NAVFAC Officer In Charge of Construction China Lake announces 2023 Engineers of the Year

Photo By Lt.Cmdr. Edward Cartagena | OICC China Lake's Civilian Engineer of the Year, Mr. Pete Benson, supervisory general engineer, who leads a 32-person project delivery team consisting of NAVFAC, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division and Parsons Corporation professionals, managing a five project $662 million program.  

RIDGECREST, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES

12.20.2022

Story by Edward Cartagena 

Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific

Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Officer In Charge of Construction (OICC) China Lake Commanding Officer Capt. Ben Wainwright announced his selections for the 2023 Military and Civilian Engineer of the Year awards.

OICC China Lake’s Engineers of the Year are Mr. Pete Benson (Civilian), supervisory general engineer and Lt. Daniel “Issac” Dunn (Military), lead construction manager.
“The technical contributions, wealth of shared experiences and leadership of these two outstanding engineers have led to program innovations, unprecedented cooperation and involvement with the end users to construct this nearly $4 billion earthquake recovery program aboard Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake”, said Capt. Ben Wainwright.
Pete Benson leads a 32-person project delivery team consisting of NAVFAC, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) and Parsons Corporation professionals, managing over $700 million worth of construction that includes five Military Construction projects and the Restoration and Modernization of the historic Albert Abraham Michelson Laboratory built in the mid-1940’s, transforming the building’s six wings into secure, state of the art research and development spaces.
Lt. Issac Dunn is the lead construction manager for OICC China Lake’s $775 million, South Airfield contract; six projects consisting of two research and development aircraft hangars, a systems integration laboratory, control tower, fire station, taxiways and parking aprons. He leads an integrated 14-person project delivery team made up of NAVFAC, NAWCWD and Parsons Corporation.

Since the commissioning of OICC China Lake in August 2020 and the beginning of construction of the South Airfield program in March 2021, Dunn has championed several program refinements that have led to streamlining the review of design submittal packages, decreased response times for requests for information, and invoicing practices, resulting in over $300M of work-in-place during the first two years of construction.

Prior to joining the OICC team, Dunn served as a Defense Acquisition University instructor, facilitating training for over 250 members of the defense acquisition workforce from July 2019 to June 2020. His innovative efforts led to a shift in course delivery due to the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020. During this transition, Dunn refined the NAVFAC Technical Analysis Writing workshop, piloted a customized post-award construction workshop, and improved delivery of facility services contract courses.

“Along with their extensive engineering experiences, they each bring a strong work ethic and a positive attitude every day that resonates across their respective teams, allowing for inventive and economically beneficial results to our large-scale construction program.” said Capt. Ben Wainwright.

Benson is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, earning a Master of Engineering in Project Management from the University of Maryland in 2012. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Mississippi.

Lt. Dunn graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering Systems. Upon graduation, he commissioned into the Civil Engineer Corps. He is a licensed Mechanical Engineer in the state of Nevada and is Seabee Combat Warfare qualified.

• Date Taken: 12.20.2022
• Date Posted: 12.20.2022 18:24
• Story ID: 435569
• Location: RIDGECREST, CALIFORNIA, US