FRCSE Personnel Visit USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to See Maintenance Progress

Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) production personnel visited the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) as guests of the ship’s maintenance officer  to see firsthand the crew’s formidable challenges of sustaining aircraft, components and systems while underway.

During a port of call, Cmdr. Duane Decker, the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD) officer invited ten FRCSE employees to tour the second Nimitz-class aircraft carrier nicknamed “Ike” after the nation’s 34th president.

The Ike is his home away from home having completed four deployments onboard. Decker said the ship’s company numbers about 3000, comparable to a small city. The embarked air wing with 100 additional Sailors operates roughly 65 aircraft capable of projecting tactical air power.

AIMD personnel are responsible for supporting the maintenance and repair of these mission- critical aircraft. They periodically call upon FRCSE to supplement their service and repair capabilities while deployed.

“There is a lot of commonality to what the FRCSE artisans do and what we do, so I thought they might find it interesting,” Cmdr. Duane Decker said. “Additionally, I wanted to connect the link. We rely on depot support for a lot of the things we do, whether requesting assistance through a damage evaluation disposition or looking for expert guidance.”

FRCSE Components Process Engineer Daniel Simon was intrigued during his first visit. He said from an engineering perspective, you have to factor in materials and equipment storage in tight quarters on pitching seas, which add another unique element.

“You have to think about all these things moving around out there on the ship,” said Simon, “anything put on the shelf, anything put on the wall. You have to make sure it is secure. Seeing what little they have to work with and how much they get done, is impressive.”

Decker is penciled in as the prospective FRCSE production officer tentatively scheduled to arrive in May 2012.

“I am looking forward to coming to FRCSE,” he said. “The capabilities…across the intermediate and depot-levels are incredible. I also know that FRCSE has a winning team, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”

[mappress]

Source: navair, August 22, 2011;