Maintenance

A tale of two ships

By Gidget Fuentes on May 18, 2012 3rd Fleet, 7th Fleet, Life at Sea, Maintenance, Navy, Ships

Let’s face it: Once you step into a new car – or even a previously-owned vehicle, as used-car dealers say – it’s just not exciting to drive older wheels. Classic rebuilt cars, the exception of course. Trading down just isn’t fun. So we can feel for the sailors and officers of amphibious assault ship Essex, who this spring took the Wasp-class big-deck Bonhomme Richard from their home in San Diego, Calif., and swapped hulls in Japan, where they exchanged ships and even the official Facebook pages with their Sasebo-based counterparts in the Navy’s latest scheduled hull swap. The San Diego-based crew…

Mismanaged projects and funds? The boss wants to know — through channels

By Bill McMichael on February 23, 2012 Blogs, Fleet Forces Command, Inspector General, Investigation, Maintenance, Navy, Software

Fleet Forces Command chief Adm. John Harvey sure raised eyebrows with his Thursday post on the command blog when he chastised those posting comments about “potential mismanagement of Navy projects and funds.” Harvey said he wants to know about potential problems — and he’s been one to solicit feedback in the past — but a blog, he said, is not the place to voice serious allegations that, if unresolvable by the chain of command, might be better directed to an inspector general. Harvey appears to be referring specifically to five comments posted at the tail of Feb. 9 post providing…

Down and dirty

By Bill McMichael on September 19, 2011 Carrier On-Board Delivery plane, Carriers, Maintenance, Maritime operations, Naval aviation, Photos, Ships, Training

The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower is underway in the Atlantic conducting carrier qualifications for naval aviators, but it’s the unglamorous and often tedious work below decks that keeps the fliers going. A zillion things can go wrong with an aircraft — especially aircraft that operate in a maritime environment and bounce onto aircraft carriers. That requires checking everything from the big stuff to internal leakage. All the work has to be tracked. Then there’s the support for the support — the ancillary work. These unsung efforts underpin what everyone is hoping for topside: safe flight operations.

Ike's return is on track

By Bill McMichael on July 14, 2011 Aviation, Carriers, Flight deck certification, Maintenance, Maritime operations, Navy, Photos, Safety, Shipyard, Unmanned carrier landing

The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower is enjoying a noteworthy and productive post-availability period at sea. On July 2, Ike, operating off the Atlantic coast, was the scene of the first fully hands-free carrier landing as an F/A-18D modified to emulate the in-development X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System aircraft touched down under control of an onboard computer network linked to the plane. The aircraft was manned in case something went wrong, but the pilot kept his hands off the controls, the Navy told my colleague Joshua Stewart. See his story in the July 18 Navy Times. Four days later, the carrier…

Almost back in the fleet

By Bill McMichael on June 14, 2011 Carriers, Maintenance, Navy, Photos, Sea trials, Ships, Shipyard

The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower is underway for sea trials following a nine-month maintenance availability at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. Ike’s planned incremental availability began last summer and was supposed to be done in March. It was extended into June due to major pump overhaul and unexpected winter storms, according to the Navy. “Today we are absolutely ready to get back to sea,” said Capt. Marcus Hitchcock, Ike’s CO. “You can walk around and see the phenomenal changes around the ship.” Looks like someone is happy to be leaving the yards …

Some good news, for a change

By Bill McMichael on May 26, 2011 Amphibious operations, Gator Navy, LPD-17, Maintenance, Navy, San Antonio class, Ships, testing

The much-maligned amphibious transport dock ship San Antonio returned to Norfolk Thursday afternoon after 10 days of sea trials, and commanding officer Cmdr. Thomas Kait seemed like a very happy man during a press availability in his onboard cabin. “I would characterize it as an A-plus,” Kait told reporters. “I don’t know how many times I said `great’ or said, `This is the first time this ship’s done this in two years’.” Kait said crew morale was sky-high, “just knowing that their gear worked. All the hard work they put forth over the past two years. I know there were…

A success story, and a lesson learned

By Bill McMichael on April 30, 2011 Board of Inspection and Survey, Fleet Forces Command, Gator Navy, leadership, Maintenance, Navy, Personnel, Photos

A year ago, the dock landing ship Oak Hill was in poor shape — and that’s by the Fleet Forces Command chief’s reckoning. Beginning in 2005, five deployments in five years, no time for maintenance and inadequate manning had left the relatively young ship with a degraded power plant, endemic corrosion and a whole lot of systems that just didn’t work. A long-overdue yard period, money, lots of outside help and long hours produced a remarkable turnaround Apr. 4-8, when the ship passed its rigid underway material inspection by the Board of Inspection and Survey with flying colors. Oak Hill…

San Antonio: still pierside — but getting there

By Bill McMichael on March 23, 2011 Board of Inspection and Survey, Fleet Forces Command, Gator Navy, LPD-17, Maintenance, Navy, Photos, San Antonio class, Ships, Surface Force Atlantic

The amphibious transport dock Mesa Verde left its Naval Station Norfolk pier at 9:05 Wednesday morning as the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group began deploying to the Med and the Libya crisis. As it pulled away, its wake gently lapped up against the starboard-side hull of San Antonio, moored at the next pier over, in what amounted to a love tap. Mesa Verde’s crew might have preferred delivering more of a kick in the rear. The third ship in the class, Mesa Verde had been home only eight months since its last overseas deployment, and it wasn’t supposed to deploy until…

Navy carrier hosts the Stanley Cup (the hardware, that is)

By Bill McMichael on March 2, 2011 Carriers, Hockey, Maintenance, Morale, National Hockey League, Navy, Photos, Stanley Cup

For a lifelong hockey fan like Command Master Chief Gregg Snaza, it was a visit to the sport’s Holy Grail. But he didn’t have to travel far. On Feb. 25, the famous Stanley Cup was brought to his “doorstep” — the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, undergoing a planned incremental availability at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Va. Here’s the proof: The 34.5-pound silver-and-nickel alloy trophy — there’s only one, although its shape and size have evolved since it was first awarded in 1894 — annually goes to the National Hockey League championship team, whose members drink champagne out of the…

A new San Antonio-class ship that's ready to fight

By Bill McMichael on February 16, 2011 Board of Inspection and Survey, LPD-17, Maintenance, Navy, Photos, Surface Force Atlantic

It took the Navy just five tries to get it right the first time — at least, when it comes to San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships. Naval Surface Force Atlantic announced Monday that the New York successfully completed its post-commissioning Final Contract Trials Feb. 4. CORRECTION: SURFLANT incorrectly first reported that the New York is the first of the five ships of the LPD-17 class to be certified for sustained combat operations on its first such evaluation. Rather, SURFLANT says, the ship produced the highest score during the FTC process of all previous San Antonio-class ships. The class has…

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