It was great to see the Pacific Fleet Commander, Admiral John Aquilino, head over to one of the more important National Shipyards–the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility–and rally the workforce. This is exactly the sort of high-level attention the National Shipyards need if they’re going to be sufficiently resourced.
There’s no transcript of his all-hands speech, but, in the small Navy PR release accompanying his visit, he echoed my words from last week (here), saying, “I can’t push lethal combat power forward without the work you do here.”
He continued, saying, “What I know is that the maintenance on these ships that you do sets the pace for everything else,” Aquilino told the standing-room-only crowd during an all hands call that included area Sailors and members of the PSNS & IMF workforce. “My hat’s off to you, and I want to thank each and every one of you.”
This is exactly the sort of effort that is needed to 1) rally the workers and 2) demonstrate the facility’s value to Congress and other stakeholders. Glad to see that a key Admiral–an Admiral holding one of the most critical posts in the Service–understands the importance of his national shipyards and goes out of his way to say so, publicly. BZ Admiral!
