News

Students with ASNE Tidewater's ODU Student Chapter toured Fairlead February 22, 2021 at their Portsmouth manufacturing and waterfront facilities.  The students were quite taken by the diversity of the company’s strong capabilities, particularly their engineering-driven programs.  They witnessed firsthand some of Fairlead’s products at various stages of production and/or testing.  The students asked many engaging questions and our Fairlead hosts were very accommodating. 

At the end of the tour, Mr. Keith Hubble, Fairlead Senior Engineer and Director of Strategic Product  Development, graciously agreed to become a mentor to Neil St. Clair, ODU Student Chapter President.  The student mentor process is an important goal of the ODU Chapter this year.  We look forward to matching all ODU Chapter students with ASNE mentors before the year is over.  

Mr. Joe Kosteczko, Assistant Director of Digital Shipbuilding for ODU’s Virginia Modeling, Analysis & Simulation Center (VMASC) and Ms. Jessica Zimmerman (VMASC Communications Coordinator) were also in attendance for the tour.  Joe extended an invitation to Fairlead and the ODU students to tour ODU’s VMASC facility.  Special thanks to Jessica for capturing many of the photos you see below.

Many thanks to Captain Tim Barney, Commander, Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), the guest speaker at ASNE Tidewater's first all-virtual "Dinner"/Meeting program!  We had many members and friends attend the Microsoft Teams event the evening of February 17, and we greatly appreciated their patience as we navigated our way through the virtual platform. 

As promised, here is a link to CAPT Barney's presentation.  

The ASNE Tidewater Section held its first live event since last February!  Typically our Section holds monthly dinner/meeting programs featuring guest speakers from the naval industry from October through May, but due to the virus we had to cancel several of the events this year.  The Section considered holding a virtual meeting for the kickoff of our first dinner/meeting of the 2020/2021 season, but instead decided to hold a virtual AND live program.  The Section conferred with the hotel on all safety precautions.  The event was attended by 24 members/guests in person, and by 17 virtually.  Not a bad turn-out, and hopefully the shape of things to come!

We greatly appreciate our guest speaker, Mr. Mark Hugel, the President of ASNE National who provided us the pulse of the Society.  Mark also gave much praise and recognition to ASNE staff for their ability to quickly and proficiently learn how to coordinate and conduct virtual events!

VADM Dave Lewis, Director of the Defense Contract Management Agency, was the guest speaker at the ASNE Tidewater section dinner/meeting program February 19th.  VADM Lewis is one of the longest (if not the longest) serving EDOs in the community today and has been an ED Flag since 2009.  In addition to DCMA, he served in fleet maintenance (CNSF N43), fleet modernization (SPAWAR), and ship construction (NAVSEA/PEO Ships) roles.

Very passionate about his position at DCMA, Adm. Lewis provided a thorough explanation of DCMA’s role and mission in his presentation.  He highlighted DCMA’s alignment with the Secretary of Defense’s priorities, DCMA’s scope of work, span of control, product deliveries breakdown by platform, and unit cost by platform.  He also underscored the posture of cyber security for a majority of companies, noting that small businesses have a ways to go to meet good cyber hygiene.  Adm. Lewis was gracious in taking a number of questions and was very engaging with the group. 

Linked here is a copy of the Admiral’s brief.

From flight simulation, digital senses immersion, a look into the deep past, diving into a bulkhead on an aircraft carrier, and experiencing the echolocation of a bat in a first-person view, ASNE Tidewater members and friends visited multiple simulation labs at ODU’s Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center in Suffolk. Guests learned about various research projects happening throughout ODU-VMASC and were able to experience first-hand some of the virtual reality simulations! As an entity of ODU’s modeling and simulation pipeline, VMASC is grounded in the utilitarian principle of improving the human condition and mankind’s understanding of the word through innovation and transdisciplinary research and development. Senior Project Scientist and Lab Director Hector Garcia explained various ways researchers at VMASC use models, simulations, and visualizations to help create/formulate answers to complex problems, design experiments, analyze data, and interpret results. Guests also visited and learned about ODU-VMASC’s Digital Shipbuilding program from Program Manager, Joe Kosteczko, and Curriculum Coordinator, Jessica Johnson. In the Digital Shipbuilding Lab, guests learned about innovative practices to enhance workforce development, STEM curriculum K-12, and research/development within the maritime industry through an engineering design challenge with virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D modeling. ODU-VMASC’s Digital Shipbuilding team are proud members of the ASNE Tidewater chapter.

Many thanks to our members and guests who attended ASNE TW’s January dinner/meeting program. The evening began with recognition and presentation of a citation to the ASNE TW Engineer of the Quarter (4th quarter 2019) to Hull Technician First Class (SW/EX) Jeffrey Crebs, USN. HT1’s Commanding Officer, USS McFaul (DDG 74) Rusty Williamson, was on hand to support his sailor.  HT1 Crebs was very excited and honored to receive the award. He and his wife Michelle greatly appreciated the recognition by ASNE TW and for the recommendation of award from HT1 Crebs’ Commanding Officer.

Our guest speaker for the evening was RDML Paul Spedero, USFFC Fleet Readiness Officer (N02R). The Fleet Integrated Readiness and Analysis (FIRA) Office was established in November 2019 by ADM Grady with the intent to develop readiness metrics that integrate resourcing inputs to readiness outputs. The newly formed FIRA office is tasked to drive Navy-wide, centrally managed data governance and develop USFFC staff analysis and analytic skills. RDML Spedero serves as the Force Readiness authority to define, analyze, integrate, and articulate readiness through one set of Fleet readiness and material condition policies and standards.

RDML Spedero’s remarks centered on ADM Grady's Revolutionize Readiness Campaign Plan. “The goal is to ‘bend the curve’ on Readiness ... with urgency - work on the problem, not in the problem ... keep a steady strain avoiding boom or bust cycles and lastly - ‘stop talking and start doing.’ To responsibly grow and dynamically operate the Fleet, we must have effective and predictable sustainability. We must squeeze every ounce of Readiness out of every dollar we get. We must revolutionize how we identify, analyze, and visualize not only current readiness concerns, but also articulate barriers to readiness generation across all echelons and work toward expressing the resources required for the readiness output.”

The December 18 dinner/meeting program featured guest speaker Dan Spagone, CNRMC Director of Intermediate Maintenance. Dan addressed the criticality and progress made towards improving sailor self-sufficiency, the ability to maintain their systems at sea without an over-reliance on shore support. The holiday crowd of 65 guests was festive and everyone enjoyed closing out the year socializing with business friends and colleagues.

ASNE Tidewater sponsored a guided tour at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum on December 14, 2019.  Special thanks to John Pentangelo (Museum Director), who led ASNE members and friends through the museum and special exhibit, “The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea, The U.S. Navy in Vietnam, 1950 - 1975.”  Thanks also to ASNE members Charlie Pfeifer and Ray Weber (Vietnam vets) who shared from their experiences during the tour. ASNE Tidewater also took this opportunity to have Pam Schools (Section Chair) present Mr. Pentangelo a STEM Grant for the Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation’s STEM-based LEGO® Shipbuilding Program.  Congratulations!  Link to Event Photos

The November 20 ASNE Tidewater Dinner/Meeting Program was a resounding success, with a terrific guest speaker Ms. Stephanie Douglas and a capacity turnout of 110 guests! Ms. Douglas is well-known in the Tidewater community, having served in key leadership positions locally at US Fleet Forces Command and most recently as the Executive Director for SEA-21/CNRMC.  She currently serves as the Director for Industrial Operations (SEA-04) at NAVSEA, and addressed the audience in that capacity.  Special guests in the audience included the new DASN Sustainment Mr. Sean Burke, Director Fleet Maintenance, RDML Bill Greene, and ASNE President RADM (Ret) Mark Hugel.  We’re also very pleased to see the positive trend continue with more Naval officers and Enlisted attending, as well as students from ODU and the Maritime Academy at Hampton High School. 

At the dinner/meeting program on October 16th, we had the pleasure of a full house of 90+ guests enjoying professional fellowship and a guest speaker presentation by the new Fleet Maintenance Officer, RDML Bill Greene (USFF N43). Admiral Greene shared his perspective on some of his top priorities and concerns four months into the position, notably the demand signal for maintenance outpacing capacity, aligning contracting strategy to support future investment and surge, and on-time delivery out of both public and private yards. 

Also, during the evening, we recognized and honored our Tidewater Section Chair of 2018-2019, Jessica Galassie, and the 3rd Quarter CY 2019 Engineer of the Quarter (EOQ) recipient, Damage Control Chief Petty Officer (Surface Warfare/Air Warfare) Anthony R. Pagliarini from USS VICKSBURG.  Anthony had his CO, XO and Chief Engineer joining him in a prideful show of support!