Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Sydney Milligan | 240726-N-XO158-1008 MEDITERRANEAN SEA (July 26, 2024) The supply department, S-3...... read more read more
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The first-in-class amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) received the award for Best Ships Store Retail and Services Excellence for fiscal year 2023.
The Ships Store Retail and Services Excellence Award, sponsored by Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUPSYS) and Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM), formally recognizes contributions of ship’s servicemen to the quality of life of afloat Sailors and Marines by evaluating their performance in daily operations and services, customer surveys, and performance trends. The criteria for the excellence award are: accountability, sustainability, inventory management, storeroom validity, merchandise arrangement, customer service satisfaction, ship’s store operations, ship’s laundry operations, and the ship’s barbershop operations.
“To receive an award of this caliber, it’s literally the super bowl of our rate. There are people who can go their whole career and not get this award, so it’s a big deal,” said Senior Chief Retail Services Specialist Ashley Hammary, Wasp’s supply department S-3 division leading chief petty officer. “We are always aiming for high excellence, shooting for better levels. I try to teach [my Sailors] the right way to do things, so that when we move on [from Wasp], we are creating a legacy.”
Type commanders select the best ship store winners based on superior service and by supply departments that exceed the established retail and service benchmarks. It takes a skilled and diligent team to accomplish this task, pushing junior and senior Sailors alike to perform their duties beyond what is expected.
Hammary said the efforts of all areas of the S-3 division contributed to earning the award.
“It’s about all the services we provide, such as the ship store, barbershops, laundry to the crew, vending machines and postal services,” said Hammary. “All of those scores tie into each other to bring an accumulative score. A lot of it is inventory levels, making sure things scan, making sure items are visually merchandised, and a lot of behind the scenes paperwork and financials. While the ship store is the face of the award, the heart and soul of the award is in the office done by the records keeper.” The records keeper for Wasp’s S-3 division, at the time, was Retail Services Specialist 2nd Class Monica Payan.
“The records keeper is the backbone of the division. I did all the stores ordering, inventories, I handled all the money and anything to do with transactions,” said Payan. “All the information input through Retail Operations Management [ROM] is checked for discrepancies. They audit all of the records and everything must be at or above a certain percentage in order to pass.”
Morale is a vital component for building a cohesive working environment on a ship at sea. Wasp’s retail specialists provide a multitude of outlets to improve quality of life while deployed, some of which allow Sailors and Marines to experience a sense of normalcy, and others which connect them with friends and family back home. These key services boost morale command-wide and provide reprieve for everyone onboard.
Retail Services Specialist 3rd Class Tyrome Chatman said the opportunity to provide high quality services to the crew was the result of “a lot of headaches and a lot of sweat.”
“We rebuilt a lot of our storerooms as well as the store,” said Chatman, prior ship store operator and current ship store supervisor. “We rotated a lot of stock, fixed a lot of hiccups that we had in the storerooms. [This award is] a blessing. We’re thankful and we worked hard for it. It’s a good feeling to get recognized for what we provide.”
Wasp is conducting operations in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations as the flagship of the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group (WSP ARG)-24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable (SOC). The WSP ARG-24th MEU (SOC) support high-end warfighting exercises while demonstrating speed and agility operating in a dynamic security environment
The previous award winner was the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) in fiscal year 2022.
You can follow USS Wasp’s adventures on Facebook and Instagram (@usswasp_lhd1).
To learn more about WASP ARG and 24th MEU “Team of Teams,” visit their DVIDS feature page at https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/wasparg24thmeu.
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2024 09:04 |
| Story ID: | 477712 |
| Location: | MEDITERRANEAN SEA |
| Web Views: | 2,217 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Wasp's Retail Services Team Recognized with Excellence Award, by PO2 Sydney Milligan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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