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From the time a recruit ships off to boot camp, carrying on well into their career in the fleet, Sailors are given opportunities to master a great number of skills. In addition to the vital skills learned, there is one other essential concept heavily enforced and that is cleanliness. It is often said that cleanliness is next to readiness. No matter if a Sailor is underway on a cruiser, stationed on some far shore overseas or assigned to a dry-docked aircraft carrier here in the U.S., a regular cleaning schedule is something all can expect from their command.
Sailors aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73), are all too familiar with the standard cleaning stations held each afternoon. However, with the ship currently undergoing refueling complex overhaul (RCOH) in Newport News Shipyard, the command decided to take cleaning stations a step further.
February marked a return to one of the Navy’s more rigorous cleaning exercises, a two-hour ship-wide field day. Every Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, Sailors from all departments break out the brooms, mops, cloths and brushes on the ship and floating accommodation facility (FAF), and they set about deep-cleaning their assigned spaces as thoroughly as possible.
For Lt. David Setyon, George Washington’s Deputy FAF Mayor, a return to field days is a much-needed step forward.
“The cleanliness on the ship and FAF had seen something of a downturn as we focused on production, and the 45 minutes of daily cleaning stations were not sufficient to accomplish the deep clean needed after intense industrial evolutions such as sandblasting,” said Setyon. “Departments that own the largest number of spaces on the ship struggled to keep up with cleanup after contractor work had been done.”
Airman John Sadiarin, a Sailor assigned to the air department aboard George Washington, said that field days have been helpful in getting legitimate cleaning done, rather than just pushing dust around.
“With 45 minutes of cleaning during cleaning stations, you have time to pick up some of the dust and sweep the floors, but things wind up getting overlooked,” said Sadiarin. “If you have old, caked-on dust somewhere, it takes more than a few seconds with a broom to take care of it. You need to really get in there with a cloth and cleaning solution.”
Given the nature of RCOH, there are certain unique challenges present in maintaining ship-wide cleanliness.
“There’s a never-ending battle to police our civilian counterparts to ensure that, following the completion of a shift of work in a space, building materials, debris, and trash bags are sufficiently cleaned up,” said Setyon.
Setyon said that George Washington Sailors, however, can’t simply point the finger at contractors, as they still need to take responsibility for the state of their own spaces.
“We also need to combat the mentality that space condition doesn't matter just because spaces are being overhauled, and the ship isn't getting underway for years,” said Setyon. “It is still our ship. We take pride in it, and we need to be sure that we turn over a newly outfitted CVN-73 that is in the best condition possible. One of the first steps is cleanliness.”
Sadiarin said that he thinks general cleanliness and pride in the ship are definitely linked.
“This is our workplace, and how it looks reflects on us,” said Sadiarin. “If our spaces look clean and professional, then we look clean and professional. It’s definitely a matter of pride.”
As the number of cleaning hours during the week increase, Sailor mentality is very important.
“Cleaning may not seem connected to warfighting, but I would encourage Sailors to think about what GW will do for our nation in the future, and the part we play in keeping the ship in the best possible condition we can, even in the hectic industrial RCOH environment,” said Setyon. “When we see what missions GW accomplishes years down the road, we can feel pride for the roles we played in enabling her success as the nation's most formidable warfighting machine.”
For some Sailors, so much cleaning might seem tedious and mondane, however, a clean ship is a reflection of personal professionalism, and it’s something worth doing well and with pride.
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2018 12:33 |
| Story ID: | 268004 |
| Location: | NEWPORT NEWS, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 39 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Cleaning Up Shop: Field Days, by PO2 Adam Ferrero, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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