Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Erick Parsons | 190522-N-ZM949-2131 GULF OF ALASKA (May 22, 2019) Hull Technician 2nd Class Calton...... read more read more
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Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It is called Murphy’s Law. On a ship, whether a toilet clogs, a pipe leaks, or a bulkhead corrodes, something inevitably goes awry.
Hull maintenance technicians are the Sailors who are called upon to fix these types of issues on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).
Any of the ship’s components the crew deems necessary to be completely mission-ready to prepare Theodore Roosevelt to go to war or on deployment, hull maintenance technicians repair on short notice, said Hull Maintenance Technician 3rd Class Tanner Torrez, repair technician in Theodore Roosevelt’s repair division.
Self-proclaimed welders, tin benders, and pipe fitters, hull maintenance technicians know Theodore Roosevelt, or any other U.S. Navy ship, cannot function or carry out its mission without their aid.
“There is no one like us on the ship,” said Hull Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Albert Pitiquen, lead welder in Theodore Roosevelt’s repair division. “We are the best rate in the Navy because we are reliable and heavily relied upon.”
Hull maintenance technicians fix a lot of broken things, anywhere on the ship. They are called on to repair plumbing systems, structures, bulkheads, brackets, and showers.
“Some of the biggest things we end up working on are, for example, catapults,” said Hull Maintenance Technician 1st Class Michael McGough, leading petty officer of Theodore Roosevelt’s repair division. “Something will cause the system to go down and we’ll have to go up and make repairs and replace valves, piping, whatever it may be to restore the catapults so we can go back to launching the planes.”
If a Theodore Roosevelt division needs hull maintenance technicians to assess a situation in their workspace, they can fill out a work candidate through Organizational Maintenance Management System Next Generation (OMMS-NG). A team of hull maintenance technicians will investigate and assess the situation.
“We’ll send out a group of [hull maintenance technicians], junior Sailors along with senior [hull maintenance technicians], out on the job,” said Hull Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Alex Rivero, work center supervisor of Theodore Roosevelt’s repair division’s sheet metal shop. “We look at what’s wrong and figure out how to fix it.”
There are approximately 40 hull maintenance technicians in Theodore Roosevelt’s repair division in three branches: sheet metal shop, pipe shop, and carpenter shop.
Due to the nature of their work and their specialized skills, the camaraderie between hull maintenance technicians is unique.
“I like meeting new people in my rate,” said Pitiquen. “Repair division is the most family oriented. We are very close.”
Pitiquen also considers hull maintenance work an art, because of the building and creating he does as part of his job.
“On our last underway, I welded catapults underneath at an upside-down angle,” said Pitiquen. “We fabricate sheet metal boxes and create Rough Rider of the Week wooden plaques in our carpenter shop. One time, at my previous command, we even made the C.O.’s suggestion box.”
Much like the offensive lineman in football who are vital to the execution of their team’s offense, Theodore Roosevelt’s hull maintenance technicians are the unseen crewmembers who answer the call on a moment’s notice to keep our warship in first-rate condition, ready to engage the enemy.
| Date Taken: | 07.14.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 10.17.2019 11:42 |
| Story ID: | 348005 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Repairers of the Breach, by PO1 Pyoung Yi, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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