Teamwork Makes the Dream Work with Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Shop 89 Carrier Team

Courtesy Photo | Shop 89 of Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Temporary Services Group (Code 990) is a support shop. When a carrier arrives, Shop 89 members build all the staging to hold the temporary services to power the carriers, as well as set up the brow stands, so the Navy can get personnel and NNSY’s workforce on and off the ship safely. They provide support from the time the carrier arrives until it leaves. Many of the trades cannot come aboard and start working until Shop 89 does their job.  

PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

11.13.2024

Story by Susanne Greene 

Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Story by Susanne Greene, NNSY Public Affairs Specialist
Photos Courtesy of Shop 89
Shop 89 of Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Temporary Services Group (Code 990) is a support shop. When a carrier arrives, Shop 89 members build all the staging to hold the temporary services to power the carriers, as well as set up the brow stands, so the Navy can get personnel and NNSY’s workforce on and off the ship safely. They provide support from the time the carrier arrives until it leaves. Many of the trades cannot come aboard and start working until Shop 89 does their job.
“Most of us have been together for a year or more,” said NNSY Shop 89 Supervisor Robert Mitchell. “We put everything out on the table. We don’t have any drama going and keep it real with each other because at the end of the day it’s our job to save each other’s lives." The Shop 89 team is excelling at getting the jobs done on time and safely, so much so that the team has taken on additional taskers.
Speaking of his team’s mindset, Mitchell said, “When you fail, you fail as a team and not just one person. If you want to be successful, you need to be successful as a team. Everybody should be on the same page, and everybody should be willing to listen to one another. If somebody has a problem, we come together as a team and figure it out.”
Mitchell’s team is a lesson learned on how to collaborate successfully.
“My foremen pulled a team together that had never worked together before; mostly young people, contractors, brand-new workers, apprentices and a couple of guys with experience,” said Mitchell. “And when we first got together, everything was going in different directions, but eventually all of us came together as a team. We got on the same page to make everything work.”
Kenneth Wells is a mechanic who has worked at NNSY for six years. He has worked on the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), twice.
“My supervisor, Robert Mitchell, allowed me to step in as acting work leader and took me under his wing and provided me the opportunity to go to the zone manager and superintendent’s job meetings and the briefings in the morning at 0700 every day,” said Wells. “I took on the responsibility of leading and making sure jobs were done on time and safely. I gave the contractors and mechanics the room to teach each other the proper way to build staging safely and quickly.”
“We always work together, strategize together, plan jobs together,” said Wells. “I always take everyone’s idea and if we all can’t agree as a team, then that’s when I step in and make the final decision based on everyone’s safety.”
Wells continued, “We are one big family, and I believe the reason that we are like that is because when you have a leader that allows his mechanics, that he trusts, and the apprentices, and encourages them to work together with the contractors and just be on the same page.”
“A group of guys this young and to be so successful, getting all this work done and no one getting hurt, means a lot to me and my team because we treat each other like family,” said Mitchell.
Having that mindset was instilled in Mitchell early in his career thanks to strong mentoring. “I have been at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for close to 30 years and learned so much from my mentor, Mr. Corey Butts,” said Mitchell. “He taught me patience and how to deal with different personality types and I owe my success as a team leader to him.” Mitchell’s team appreciates the importance of safety every day given the nature of Shop 89’s work.
“The team wears safety harnesses, and sometimes they are attached to the staging, and sometimes we need to create or build an anchorage point,” said Mitchell. “We have to calculate the mount and make sure it can hold the proper weight for the safety harness if you were to fall.”
“Before I got over here, about a year and a half ago, I didn’t know too much about scaffolding, but Kenny Wells and Robert Mitchell, my supervisor, taught me everything they know,” said Contractor Cory Crocker. “The guys I work with always make me feel like I’m part of the team.”
” We have fun at work every day, we work safely, and we get our job done,” said Mitchell.

• Date Taken: 11.13.2024
• Date Posted: 11.13.2024 14:06
• Story ID: 485169
• Location: PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US