Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Energy, Installation and Environment) Dennis McGinn honored two government civilians with the Secretary of the Navy Safety Excellence Award during a Pentagon ceremony Oct. 20.
The Navy civilians – systems safety practitioners Rebecca Funkhouser and Robert Heflin – received the award on behalf of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) Systems Safety Engineering Division.
Funkhouser, a scientist working with a team dedicated to reducing operational risk for Sailors aboard ships, said:
It was a privilege to represent our outstanding organization and all of the hardworking and dedicated system safety practitioners in it.
McGinn presented Heflin and Funkhouser with a plaque inscribed with the motto “Mission First, Safety Always”.
The Secretary of the Navy’s Safety Excellence Awards – created to showcase Navy and Marine Corps commands that exemplify exceptional and sustained safety excellence – recognizes commands and programs that have gone above and beyond normal duties to ensure the safety of Sailors, Marines, civilians, and resources.
Specifically, the NSWCDD team won the Secretary of the Navy Safety Excellence Award for Safety Integration in Acquisition – a category that commends teams with an acquisition mission that made a significant impact by integrating safety into their programs, projects or systems.
On the horizon at NSWC Dahlgren Division are integration and interoperability safety, and the application of system safety within a mission engineering approach.
NSWCDD systems safety engineers ensure naval guns, ammunition, and gun barrels headed for the fleet are safe and effective. Moreover, they oversee the safe development and testing of new weapons from the electromagnetic railgun to the laser weapons system in addition to testing of new types of ammunition, such as reactive materials.
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Press release, Image: US Navy