Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, April 8, 2026 – Eight Sailors from Commander, Naval Surface Group, Middle Pacific’s (CNSGMP) reserve unit, based out of Great Lakes, IL, reported onboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) to help prepare for and execute the ship’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), Feb. 2-13, 2026.
CNSGMP would like to extend our sincere gratitude and recognize the eight Sailors for their vital contributions in preparing Wayne E. Meyer for their INSURV:
An INSURV is a comprehensive, top-to-bottom inspection of a U.S. Navy ship. Mandated by U.S. law, these inspections are conducted by an independent group of experts who examine a naval vessel to ensure it is properly maintained and ready for its mission. It identifies equipment and system deficiencies that could impact the ship's ability to conduct sustained combat operations at sea. With a successful INSURV completed, a ship is then certified to proceed with the next cycle of advanced training and certifications required to prepare for deployment.
The eight-Sailor team provided critical support across Wayne E. Meyer, including repairing HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) systems, conducting major spill cleanup, ensuring material readiness requirements were met, preparing mooring lines for rapid use, and inspecting life-saving equipment such as kapok life jackets and sea dye markers. “The Sailors of the Wayne E. Meyer have shown incredible resilience and dedication through an extended deployment in 2025 and now operating with a lean crew during post-deployment. It was our pleasure to provide additional personnel to support them,” said Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Huftalin.
The opportunity was invaluable, allowing our reserve Sailors to apply their extensive training and diverse civilian expertise in a real-world maritime environment, which directly enhanced the ship’s mission readiness. The seamless collaboration between the ship's Sailors and CNSGMP's reserve Sailors was a direct result of outstanding communication between the two groups - creating a single, cohesive team that effectively tackled numerous ship-wide priorities. "'The Wayne E. Meyer crew was incredibly welcoming, providing us with a clear plan of action the moment we came aboard. This allowed our team to integrate seamlessly and immediately contribute to the mission. It gives you a profound appreciation for the immense effort required to maintain a warship, and it was inspiring to see every Sailor executing their critical role to the highest standard,” said Logistics Specialist 3rd Class Ramirez.
This collaboration highlights a key to naval success: a mission-ready fleet is built on the combined expertise of every Sailor, both active-duty and reserve. “Our objective is not for the CNSGMP support staff to be viewed as an active-duty component with 120 personnel and a reserve component of 80 personnel, but rather to view the staff as 200 strong, some of which happen to be reservists. The accomplishments of our Sailors reinforce this mindset, build the confidence in and competence of our Sailors, and further bridge the boundary between the two components,” said CNSGMP Reserve Program Director Cmdr. Brian Smith. The partnership between the Wayne E. Meyer crew and the embarked reservists highly contributed to the destroyer's successful INSURV, proving that this unified approach is critical to keeping our naval forces prepared to answer the nation’s call.