Category: Defense

Source: United States Navy

OSHA defines recordable injuries or illnesses as those that result in days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job; medical treatment beyond first aid; or loss of consciousness. A case also meets the recording criteria if it involves a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional.

In 2021, FRCE recorded 36 mishaps, a 27 percent reduction compared to the previous year and a more than 60 percent decrease compared to mishaps recorded in 2016.

“Throughout the years, the Safety and Occupational Health division at FRC East continued to educate employees, develop policies and procedures and implement them,” said Angelo Owens, the safety director at FRCE. “All of that, after a certain number of years, comes together to have positive effects. I believe that’s what we are experiencing here. Not only does the command support and promote certain policies and procedures in the way we perform work, we also have managers and supervisors who understand what their responsibilities are and employees who know what their responsibilities are.”

Owens and Brian Snow, the assistant safety director at FRCE, both cite participation in the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) as an important catalyst in forming the safety culture that exists at the depot. VPP recognizes employers and workers in the private industry and federal agencies who have implemented effective safety and health management systems and maintain injury and illness rates below national Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for their respective industries. To participate, employers must submit an application to OSHA and undergo a rigorous onsite evaluation by a team of safety and health professionals.

“We started on this road in 2006 with our involvement in VPP,” Snow said. “Just getting the command into the mindset to do it actually got us on the right road to reducing injuries. The application process in itself is a huge undertaking. They came in to evaluate and we did it.”

In 2019, FRCE achieved the OSHA VPP Star Status in two of the depot’s application areas—smaller subsections of the expansive facility, each consisting of no more than 500 employees—becoming the first Naval Aviation command to reach that level.

“VPP Star is the highest recognition you can achieve with OSHA,” Owens said. “When you say you are a VPP Star site, it states that your safety and health programs exceed OSHA regulatory requirements in an exemplary manner. When you consider that there only 21 VPP Star recognized sites in the entire Department of the Navy, and that we are one of them, it’s pretty exceptional.”

According to Owens, collaboration and discussion play important roles in the VPP process.

“It’s an all-hands effort and that’s the way OSHA approaches it,” Owens said. “We all need to be involved in the process. Communication is very important because it allows employees, supervisors, managers and leadership to talk about the issues we come across and how we can minimize the operational risk that we have here.”

VPP participants are re-evaluated every three to five years to remain in the program.

“We’ll be reevaluated in January of 2023,” Owens said. “What that means is that representatives from OSHA out of Atlanta, Georgia, will come to our facility for a week. They’ll bring with them a team of people who will be walking around and asking to see our programs, see our documentation of trainings and conduct periodic inspections. They’ll be going out talking to our supervisors and employees to substantiate that what we are doing on paper is what we are actually doing within our facility.”

FRCE’s participation in VPP has not gone unnoticed. The Department of the Navy is now collaborating with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on a study aimed at evaluating VPP’s effectiveness in reducing noncombat injuries. This study will evaluate five VPP establishments by comparing VPP units to non-VPP control units matched on size and function. The Navy chose FRCE as one of the five VPP participants to take part in the study.

The command was also recognized by the North Carolina Department of Labor for its efforts to keep the workforce safe by being presented two “Million Hour” awards and the depot’s fourth consecutive “Gold Award.”

To meet the Gold Award standard, an organization must have had no fatalities during the award year, and also post a days away, restricted or transferred rate at least 50 percent below the industry average. For FRCE, that means the aircraft maintenance industry. Million Hour safety awards are given to firms which accumulate 1 million employee hours with no injuries or illnesses involving days away from work. Subsequent awards are given for each additional 1 million employee hours with no injuries or illnesses.

FRCE also recently completed International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 45001 recertification. ISO 45001 is the world’s international standard for occupational health and safety, issued to protect employees and visitors from work-related accidents and diseases.

“You can never let up,” Snow said. “Often, you reach a goal and the tendency is to take your pack off, but we haven’t been doing that. We just continue to press forward. It’s a continuing effort.”

Owens agreed, adding that continuous effort is vital considering the scope of the depot’s safety program.

“We’ve had a good year, but that was last year,” Owens said. “We’re trying to press the gas harder because I believe when you are performing well you need to work even harder to maintain that level of performance. There are more than 53 safety and occupational health programs we oversee in various capacities, ranging from radiation safety to fall protection. We are doing a good job, but I believe we can always do better.”

While Owens and his team are proud of FRCE’s safety record and achievements, he says the main focus is on protecting the depot’s most important asset.

“As we continue to put aircraft out, we have to ensure we are doing it in a manner that protects our employees,” he said. “We genuinely care about the FRC East family and we want to ensure the people who come here to work have a safe and healthy environment to work in.”  

Source: United States Navy

The APU filter is a consumable item that is replaced after 1,120 flight hours; it is ordinarily used for one cycle and disposed of after removal. With 375 aircraft in the Marine Corps fleet, the filter is a commonly used item, with a replacement rate of about 100 a month. The quarter-sized metallic filter is available from only one source and, due to supply-chain issues, the supplier couldn’t keep up with demand. With no filters to be found in the supply system, APU engineering and logistics personnel had to come up with a creative solution to fill the needs of the V-22 aircraft and the APUs undergoing overhaul at FRCE.     

“We looked around for any retail or hidden assets that we might have stored away somewhere, but didn’t find anything,” said Joe Carson, V-22 Power and Propulsion logistics team lead at FRCE. “The filter was a consumable item, so typically the last option would be to ask engineering to reuse something that’s a disposable item—but in this case, that was the last solution we had.”

The filter is part of a critical oil line that helps engage the APU clutch to the mid-wing gearbox in order to start the V-22’s main engines. Fleet maintainers are instructed to replace the filters when they are found to be clogged during inspection, but the supplier was not expecting deliveries until March 2022. That meant that several aircraft would not fly until filters could be found.

“Most engineers don’t like reusing something that’s consumable, because it’s consumable for a reason,” said Rob Wansker, FRCE V-22 Power and Propulsion APU senior engineer. “So we consider, what’s the consequence of using this for a prolonged period of time? Can we push back the timeframe of replacement? We weighed our short- and long-term options, and we decided to see if we could clean and recertify the filters we had.”

Engineering consulted with the Materials Engineering lab at FRCE to determine the best way to clean the small mesh filter. After experimenting with a few scrap filters, FRCE chemist Megan Goold found a procedure that would allow the filters to be cleaned and reused if new filters were not available.

“I wanted to do the easiest cleaning possible, using materials the APU shop already had on hand that would be easily and readily available to the fleet as well,” Goold said. “The easiest thing would be hand cleaning, so we tried different things in the lab until we found something that worked.”

Isopropyl alcohol and a commonly used degreasing solvent did the trick, and engineering created a temporary instruction for depot and fleet maintainers to follow until the filters became more readily available through supply.

Another hurdle to solving this problem was that used filters were not readily available to clean. Disposable items like the filters are typically thrown away following maintenance procedures, which meant no stock of used filters existed. Wansker coordinated with depot and fleet mechanics working on V-22 APUs to encourage them to set aside the used filters in case they were needed for inspection and cleaning.

“We then took the filters that looked like good candidates, and cleaned and tested them according to the temporary procedure we had created,” Wansker said. “Once we were able to get a batch of clean filters that engineering had approved, we were able to send those directly to the squadrons in order for them to be installed on an APU.”

The engineering and logistics team had a temporary solution in place within a few weeks of identifying the supply problem. In that time, four aircraft had been grounded waiting for APU servo-valve filters, and the ability to clean and reissue the filters quickly returned those V-22 Ospreys
to duty.

V-22 team members say the incident reminds them that even projects that seem routine can have profound impacts on the warfighters they serve.

“The V-22 Osprey is a massive aircraft, and to think that our team’s assistance with this project was able to get these aircraft back in the air helps put the importance of what we do in perspective,” Wansker said.   

Source: United States Navy

The Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES) program aims to train and equip Navy Reserve personnel as a firefighting force capable of rapidly mobilizing in cases of natural or manmade disasters, as well as provide relief and support for routine base functions. It was founded in 2007.

The course runs annually. It lasts nine weeks and qualifies graduates with six major certifications: First Aid Provider, Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Awareness, HAZMAT Operations, HAZMAT Mission Specific Competent Personal Protective Equipment, Firefighter 1, Firefighter 2, and Aircraft & Rescue Firefighting. These graduates will also be awarded the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 786B: Shore Base Airport and Aircraft Firefighter.

“This training builds the future force of Navy Reserve firefighters,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Senior Chief Anthony Pena, the CNIC F&ES Military Firefighter Program Manager. “Students enter scenarios that challenge their natural instinct to save themselves and are encouraged to focus on saving others. The skills learned during this course can be use on the first day of their operational careers.”

This year’s graduating class comprises a mixture of personnel that fall under NR F&ES. Because this year’s class was smaller in size than previous years, students received nearly one-on-one facilitation and more hands-on training time during live fire burns and practical evolutions, resulting in a distinctly high-performing and unified team.

The graduates join the more than 150 NR Sailors capable of augmenting fire stations on installations around the world. Each is assigned to one of the four detachments under the NR CNIC headquarters F&ES or the NR Europe, Africa, Central F&ES/Air Operations Unit. The unit locations were strategically chosen to best equip fleet concentration areas and support any Department of Defense (DoD) installation worldwide.

This year, nine additional students joined for the last portion of the Academy course, to participate in the Aircraft and Rescue Firefighting Course only. Many of these students were catching up on training and certification impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The certifications earned reciprocate on the civilian side, allowing NR F&ES personnel to work at both military and civilian fire stations. Graduates often attain firefighting positions in civilian fire departments throughout the U.S. during their off-duty time.

This was the 5^th consecutive year for it to be hosted in Naval District Washington at Naval Support Activity Annapolis. The continued working relationship has strengthened bonds between instructors and NR F&ES leadership and allowed for both parties to better manage processes and support.

The NR CNIC F&ES program now boasts over 190 billets, with growth expected to continue, as requests for support come from around the world. Graduates stand ready to support emergency demand signals, postured to support a variety of contingent situations. NR CNIC F&ES is always searching for qualified or highly motivated personnel to join the team – to answer the call, “Ready Now. Anytime, Anywhere.”

Source: United States Navy

Hospital Corpsman First Class Matthew Papa has worked as a Radiation Health Technician within the Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune Radiology Department since 2020, becoming the command’s Acting Radiation Health Officer in 2021.

“As a Radiation Health Tech, I enjoy working with not only the [hospital corpsman] community, but the nuclear community as well,” said Papa. “I am able to take the best traits from both communities and ensure as a leader our Sailors are taken care of.”

During his tenure as Radiation Health Officer, HM1 Papa finalized the 2022 Annual Internal Radiation Health Audit and oversaw submission of the annual reports of 157 members within the Radiation Health Program among other duties.

“HM1 Papa has been an outstanding asset to our Radiology Department. His leadership has allowed our personnel to thrive,” said U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Matthew Burgess. “His expertise and willingness to go above and beyond have allowed the department to continue on an upward trajectory. I am not at all surprised by this recognition.”

When asked about his recent selection as Radiation Health Technician of the Year, HM1 Papa directs the credit back to his team.

“This award is a direct reflection of their tremendous hard work and efforts. It is not about an individual award but about representing our command our community to the best of our abilities,” Papa said.

In addition to his responsibilities for the Radiology Department, HM1 Papa is the Leading Petty Officer for the Directorate of Clinical Support Services. As the LPO, he supervises more than 95 Sailors in their daily execution of ancillary services at NMCCL. HM1 Papa also serves as a mentor for the Coalition of Sailors Against Destructive Decisions and is the Assistant Program Manager for the Casualty Assistance Calls Officer Program.

All of Papa’s endeavors culminated in receipt of the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal in March 2022. The award specifically highlighted his selection for the annual Radiation Health Technician of the Year distinction.

“Strive to be the best, and carry your team with you to achieve excellence and mission completion,” said Papa. “Work hard; it always pays off. Work hard while no one is looking, and never lower your expectations of yourself.”

Papa hails from Scituate, Rhode Island and is a 13-year Navy veteran. He holds an associate’s degree and bachelor’s degree, and he is currently embarking on obtaining a Master of Environmental Management.

Source: United States Navy

“Science is one of the most prestigious U.S.-based scientific journals,” Harvey said. “The articles need to describe ground-breaking work that is of interest to all scientists, and most scientists never get this opportunity.”

NAWCWD researchers began studying single molecule magnets (SMMs) in late 2017. At the time, McClain was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow who has since transitioned to a full-time NAWCWD employee, and synthesized and characterized the SMMs while Harvey served as the principle investigator, directing the research and mentoring McClain during his fellowship and subsequent transition to full-time federal service. He also directed the research program and helped establish collaboration partnerships with academic organizations.

Conventional magnets, like those on a refrigerator or the powerful rare earth-based magnets used in computer hard drives, are composed of a network of inorganic structures with aligned electron spins. In contrast, SMMs are magnetic molecules that possess an energy barrier to re-orientation of their molecular spin. These molecules produce localized magnetic fields and are essentially the smallest possible magnets. These materials have the potential to greatly increase the magnetic storage density of hard drives or to induce magnetic fields with incredible precision, potentially enabling the development of novel components useful for quantum computers.

However, despite the promise of SMMs, these exotic materials can be easily disrupted by their environment, which eliminates their magnetic behavior, McClain said. In fact, most SMMs only exhibit their magnetic properties at temperatures near absolute zero. McClain’s work has shown that by controlling the SMM environment through molecular design, operating temperatures up to 80 kelvin can be realized. This advance makes the use of SMMs feasible in practical devices.

McClain and Harvey synthesized a series of novel lanthanide dimers that exhibit lanthanide-lanthanide bonds, a bonding interaction not previously described in the literature. This interaction aligns the magnetic moments of the metal centers.

“Using dysprosium as the lanthanide resulted in the best SMM ever created by any comparative metric,” Harvey said. “This new material exhibits slow magnetic relaxation at high temperatures and has an extremely high barrier to magnetic reversal. This type of hard magnetism at elevated temperature is unprecedented for SMMs and represents a major breakthrough. Leveraging collaborations with academic institutions can deliver next-generation materials and devices for use in both commercial and DOD applications,” he said.

The NAWCWD team collaborated with academic partners, with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, conducting the magnetic characterization of the molecules and researchers at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, conducting calculations to support and explain the team’s experimental results.

“This disruptive technology showcases the diverse talent of the Research Department at NAWCWD and is just one more example of the continued outcome-based focus our researchers have for the safety of the United States,” said Harlan Kooima, NAWCWD’s Research and Development Group director.

“High performance SMMs and related molecules offer the promise of transformational advances in data storage, high performance computing and quantum information science, all areas of crucial strategic importance,” Harvey said, noting that researchers at NAWCWD are continuing this line of research with the hope of transitioning to the fabrication and testing of devices based on the new SMMs.