By ED FRIEDRICH, Scripps Howard News Service

BANGOR, Wash. - Hundreds of nuclear warheads are secretly being trucked between northwest Washington state's Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor and the Texas panhandle to have their lives extended.

The 100-kiloton W76 warheads are between 23 and 32 years old and need to be upgraded, according to the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

BREMERTON, Wash. - Integrating women onto U.S. submarine crews is "absolutely the right thing to do," and, unless Congress acts in the next few weeks, they likely will be serving beneath the sea within two years, the Navy's civilian leader said.

BREMERTON, Wash. - A military spouse education program serving 98,000 people has become too popular for its own good.

The Pentagon "paused" the year-old Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA), after applications drained its budget and strained its administrators. The program provides tuition of up to $6,000 for spouses to train for careers that can endure frequent moves.

BREMERTON, Wash. - Military members have long been allowed to vote in -- and be taxed by -- their home states. Now their spouses have that same option.

The Military Spouses Residency Relief Act, signed into law Nov. 11 by President Barack Obama, allows a spouse to remain a legal resident of his or her home state if it's the same home state as the service member.

BANGOR, Wash. - Specially trained Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions will help guard a Trident submarine base in Washington beginning next year, the Navy announced this week.

Chris Bruce had no trouble climbing Mount Adams. Getting back down Washington state's second-highest peak was another story.

In 1985, a young naval officer's class ring flew off during a snowball fight near Bremerton, Wash. For 24 years, it remained missing while he duty-hopped around the globe.
Last month, Capt. Chris Morin, now living in Virginia, got an envelope in the mail. It came from Poulsbo, Wash. He tore it open, and out slid the University of Utah memento.

KEYPORT, Wash. -- The Navy wants to extend its Washington state ranges so that its subsurface warfare center can adequately test manned and unmanned underwater vehicles.As world threats change, the Navy is more likely to operate submarines near the shore instead of deep at sea, lending more importance to underwater vehicles that can sniff out mines, monitoring devices and vessels.

BREMERTON, Wash. -- As "individual augmentees" become more entrenched in the war on terror, the Navy and its communities are getting better at helping those solitary sailors and their families.

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Capt. Reid Tanaka ruffled some New England feathers recently when he jabbed in his change-of-command speech that "the new submarine capital of the Navy is (Naval Base) Kitsap."