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By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Chris Cavagnaro
USS George Washington Public Affairs
WATERS NEAR GUAM - The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) hosted a maintenance and material management assist (3MA) team to evaluate the ship’s 3M program, Nov. 2-4.
The 3MA team consists of senior enlisted members ranging from chief petty officers to master chief petty officers from Commander, Naval Air Force’s (CNAF) 3M training department, and are responsible for assessing George Washington’s 3M program and training Sailors to be more successful.
“3MA is designed to prepare a ship for a 3M inspection (3MI) which occurs every two years,” said Master Chief Electrician’s Mate Jim Burke, CNAF 3M inspection team leading chief petty officer. “During 3MA, we conduct full 3M administrative reviews, observe 100 random planned maintenance system (PMS) spot checks and validate the ship’s ability to self-repair and conduct proper zone inspections.”
The inspectors checked every department’s 3M work-centers and combed through their preventative maintenance manuals to ensure all administrative processes were correctly logged and updated.
Assessments like this ensure George Washington’s ability to schedule and conduct preventative maintenance and remain fully operational in a forward-deployed environment.
“It’s especially important for George Washington to perform well during these evaluations because of its high-tempo forward-deployed operating environment,” said Burke. “Because George Washington is out to sea so often and has less time to accomplish maintenance in port, it puts a lot of added emphasis on training its Sailors properly so they are knowledgeable and equipped to handle maintaining the ship while it is out to sea.”
After completing inspections and assessments, inpectors provided 3M training to every department and addressed any areas that may need attention.
“We trained approximately 2,000 personnel aboard the ship in roughly 36 hours,” said Burke. “Our goal is to help the crew recognize positive and negative trends in 3M to allow shipboard management to zero-in on and fine tune processes over the long haul.”
While 3MA is mostly a guided evolution, it’s still a graded exercise that’s important to the ship.
“The purpose of the assist visit is to identify areas where improvements may be made,” said Lt. Cmdr. John Doyle, George Washington’s 3M officer. “The inspectors were impressed with the high state of material condition readiness, and stated that George Washington’s administrative effective review audits, zone inspection and trouble call programs were the best they’ve seen in the carrier fleet.”
According to Burke, George Washington’s 3M training became apparent from the overall success during 3MA.
“The attitude of the crew was fantastic and the ship is one of the best in the fleet administratively,” said Burke. “It’s quite evident that all the pieces of a highly successful 3M program are in place.”
George Washington and its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing 5, provide a combat-ready force that protects and defends the collective maritime interest of the U.S. and its allies and partners in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region
| Date Taken: | 11.05.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 11.05.2014 06:48 |
| Story ID: | 147008 |
| Location: | WATERS NEAR GUAM , AT SEA |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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