Photo By David Stoehr | The Newport Fleet Support Team, comprised of 208 members, won Division Newport’s...... read more read more
NEWPORT, R.I. – After a one-year hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport Annual Awards ceremony returned to an in-person, two-day event to honor more than 600 award winners on July 15-16.
Recognized for outstanding contributions during 2020, the winners showed tremendous versatility in fulfilling the mission of undersea superiority while adapting to the pandemic, said Technical Director Ron Vien.
“This is a special time where we get to recognize the great work by people done in our organization,” Vien said.
“I’m super delighted to be here and even more delighted you’re here in person,” Jeff Prater, director of Corporate Communications and master of ceremonies for the event, said. “Last year we did a combined video clip with presenters and awardees, but there’s nothing like being back in person.”
There was a total of 36 categories and 46 different awards (with some categories having more than one award) for the 2020 Annual Awards and a cash prize was associated with each award. There were 260 different nominations for a total of more than 1,200 employees up for awards, which were judged by a selection committee comprised of 200 colleagues.
The 2020 Annual Awards were held as a part of the “Celebrating our Mission, Appreciating our People” campaign, which has and will continue to feature more events throughout the summer and fall.
Two Commanding Officer/Technical Director Awards were presented for 2020, the highest award given by Division Newport leadership that highlights an outstanding contribution in the area of project management, engineering, scientific achievement, cost reduction, lifesaving efforts, civic duties, or any other appropriate achievements that reflects favorably upon the Division, its mission, or its personnel.
Mark Snyder, who retired from Division Newport on July 3, and the Newport Fleet Support Team were the winners of the CO/TD Award for 2020.
Before retiring after 37 years of service, Snyder served as the technical department acquisition advocate for the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department, where he oversaw a portfolio of contracts totaling more than $1 billion. In March 2020, Snyder postponed his retirement to help the department adjust to a maxi-flex and maximum telework environment because of the pandemic and in August 2020, he again postponed his retirement to serve as acting department head.
While in this role, the department maintained 100% of its operations in major service cost centers and successfully supported all in-service engineering agent roles. Snyder proactively addressed strategic planning efforts, launching technical and business reviews of the five divisions, updating the department’s strategic vision, and leading sessions to address technical strategy, technical health, and succession planning, the award states. Because of his leadership and commitment to continuous improvement, the department not only ran smoothly, but its future head was better poised to address tactical and strategic challenges and implement NAVSEA and Warfare Center mission priorities in support of the U.S. Navy fleet.
Newport Fleet Support Team
One of Division Newport’s most critical functions in support of its Undersea Warfare mission is providing in-service engineering support to a multitude of operational fleet systems, including Mission Temporary Alterations installations, needed system Technical Insertions/upgrades, and on-site fleet technical assists. The Newport Fleet Support Team, comprised of 139 members, was recognized for executing 127 installations and 79 on-site technical assists, all while the pandemic was at its peak. In all but a few of the cases, this required travel – often outside of the U.S.
Executing these events during the pandemic required even greater, more detailed coordination with the fleet and providing support was made even more complex due to the reduction in available flights, restrictions of movement and COVID-19 testing requirements, the award notes. Additionally, executing these on-site events came with a significant personal sacrifice. What may have required only a few days away from family resulted in several weeks of travel.
More significantly, executing the travel associated with these on-site events exposed these personnel to greater risk of becoming infected by the COVID-19 virus.
Despite the additional challenges and sacrifices, the team executed the on-site events in such a manner that all schedules and fleet requirements were met, ensuring the fleet could meet its mission requirements with fully functioning, modernized systems.
Members of the Newport Fleet Support Team are:
From the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department: Nipun Aggarwal, Kenneth Aguiar, Sergey Avanesov, Thomas Barek, David Bouch, Dean Bussick, Erwin Canarte, Henry Cotta, Robert Cutler III, Jonas Decastro, Stephen Dowling, Thomas Filiberto, Lawrence Gallagher III, Matthew George, Charles Humphrey, David Jasinski, Jeffrey Michael Kobza II, Warren Lam, Benjamin Lee, William Joseph Loss Jr., Mason Machado, Daniel Mallette, Randall May, Michael Moore, Benjamin Norris, Michael Palm, Jinal Jayant Patel, Paul Phillips, Joseph Roberts, Dillon Savitzky, Jeffrey Sefranek, John Stallcop, Donald Sweet, Spencer Charles Tasso, Tom Tetlow III, Karolien Egbertien Thornton, and Wyatt David Trottier.
From the Undersea Warfare Combat Systems Department: Robert Angelini, Mhadi Bah Jr., Vincent Benfeito II, James Henry Biegel, Colin Blakeney, Kelvin Cardonaruiz, Richard Carreiro, Bradford Carvalho, George Simeon Chatzopoulos, Gregory Cholewa, Cameron Christo, Timothy Clark, Richard Connor, Mickey Kyle Correll, Matthew Cote, Matthew Coughlin, Sandra Dawson, James Decarlo, Benjamin Doiron, Andrew Eatman, Christopher Ekholm, David Ellis, Jose Figueroa-Serra, Erica Gabrielle Fluevog, James Gamache, Christopher Gomes, Bradley Gonthier, Michael Greb, William Green II, Christopher Stephen Guinen, Alfonso Guzman-Vazquez, Timothy Hagan, Georgios Anastasio Halkidis, Michael Hanes, Wyatt Caz Harunk, Samantha Jane Hazard, Russell Helger Jr., Jesse Hoff, Richmond Huot, Eric Jautaikis, Issac Kao, Michael Sean Logan, Robert Lupinacci Jr., Ryan Magano, David Marchini, David Martins, Nicholas Massa, Geoffrey McElroy, William McGurk III, Jared Michael Medeiros, Adam Miga, James Moore, Denise Marie Myrick, Mark Neale, Anthony Michael
Oliveira, Caitlyn O’Shaughnessy, Robert O’Shaughnessy, Eitan Pearl, Mitchell Picard, Robert Daniel Pisechko, Travis Ryan Price, Waseem Nabeel Rasheed, Phillip Wade Richardson II, Lyle Robertson, Nicole Rodrigues, Calvin Roldan, Joshua Sadeck, Rey Santiago, Antone Santos, Patrick Seacrest, Jeffrey Spooner, James Allan Steele, Daniel Patrick Sullivan, Erika Rukiya Suttmeier, Timothy Sweet, Eric Tetreault, Michael Theriault, Benjamin Travelyn, Autilio Vicente, Ryan Viveiros, Tyler Wade, Matthew Ward, Michael Ward, and Brian Woomer.
From the Undersea Warfare Platforms and Payload Integration Department: Lee Barrick, Kyle Bromwell, Troy Christiansen, Mark Dixon, Arthur Geyer, Jeffrey Milburn, Byron Sjoblom, and Richard Thornton.
From the Undersea Warfare Weapons, Vehicles and Defensive Systems Department: William Campbell, Joseph Casey, Quintin Duplessis, Keith Kelley, Harrison Richard Kenyon, Jason Lemish, Robert Toth, Michael Tyler, Christopher Wharton, and Stefanie Erin Zamorski.
| Date Taken: | 08.23.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 08.23.2021 15:52 |
| Story ID: | 403752 |
| Location: | NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 379 |
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