"Ike" wins 2001 Phoenix Trophy - Around the Fleet - USS Dwight D. Eisenhower wins Secretary of Defense Phoenix Trophy - Brief Article

All Hands, Feb, 2002 by Dwight D. Eisenhower

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) was recently presented the Secretary of Defense Phoenix Trophy in a ceremony honoring the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as the best maintenance unit in DOD.

Previously, Eisenhower was awarded a 2001 DOD Maintenance Award for large units -- 1,000 or more personnel -- which placed the carrier in the finals for the award.

The award is named in recognition of the mythological phoenix, a bird that lived five centuries, died and was reborn from its own ashes.

The Phoenix Award and DOD Maintenance Awards are granted in recognition of the long life given to equipment by sustained quality maintenance and the rejuvenation of equipment through well-established maintenance programs.

Eisenhower's impressive maintenance program from last year earned them this year's award recognition. The six-month deployment to the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf in 2000 saw Eisenhower conducting combat operations, delivering ordnance for the first time in hostile territory.

This elevated them above the other five DOD Maintenance Award finalists. The outstanding programs on the carrier saved U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars.

Savings to the Navy varied from $72,800 for refurbishing 182 non-tight doors aboard the ship, to $190,000 re-building and maintaining 17 magazine sprinkler valves and 33 sprinkler systems.

Assisted by Naval Air Systems Command, Eisenhower's weapons department deferred or avoided $1,125,400 in maintenance costs.

The crew regularly maintained its equipment and made repairs normally done instance, the aircraft "at the factory." For intermediate maintenance department performed mission-essential repairs to an F/A-18 aircraft, including the first shipboard replacement of vertical stabilizer strain gauges, a mammoth job.

Their efforts returned a vitally important asset to full mission capability in minimal time, without off-ship technical assistance.

Innovative approaches to mundane problems also set Eisenhower's program apart from the rest. Though not an astronomical figure, the ship saved an average of $3,717 each month in disposal fees, by burning oily rags rather than off-loading them for disposal ashore.

Aviation Shop 8 rewrote repair procedures for the "identification friend or foe" radiator network on F-14 AWG-9 radar antennas. These changes were later approved for fleetwide incorporation, which improved Navywide operation of this critical system.

Eisenhower's maintenance program has continued to be outstanding to this day, and will see the crew through its three-year refueling and complex overhaul.

For information on USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, go to www.navy.mil/home pagesf cvn69.