That's one big Master at Arms - he'll keep the peace.
It's been 20 years, so I'm sure a lot has changed. I would start in Oak Harbor which is where the base is located and where most families live. It's a a really nice Navy town - not overgrown with pawnshops, used car dealers, etc... It's decent size (I think it had a Walmart) and was very family/Navy oriented. I heard the town works really hard to stay a nice community and keep the riff-raff out. Base housing may also be available and was high quality at the time.
We lived about 20 miles north in Anacortes. Beautiful drive to work every morning over Deception Pass bridge and I could drive onto base through the back gate. I never had problems with weather, but I heard it could ice during a bad winter storm and keep you from getting on base. It was a great coastal town that was felt far-removed from the Navy. My wife worked at the local hospital and there's a lot of restaurants and tourist. It was also quicker access to I-5 and the larger towns in the area (Mount Vernon, Bellingham). I'm sure the town is probably pretty expensive now, but maybe worth looking into depending on what they're looking for and budget. Anything south of Oak Harbor down the island seemed pretty isolated to me. It was harder to get to Seattle or anywhere else without a haul.
I'm sure he'll love it, my wife and I have great memories of our two years in the area.
