during which our troops had the highest number of casualties. This service taught him a new prayer:  “Lord, give us one day where we don’t lose someone.”

The duty in Iraq taught him how to be more relevant to more military men and women.

“How can you be relevant as a chaplain unless you go where they go, see what they see?” he said. And he has gone where they have.

He has served with the 132nd Engineer Battalion, 250th Military Intelligence Battalion, aboard USS San Jacinto (CG 56) Norfolk and at Naval Station Roosevelt Rhodes, where he was assigned to Command Chaplain Special Operations Command South (7th Special Forces Group and “SEALS” Naval Special Warfare Unit 4).

He also served at Naval Station Everett during which he went IA to Multi-National Corps Iraq, Deputy Wing Chaplain, 1st MAW, Okinawa.

He’s earned a fleet Marine Corps officers pin and has 18 parachute jumps with SPEC war units.

Finally, there is one more thing he has to do.

He’s from the black shoe Navy and is now definitely in brown shoe territory.

“Before I put on brown shoes I want to know what I don’t know.  So, I am in “receive” mode,” he said.