Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel Tillie | U.S. Navy Lt. Michael McKenna, left, the Industrial Hygiene Officer assigned to the...... read more read more
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The FY20 Safety Leadership Award was presented to U.S. Navy Lt. Michael McKenna, from Ashley, Pennsylvania, by Rear Adm. Fredrick Luchtman, Commander, Naval Safety Center, on behalf of the Chief of Naval Operations, Sept. 29, 2021.
McKenna was awarded for outstanding achievement in leadership excellence in safety and risk management while serving as the industrial hygiene officer aboard the aircraft carrier, USS John. C. Stennis (CVN 74).
“The Safety Leadership Award is one of the highest categories of awards you could get for safety leadership” said Cmdr. Matthew Hobert, the safety officer aboard John C. Stennis.
According to Hobert, with such a high-level award, it is important to choose a worthy candidate that has the best chance of receiving it. However, as he and U.S. Navy Capt. Doug Langenberg, the executive officer aboard John C. Stennis, looked through all the potential candidates, it was fairly easy to tell that McKenna was the best choice.
“He does an amazing job of making sure we educate the crew and the personnel that are doing the work related to Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH),” said Hobert. “He has also gone above and beyond what he was required to do in order to prepare for RCOH prior to us coming to Newport News.”
According to McKenna’s superiors, he has been aggressive in making sure the crew and shipyard workers aboard the Stennis are safe as they work throughout the day. McKenna not only makes sure that people are using their personal protective equipment (PPE) properly, he also oversees the sampling of air quality, deck material, and paint material on the ship and monitors the work being done throughout the ship in order to make sure that workers are assigned the proper level of PPE.
Additionally, Hobert stated that one of the biggest ways that McKenna went above and beyond in keeping the ship safe was having a 25-person paint and deck sampling team that the safety department stood up to take 1,377 paint and deck samples. This team resulted in 2,052 bulk samples in order to identify toxic components, like silica, that could be in the materials scheduled for removal from the ship during RCOH.
McKenna also worked with 39 different divisions and production teams to accomplish over 300 hygiene assessments for paint and deck preservation operations that include sampling, as well as training the deck and tile team in how to build containment structures and prevent toxic materials from reaching the average person breathing the air outside of their space. These assessments also include on-the-job training for the deck and tile team on ventilation requirements and high-efficiency particulate absorbing filters for silica dust.
“The RCOH environment poses a lot of health risks and safety hazards in the work that our teams are doing,” said McKenna. “We have a lot of personnel that are conducting work that they wouldn’t necessarily be expected to perform entering the Navy. There is an added risk to that, and it’s our job as a safety department to assess those who are doing the work and monitor it to make sure that they have all the tools and resources to perform their work safely.”
McKenna has been working with his entire team within the safety department, as well as the command, to incorporate safety regulations and keep the ship safe within the industrial environment. McKenna believes that the award speaks more to the teamwork of the safety department, as well as the ship, and the work they’ve accomplished together in the last year-and-a-half.
“I have been fortunate to have a great team around me,” said McKenna “And that contributed greatly to this award.”
John C. Stennis is partnering with Newport News Shipbuilding to complete refueling
complex overhaul on schedule with a trained, resilient and cohesive crew.
For more news on John C. Stennis, visit www.airpac.navy.mil/Organization/USS-John-
C-Stennis-CVN-74/ or follow along on social media at www.facebook.com/stennis74 on
Facebook, stenniscvn74 on Instagram, and @stennis74 on Twitter.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.01.2021 12:58 |
| Story ID: | 406513 |
| Location: | VA, US |
| Web Views: | 296 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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