By Patric Petrie
SPAWAR

SAN DIEGO - Representatives Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) visited SSC Pacific on Jan. 12 to gather information concerning the current defense business environment while touring and familiarizing themselves with key Navy, military facilities and commands within the United States Pacific Command Area of Responsibility.

Also on hand to meet the visitors were SPAWAR National Leads and SSC Pacific Department Heads Brian Marsh, Communications and Networks; Dr. Stephen Russell, Research and Applied Sciences; and Lee Zimmerman, Net-Centric Engineering and Integration, SSC Pacific, who offered the E2C lab overview to the congressmen.

Runyan currently represents New Jersey's south-central area, including the newly integrated Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Runyan is a freshman member of the House Armed Services Committee and serves on the HASC Readiness and Tactical Air & Land Forces subcommittees; he also serves on the Defense Business Panel. In addition, he is a member of the Natural Resources and Veterans' Affairs Committees, and chairman of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance & Memorial Affairs Subcommittee.

Shuster, the senior member on the tour, serves on the HASC Emerging Threats and Capabilities, and Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittees; he is also the chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. His 9th district includes Letterkenny Army Depot and the United Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., honoring passengers who struggled with terrorist hijackers and crashed their commercial jet into a field on Sept. 11, 2001.

SSC Pacific briefed the representatives on current problems and developments and cited case scenarios of successful government/industry partnerships before the team toured the Combined Test Bed (CTB)/Ballistic Missile Defense Lab.

Following their tour of the Center's test bed and lab, the congressmen returned to Topside's Cloud Room where they were briefed on and viewed demonstrations of SSC Pacific's latest developments in coalition communications, unmanned systems, explosive ordnance mine counter measures and unmanned undersea vehicles, improvised explosive device robots, the Multi-robot Operator Control Unit, and the Meteorological and Oceanographic Glider projects.

In the Center's Conference Center, the visitors reviewed projects from the Internal Science and Technology Investment Program. Discussion topics included microbial fuel cell development, spintronic microwave signal generation, science and technology grassroots training, automatically deployed.

Master Chief Jeffrey Easson introduced Bronze Star recipient Logistics Specialist Petty Officer 1st Class David Judish to the representatives, who thanked him for his service. Afterwards Easson discussed the Center's 2012 goal of seven percent recruitment and hiring of Wounded Warriors, as well as the Shipmate to Workmate program.

In addition, Education Outreach Director Dr. Jim Rohr and his team discussed their efforts to encourage students to pursue science and engineering careers while dishing up offerings of liquid nitrogen cooled ice cream.

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