Month: November 2024

Source: United States Navy

The Marines, from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (8th ESB EOD) and Headquarters and Service Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (H&S Battalion, 2nd MLG), introduced a range of techniques to counter weapons of mass destruction, including Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) identification and handling, mechanical and thermal breaching and sensitive site exploitation.

8th ESB EOD and 2nd MLG Marines also worked alongside U.S. Coast Guard members to conduct Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) training with Allies and partner nations during the 10-day exercise.

“Each one of these skill sets is critical to the overall operations of visit, board, search and seizure conducted by the United States Coast Guard,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nick Confortini, officer in charge of the Marine Corps detachment for Phoenix Express. “These trainings are an important aspect of overall maritime security operations. The information sharing we have done over these last 10 days have not only improved our cooperation with our allies and partners but enhanced our joint capabilities.”

CBRN training ensures that the U.S. and its partners and allies have the capability and capacity to respond to CBRN incidents and quickly restore normal operations if such an incident occurs. 

U.S. Marines demonstrated thermal and mechanical breaching techniques designed to penetrate concrete, metal and shipboard hatches during visit, board, search, and seizure operations, and shared tactics for sensitive site exploitation used to collect evidence aboard a target vessel.

Phoenix Express provides North African, European, and U.S. maritime forces the opportunity to work together, share information, and refine tactics, techniques, and procedures to promote maritime safety and security in the Mediterranean Sea. Phoenix Express deters sea-based illicit activity and protects NATO’s and Europe’s southern flank against malign activity.

Participating nations in Phoenix Express included Algeria, Belgium, Georgia, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Türkiye, Senegal, and the United States.

Phoenix Express is one of three regional maritime exercises led by U.S. Naval Forces Africa and executed by Commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet, as part of a comprehensive strategy to provide collaborative opportunities to African forces and international partners to address maritime security concerns.

Commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners to advance U.S. national interests, security and stability in Europe and Africa.

Source: United States Navy

Members of the Handling Systems Engineering Branch in the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department, the agents participated the first three-week Submarine Tendered Maintenance Period (STMP) at HMAS Stirling in Perth, Australia, marking a significant step in the Australia, United Kingdom, United States (AUKUS) trilateral partnership.

STMPs are similar to planned maintenance periods that are typically conducted in U.S. submarine ports. They usually last up to three weeks and don’t require the submarine to be dry-docked.

When factoring in the historical aspect, Braman — a 14-year employee at Division Newport with plenty of temporary duty travel under his belt — said his most recent work trip tops the list.

“I think it’s pretty cool that we did the first modernizations performed in Australia on a submarine,” Braman said. “To do a modernization on a submarine is nothing. Everyone does it. But we’re the first ones doing a modernization in Perth, and no one can take that away from us.”

The ISEAs worked alongside submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) personnel, as well as their Royal Australian Navy (RAN) counterparts to conduct repairs and modernizations to the ship’s thinline towed array handling system aboard the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776).

This maintenance period aided the execution of Pillar 1 of the AUKUS partnership, which is to deliver a sovereign, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarine capability to Australia by the early 2030s.

“This is the first time since World War II that the U.S. has conducted submarine maintenance in Australian waters, and certainly the first instance in history of a joint American-Australian team performing maintenance on a nuclear-powered attack submarine,” Rear Adm. Lincoln Reifsteck, U.S. Navy AUKUS Integration and Acquisition program manager, said in early September after the STMP was complete. “The importance of this event cannot be overstated. These last few weeks provided essential maintenance and stewardship experience for our Australian partners in advance of establishing a sovereign SSN force in Australia.”

STMPs are a significant step toward achieving the AUKUS Pillar 1 objective.

“The main thing is that we integrated with a foreign military and trained them on how to do maintenance, repair, troubleshooting and modernization on our system,” Savitzky said. “They’re going to be receiving these submarines at some point, and they’re in the process of building up their infrastructure and capability. As Department of Defense civilians supporting the U.S. Navy, we were at the beginning of that process of integrating with a foreign military.”

George, Braman and Savitzky embarked on the 48-hour trip to Australia from Rhode Island on Aug. 19. Like any other in-service engineering trip, they had to learn the lay of the land and found the RAN sailors to be helpful and eager to learn.

“They certainly had a great thirst for knowledge, and they picked up everything pretty quickly,” said George, who has been with Division Newport for 22 years. “They were very willing to help, whether that was trying to track down shipping pieces or equipment. They were on the ball for everything.”

Savitzky, a certified second-class Navy diver, worked with RAN and U.S. Navy divers and Sailors serving on the tender on mechanical and electromechanical equipment in the submarine’s ballast tanks, which is only accessible by diving when the submarine is pierside. Above the water, George and Braman communicated with Savitzky to help execute the modernization, repair plan and inspection list.

“We operate as a team and it’s really a team process,” Savitzky said. “It’s not just the diver in the water doing all of the work. I’m constantly communicating with them topside, bouncing stuff off them. It works best when you have someone experienced topside, and someone experienced in the water.”

Nick Savage, head of the Handling Systems Engineering Branch, said George, Braman and Savitzky work together often and are among the best in the business at what they do.

“They have a really high standard for each other, and that makes them a really high-performing team,” Savage said. “There hasn’t been a situation where they haven’t been able to figure out what’s wrong. When other entities can’t figure something out, they’ll call us. Our role is the last line of defense to get something solved. It really requires a high-performing team, and that’s what we have here.”

NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869. Commanded by Capt. Chad Hennings, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher’s Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.

Join our team! NUWC Division Newport, one of the 20 largest employers in Rhode Island, employs a diverse, highly trained, educated, and skilled workforce. We are continuously looking for engineers, scientists, and other STEM professionals, as well as talented business, finance, logistics and other support experts who wish to be at the forefront of undersea research and development. Please connect with NUWC Division Newport Recruiting at this site- https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NUWC-Newport/Career-Opportunities/ and follow us on LinkedIn @NUWC-Newport and on Facebook @NUWCNewport.

Source: United States Navy

NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO – The history of women in the U.S. Navy is one of determination, resilience and trailblazing achievements. From early struggles for inclusion to breaking barriers in leadership and combat, women have played an essential and evolving role in shaping the modern Navy. Their contributions, often underappreciated or restricted, have been crucial to the development and success of the U.S. Navy over the past century.

Women’s involvement in the U.S. Navy informally began during the 19th century, often as nurses or in administrative roles, but they were not permitted to officially serve. This began to change during World War I, when the need for personnel to fill stateside positions opened new opportunities for women of that time.

On March 17, 1917, then-Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels declared that the Navy would enlist women. On that day, Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first woman to officially enlist in the Navy, serving as a yeoman during the war. As a Yeoman, or “Yeomanette” as female Yeomans were called, she and thousands of other women took on clerical and support roles, freeing men for active service. These women proved their capability, but after the war ended, they were released from service, and the opportunity for women to enlist again was rescinded.

The outbreak of World War II saw an urgent need for skilled personnel, leading to the creation of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program on July 30, 1942. WAVES allowed women to serve in the Navy Reserve, primarily in shore-based positions like communications, aviation support, intelligence and medical services.

By the end of the war, more than 100,000 women had served in the WAVES program, contributing to the Navy’s victory in critical capacities. These women not only helped fill personnel shortages but also showcased their competence in technical and operational roles. However, WAVES women were still restricted from serving aboard combat vessels or aircraft, and after the war, most returned to civilian life.

A turning point came on June 12, 1948 with the passage of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which allowed women to serve as permanent, regular members of the armed forces for the first time. This law established the foundation for the future inclusion of women in the U.S. Navy but came with limitations. Women could only occupy 2% of the force and were still barred from serving on combat ships and aircraft.

Despite these restrictions, the post-war period saw women making significant contributions in non-combat roles, including those in medical, administrative and intelligence fields, often at Naval bases across the world. They also participated in strategic planning and the development of new technologies.

One standout figure from this era was Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, a pioneering computer scientist who joined the Navy Reserves during World War II. Hopper’s work in programming early computers and creating the COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) programming language laid the groundwork for future advancements in computer science. She became a symbol of the technical expertise women could bring to the Navy.

The 1970s marked the beginning of a significant shift for women in the U.S. Navy. In July of 1978, the Navy began accepting women into the Naval Academy, allowing them to train for leadership positions alongside their male counterparts. This was a crucial step in advancing gender equality within the officer corps.

The 1970s also saw the lifting of many restrictions on where women could serve. In 1978, Congress passed legislation allowing women to serve aboard non-combat ships, and in the 1980s, women began to serve in more operational roles.

However, it wasn’t until 1994 that the Department of Defense officially lifted the ban on women serving aboard combat ships and aircraft, which was a historic moment for gender equality across the fleet.

The opening of combat roles to women transformed the Navy, allowing women to command ships, fly combat missions and serve in submarines. In 1998, Cmdr. Maureen Farren became the first woman to command a U.S. Navy combat ship, the USS Mount Vernon (LSD 39). Her command proved that women could lead in high-stakes, high-pressure environments.

In 2010, the Navy took another historic step by allowing women to serve aboard submarines, a domain previously reserved for men. This change opened new opportunities for female officers and enlisted sailors to serve in one of the most elite and challenging branches of the Navy.

One of the most significant milestones came in 2014, when Adm. Michelle Howard became the first woman to achieve the rank of four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. Howard, who also made history as the first African American woman to command a ship, embodies the progress women have made in the highest positions of Naval leadership.

Today, women serve in nearly every capacity in the U.S. Navy, from naval aviators to submarine officers; medical personnel to admirals. Their contributions have reshaped the Navy, leading to a more inclusive and diverse force that better reflects the population it serves. The Navy continues to evolve, with women playing critical roles in combat, leadership, engineering and strategic planning.

The impact of women on the Navy is not just measured by the roles they occupy but by the profound changes they have brought to the institution itself. Their service has helped break down gender barriers, creating opportunities for future generations of women to serve their country with honor and distinction. Women’s history in the U.S. Navy is a testament to the courage and perseverance of those who fought to serve and the legacy they leave behind for others to follow.

The journey of women in the U.S. Navy reflects broader social changes and ongoing efforts toward gender equality in the military. From clerical work during World War I to commanding combat ships, women have proven their capability, resilience and leadership, helping to shape the modern Navy into the formidable force it is today.