England Unveils New Safety Awards at 2004 SAS Exposition

By PETER E. ATKINSON
Deputy Editor

When he came onboard as the 72nd Secretary of the Navy, Gordon R. England “made it clear that safety would be a priority,” Navy League National President Sheila M. McNeill told those attending the Secretary of the Navy Luncheon at the Navy League’s 2004 Sea-Air-Space Exposition (SAS) April 6.

And he’s proven true to his word into his second term as secretary, she said, instilling a philosophy that safety is job one and helping to promote initiatives aimed at reducing accidents and producing a safer environment for sailors and Marines to work and live in.

At the luncheon, England helped pay tribute to some of those who have taken his message to heart. He introduced two new sets of awards, the Adm. Vern Clark Safety Awards for Navy individuals and units, and the Gen. James L. Jones Safety Awards for the Marine Corps, and honored their first recipients.

England, his wife, Dorothy, and three Navy League corporate members — Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. — endowed the awards, named after the current chief of naval operations and the former commandant of the Marine Corps, for their emphasis on safety throughout the Navy and Marine Corps.

“They are guys who really care about our people,” England said.

England described the sea services as a family. And, he said, “What families do is they care about each other. They protect each other. That is what this is all about.”

The awards are intended to stimulate safety, ideas, suggestions and programs that will reduce mishaps, injuries and fatalities with the Department of the Navy by providing special recognition to individuals and units or organizations who best exemplify and advance a culture of safety.

Inaugural award winners were:

Adm. Vern Clark Individual Safety Award
Barbara Wright, a safety and occupational health specialist from Naval Air Depot, Jacksonville, Fla. She established an innovative, employee-driven ergonomic program that significantly reduced mishaps and their severity at Jacksonville, as well as their associated costs. She pioneered program elements that have been adopted by other Navy activities.

Adm. Vern Clark Unit Safety Award
Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 117, for maintaining an excellent safety record during high-tempo operations on an eight-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The “Wallbangers” had logged more than 56,000 mishap-free flight hours through 2003.

Gen. James L. Jones Individual Safety Award
Master Sgt. Roger Schechinger, a division safety officer assigned to the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan. He developed and implemented significant safety initiatives, resulting in a 24 percent reduction in ground mishaps across the division last year.

Gen. James L. Jones Unit Safety Award
Marine Attack Squadron 223, for pioneering research on foreign object damage that drastically reduced the number of damaged aircraft engines in the Harrier fleet. While forward deployed, executing combat missions in the Middle East and Liberia, the “Bulldogs” were the first Harrier squadron ever to surpass 50,000 mishap-free flight hours.

“Everyone must ensure that safety is our first agenda,” England said. “You have given the Department of the Navy a very precious gift. Because of you, people are safer, the Department of the Navy is stronger and we thank you.”

SAS Chairman Al J. Bernard, a Navy League national director from the exposition’s host council, the National Capital Council, was the master of ceremonies at the event.

Boeing’s Finneran Receives Fleet Adm. Nimitz Award

For his work on behalf of a host of naval aviation programs, Patrick J. Finneran Jr., vice president and general manager of the aerospace support division at Boeing, was given the Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz Award by the Navy League at SAS.

Finneran was presented the award by Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, and McNeill during the Sea-Air-Space banquet April 7. “It was a privilege to be part of presenting the Adm. Nimitz Award,” Clark said. “Here is a man who spent 20 years as a Marine, then has spent the rest of his life in industry working to support people in uniform.”

Finneran, a Vietnam veteran, retired from the Marine Corps in 1987 and has worked for Boeing for the past 15 years. During his tenure, he created the Harrier remanufacture program, combining four separate military aircraft programs into one production aircraft group and led the Super Hornet team into production and delivery of the first Super Hornet squadron.

McNeill Hosts Korean, Japanese Delegations

McNeill played host to two delegations from Asia during the exposition. The delegations — from the Japan Association of Defense Industry and a similar group from Korea — toured the exposition halls and attended some of the seminars and special events, including the International Maritime and Congressional Reception April 6, which also featured representatives from Vietnam, Singapore and other Asian nations.

Capt. Toshiya Sato, naval attaché and assistant defense attaché with the Japanese Embassy, said he was “really impressed” with the command, control, communications, computers and intelligence technologies being exhibited at the show.

While many of the futuristic systems and major programs being touted by exhibitors for the U.S. military — DD(X), the Littoral Combat Ship, sea basing technologies — are not practical for Japan’s military, some of the naval aviation systems and flight simulation advances on display were worth considering, Sato said.

“The training functions those systems can provide could be very useful for our young officers to learn,” he said. “Anything to improve training is always worth looking at.”