The U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) completed its Fiscal Year 2013 Selected Restricted Availability (SRA), June 23.
SRA is scheduled for the accomplishment of ship-board repairs and alterations by industrial activities. These short, labor-intensive availabilities are assigned to complete work that is required to sustain the material condition of the ship for mission-readiness while at sea.
“The ship’s force accomplished approximately 316,790 man hours of work,” said Lt. Cmdr. David Hoffman, George Washington’s SRA coordinator. “The biggest jobs were tackled by the deck team, who had an extremely large package this year. It was the most challenging we’ve ever attempted and [deck team] went above and beyond.”
George Washington’s air department completed more than 1,700 jobs equating to almost 66, 240 man hours.
“It was an all hands effort,” said Lt. Jitindra Sirjoo, George Washington’s flight deck officer. “Air department did a fantastic job ensuring that all nonskid was correctly applied, the catapults and arresting gears were repaired, the fuel system is ready to receive millions of gallons of fuel, and the hangar bay was maintained and is ready to receive aircraft.”
Ship teams were established and comprised of crew members from different departments to divide work into specific jobs. The door team maintained and replaced 257 water-tight and air-tight doors.
“The door team did an outstanding job,” said Hull Technician 1st Class Donald Preston, from Brooklyn, N.Y. “It’s all about watertight integrity. The entire ship is at risk if door seals don’t work properly.”
George Washington coordinated with Ship’s Repair Facility (SRF) and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS), who provided knowledgeable contract workers and land support machinery.
“We worked pretty well as a project team with both Puget Sound and SRF,” said Hoffman. “In collaboration with these companies, the command did outstanding this year. They finished every key event and milestone ahead of schedule.”
George Washington and its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing 5, provide a combat-ready force that protects the collective maritime interest of the U.S. and its partners and allies in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
[mappress] Press Release, June 24, 2013; Image: US Navy