Photo By Esthela Mckenzie | Rear Adm. John Schommer discusses the importance of ensuring America's Navy remains at...... read more read more
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Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) celebrated 100 years of underway replenishment (UNREP) to the United States Navy during a special ceremony held on station, May 31.
Opening the ceremony, NSWC PHD Commanding Officer Capt. Stephen Murray provided a few remarks, noting the importance of the celebration and its direct ties to PHD.
“I’m honored to celebrate this milestone with Port Hueneme—the home of UNREP for more than 50 years,” he began. “As the Navy and nation’s only underway replenishment test site, we take great pride in this anniversary knowing that our UNREP division played an integral role in obtaining this feat.”
The centennial event included the premier of a short historical film highlighting the command’s UNREP achievements, followed by honorary speaker Rear Adm. John Schommer, Deputy Commander Military Sealift Command.
After viewing the video, Schommer took the stage and related the importance of UNREP to a personal experience he and his wife faced while in California during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Right after the quake, his wife and son needed to drive to San Diego, but couldn’t because power was unavailable to all local gas pumps.
“They could not drive to San Diego and complete their mission that day because of a lack of fuel,” he said. “We can’t let that happen with our Navy, especially during times of duress.”
With the nation headed into a time of uncertainty, Schommer emphasized the need for innovation and collaboration to ensure America’s Navy remains at sea for as long as required.
“As the maritime system becomes more heavily used, more stressed, and more contested than ever before,” he said, “adaptation and innovation are needed to ensure mission accomplishment. It is imperative that the Navy, Military Sealift Command, and the great innovators here at Port Hueneme Division, get together to enable the Navy to remain on station around the world, protecting America from attack, and when required, bringing to bear decisive combat power.”
Closing out his speech, Schommer acknowledged the men and women who made the past 100 years of UNREP successful, saying “it’s really the people—those who developed, those who maintain and improve, and those who operate these systems—who enable us to celebrate this anniversary. We recognize their hard work and personal sacrifice and say thank you for contributing to this legacy.”
After the ceremony, attendees visited the UNREP Test Site to view a live demonstration of the Navy’s latest method for replenishment known as the Heavy Electric-Standard Tensioned Alongside Method (E-STREAM), designed and developed by command engineers and technicians.
Today, UNREP systems can be found aboard every surface ship in the Navy, dedicated to the transfer of all consumables from supply ships to customer ships while both are underway. Items such as fuel, food, ammunition, repair parts, and personnel are routinely transferred at sea. NSWC PHD’s responsibility is to ensure the Navy’s UNREP systems work when needed and performs as planned anywhere, anytime.
NSWC PHD is a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command and provides the global United States Navy fleet with integration, test and evaluation, life-cycle logistics, and in-service engineering for today’s and tomorrow’s warfare systems. Located at Naval Base Ventura County, Calif., NSWC PHD employs more than 2,500 personnel.
| Date Taken: | 06.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.01.2017 19:29 |
| Story ID: | 236077 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 377 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NSWC PHD celebrates 100 years of at-sea replenishment, by Nichole Susanka, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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