By ED OFFLEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A primary connection between the military bases and civilian city is the large military population that calls Lakewood home. A total of 9,000 Army families live in the city, according to Fort Lewis housing officials.

Another 5,000 families with retired military members also live in Lakewood, city officials estimate. One of them is Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, the former Joint Chiefs chairman who is living here while building a home in nearby Steilacoom.

At the city's retail center of Lakewood Mall one recent morning, Avelina Dagan and her daughter, Lucy Garcia, paused in their shopping to discuss the merits of Lakewood life. Dagan, whose husband, Oliver Garcia, retired six years ago as the command sergeant major of the 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis, says they enjoy close ties to the base because of services available to military retirees.

"We're still connected to the military," says Garcia. "But being from the Philippines, we enjoy the diversity of the (Asian/Pacific) ethnic groups here as well."

Another primary connection between Lakewood and its military base neighbors is the public schools, which serve a student population of 7,273 from the city and military communities.

Clover Park School District is one of a handful in the country that staffs and operates schools on the bases themselves, says district spokesman John Litten. Not only do high school students from military families on base come into the city for class, but a number of civilian elementary students are bused onto McChord or Fort Lewis to seven elementary schools and a special learning facility.