Talking Shop: Celebrating NNSY’s Pipefitter Shop (Shop 56)

Photo By Troy Miller | Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Pipefitter Shop (Shop 56) Pipefitter Jason Roldan uses the tools and knowledge he learned as a physical education teacher for elementary school kids and serving in the U.S. Navy for four years. “Working with elementary school-age children taught me patience and how to work with others. The Navy taught me discipline and what it meant to become an active member of a team with the same common goal. I didn’t realize how the lessons I learned in the teaching field and the Navy would become so beneficial to me at my job here at the shipyard.”  

PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

04.01.2025

Story by Troy Miller 

Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) Pipefitter Shop (Shop 56), consisting of approximately 450 shipyard employees, is responsible for bending pipe, fabricating hose assemblies, building complex piping systems, performing brazing operations and testing piping systems and components for carrier and submarine projects at NNSY as well as for off-yard carriers and amphibious warfare ships. Shop 56 also runs the acid room, which consists of large vats of acid solutions used to dip hard-to-clean components; plus, up until recently, Shop 56 had the only gasket-making capability onboard NNSY.
Shop 56 also provides its services to NNSY Fleet Maintenance Submarines (FMB) located at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia; Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU) Charleston, located at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina; Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Camden County, Georgia; and Kenneth A. Kesselring Site, West Milton, New York. In addition, Shop 56 assists with forward-deployed ships when the need arises.
Recent wins for Shop 56 include doing its part to provide first-time quality ensuring timely delivery of the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) to the fleet following its 10-month docking planned incremental availability (DPIA).

• Date Taken: 04.01.2025
• Date Posted: 04.04.2025 12:42
• Story ID: 494583
• Location: PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US