Aircraft Carrier USS Nimitz Earns Safety, Engineering Awards

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) garnered two departmental efficiency awards for its Safety and Engineering departments as part of Commander, Naval Air Forces 2011 Battle Efficiency assessment in a message released Feb. 10.

Nimitz Safety received a Green “S”, and Engineering received a Purple “E” for carrier maintenance for their performance the previous year in a docking planned incremental availability (DPIA).

The Battle Efficiency, or Battle “E”, award recognizes a ship’s capabilities to perform in an operational environment.

“For Nimitz to be recognized in two of the two measured categories, while in its DPIA, highlights the professionalism, amount of pride and teamwork the crew displayed through the year-long maintenance availability,” said Nimitz Executive Officer Capt. Michael Donnelly.

“Receiving these awards speaks volumes about the performance of the crew,” said Nimitz Command Master Chief William Lloyd-Owen. “Safety and maintenance are an all hands effort, and these are awards our crew achieved as a team.”

While in DPIA, Nimitz’ crew had the rigorous task of learning new job skills outside of their individual job ratings essential to completing dry dock on schedule.

“In my mind, dry dock is harder than cruise,” said Lloyd-Owen. “No one joined the Navy to do lagging and chip paint because of being in dry dock. We are an operationally minded unit, so to come together from different departments and put in these tiger, DPIA, valve, lagging and deck and tile teams, and excel is awesome. This is an old ship and things break, but everything the ship’s crew has taken on, either is finished early or is done on time.”

Nimitz’ Safety department, comprised of 11 personnel, applied more than 30 safety manuals such as gas-free, hazardous material, hearing protection, fall protection, radiation protection and more to ensure the safety of the crew and equipment.

“Our goal is to keep our crew safe by using Operational Risk Management to reduce injuries and mishaps, so we can fulfill our mission as a battle ready carrier,” said Cmdr. Lisa Ketterman, safety officer. “We strive to be inspection ready every single day.”

Safety department oversaw all evolutions during Nimitz’s year-long DPIA. They also trained the crew in many different safety procedures within an industrial environment.

“Dry dock was a huge evolution,” said Ketterman. “We had a lot of painting, sanding, and grinding going on. Those types of jobs brought up a lot of issues of lead and asbestos exposure, so we trained and fit tested more than 2,300 Sailors in our respiratory protection program.”

Ketterman attributes the success of the ship’s safety to the crew.

“Safety is an all hands effort, and there was no way we could’ve done this by ourselves,” said Ketterman. “I would like to credit our eight safety petty officers, the industrial hygienist, and all the departmental/divisional petty officers. I feel that the crew has done a good job caring for themselves, their fellow crew members and the material readiness of the ship.”

Nimitz’s Material and Maintenance Management (3M) office, comprised of five personnel, had the duty to oversee the maintenance of 148 work centers. In the previous year the 3M department implemented strict adherence to the Naval Administrative Message (NAVADMIN) for maintenance.

“Very few carriers receive a Purple “E” while in overhaul,” said Master Chief Hull Technician (SW/AW) David Conduff, 3M coordinator.

“So for us, it was a pleasant surprise that we received the award. Going into a yard period, we didn’t think maintenance was going to be necessarily documented or accomplished correctly, especially with the size of the work package going into the yard period and the completion of work package we were set up for,” he continued. “The Purple “E” takes that all into an account. Not just the corrected maintenance and the preventive maintenance, but how we did it, documented it, closed jobs properly, and how we corresponded to the ship yard personnel.”

Conduff attributes the success of the 3M program to the crew’s proactive role in preventive and corrective maintenance.

“What makes us stand out from the rest of the fleet is we are actively engaged in the 3M program,” said Lt. Cmdr. Arthur Fuller, 3M officer. “It starts with the commanding officer all the way down to the Sailors on the deck plates. It takes everyone to get involved to make this 3M program work. If you get any break in that chain, it’s going to fall apart.”

Fuller said that the the ship’s crew did a great job at completing their maintenance in a timely manner to ensure the 3M program’s success.

“We can’t do it ourselves,” said Conduff. “We were just the catalyst to make sure the procedures got done. This is an award that was actually achieved based on everyone else’s performance. The credit goes out to the entire ship.”

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Naval Today Staff , February 23, 2012; Image: navy