Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Anthony Hilkowski | 180718-N-ZF498-089 SAN DIEGO (July 18, 2018) - Capt. Roy Love (right), Naval Base San...... read more read more
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SAN DIEGO (July 20, 2018) – The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment (ASN EI&E) visited Naval Base San Diego (NBSD) July 18, as part of a tour of regional Navy and Marine Corps installations.
The Honorable Mrs. Phyllis L. Bayer, ASN EI&E is touring several installations in Southern California to assess force protection capabilities, mission readiness and safety issues.
“There is a lot here to oversee and manage with regard to safety on this installation, each tenant commander needs to own his or her safety program,” said Mrs. Bayer during a brief by NBSD leadership.
Some of the top safety challenges facing NBSD concern mobility on the base including vehicle and equipment traffic, pedestrians and motorcycles. The NBSD safety team has been proactive in managing these safety issues by providing training and notifications to all personnel assigned to the base, whether as staff or assigned to tenant commands.
“We have multiple safety events every year and we send out notices about classes or reminders of priority safety concerns through email, flyers and social media,” said Scott Poston, NBSD safety officer.
NBSD has been recognized by the Chief of Naval Operations, the Secretary of the Navy and others for its safety initiatives that help shape safety culture on the base. Some initiatives include LED assisted crosswalks, solar speed signs and electronic marquees. According to Poston, these changes have increased awareness of safety issues and reduced the number of safety mishaps. Mrs. Bayer took note of these enhancements during her tour of NBSD.
“I’m impressed,” she said to NBSD Commanding Officer Capt. Roy Love on NBSD’s safety initiatives and the proactive approach he and his team take toward improving the base.
Vice Adm. Mary Jackson, commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC), Rear Adm. Yancy Lindsey, commander, Navy Region Southwest and Love accompanied Mrs. Bayer during her tour of the base. The group toured the base operations center (BOC), sentry points, piers, unaccompanied housing and an automated utility monitoring facility. These locations represented key points of concern for the commanding officer.
“Naval Base San Diego is expected to grow from our current 53 homeported ships to 70 ships over the next 10 years,” said Love. “That number could increase if we move toward a 355 ship Navy and the base can’t get any bigger than it already is,” he said.
Love said the base can only grow upwards, not outwards since the base is surrounded by neighboring communities and businesses, so his goal is to try and stay ahead of the expected growth in manpower and assets through innovation and modernization.
“Our current and future MILCON (military construction) projects take into consideration expected growth over the next decade but we’re operating under fiscal constraints and we need to ensure Navy leadership knows about the challenges we’re facing long before they could potentially impact our mission,” said Love.
MILCON projects are managed by Naval Facilities and Engineering Command (NAVFAC), the Navy’s chief engineering command and technical authority for engineering projects and programs. NBSD relies heavily on the support of the NAVFAC Public Works Officer, Cmdr. Josh Gamez and his team as the resident experts on MILCON and other projects on the base. Gamez briefed Mrs. Bayer on funded and unfunded projects such as the expansion of the graving dock to accommodate maintenance and repairs on larger ships.
“Currently the graving dock can support small ships such as mine sweepers, LSDs [dock landing ships] and the Freedom-class LCS [littoral combat ship] but with the number of ships the base will be supporting in the future, we need it to support larger ships including both types of LCSs,” said Gamez. The graving dock serves a critical purpose by providing a location for maintenance and repair of hull issues whether emergent or during a ship’s scheduled maintenance and repair cycle.
Mrs. Bayer also saw NBSD force protection assets from several vantage points during her tour including a walking tour of the BOC and sentry posts, a harbor tour of the floating barriers and patrol zones and an aerial tour showing the layout of the wet and dry sides of the base.
“I received excellent feedback on the professionalism of our security team,” said Love.
The overall feedback provided to Love from Mrs. Bayer was that of excellence despite the challenges NBSD faces due to budget constraints and the need to keep up with increased force protection requirements.
“We continue to do more with less but by ensuring advocates like Mrs. Bayer are well informed about our challenges, we are arming them with information to get us the funding we need to support the warfighter,” said Love.
NBSD is one of the largest Navy installations supporting the Pacific Fleet. The base is homeport to more than 50 ships including destroyers, cruisers, amphibious assault ships, mine sweepers and littoral combat ships. As a Navy installation under CNIC, the base supports and enhances warfighter readiness by providing manning, training and resources to meet the fleet’s operational requirements.
| Date Taken: | 07.20.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 07.20.2018 13:53 |
| Story ID: | 285121 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 390 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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