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From the Editor Greeting Lincoln Nation! It is time for another outstanding issue of the Penny Press, made outstanding by the Abe Warriors portrayed in its pages! Some of our shipmates took the time to travel to Washington to commemorate some of our fallen heros. It was quiet a memorable Memorial Day. With the increase in warm weather, Sailors participated in a soccer tournament held at Naval Station Norfolk. We are still hard at work plugging away at RCOH. Check out the milestones we’ve accomplished inside! The CO took time out to acknowledge Sailors at the “GE Warehouse” for all of their hard effort. Bravo Zulu Shipmates! Keep up the hard work Lincoln Nation and remember it’s getting hot outside, so hydrate!
S afet y S tand D own Story by SN Phylicia Hanson Photo by MC3 Jonteil Johnson
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he Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)’s Safety Stand Down on May 28 and 29 addressed opportunities and safety tips for the upcoming months of summer during the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH). During the stand down, Sailors also learned about the ever-changing atmosphere of a ship in the yards during RCOH and were reminded to make smart decisions to prevent mishaps. “I just wanted to start off by saying good job on the 96-hour liberty. We have been doing a great job on the ship,” said Lincoln’s Commanding Officer, Capt. Karl O. Thomas. “In past RCOHs there was a spike of injuries at the beginning, but aboard our ship we have had little to no injuries
associated with RCOH.” Cmdr. Daniel Jurta, Lincoln’s Safety Officer, presented the audience with information about Moral Welfare and Recreation (MWR) opportunities for summer entertainment. “MWR has some amazing programs for summer activities in this area,” said Jurta. “The discounts that are given to military personnel make it affordable and easy to participate in the many different outdoor activities offered.” Fire Controlman 2nd Class Nicole Stanley, secretary of Lincoln’s Motorcycle Club, informed the crew about different levels of motorcycle classes readily available for Sailors to attend. “Lincoln’s motorcycle group has all different levels of riders, and we have a great mentoring program to anyone who is interested in riding. There are several classes that military members are required to take if you are riding, or even interested in starting to ride,” said Stanley. “If you are interested in riding, you need to come up to the Safety Office and we can sign you up for the required classes on the FAF.” Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Colette Brion covered the health issues and concerns that Medical Department sees this time of year, both on and off duty. “Heat stress can occur anytime and anywhere, indoors and outdoors. Heat exhaustion is not as serious as a heat stroke. However, it is still a very serious,” said Brion. “Heat stroke is the most serious of all; people can and have died from heat stroke. We need to be aware of our activities and surroundings when on duty and off.” Lincoln Executive Officer, Cmdr. Randall Peck, was the final speaker of the day and he emphasized how hot summers can be in Virginia. “Hydration is extremely important. It is just getting hotter as the months go on,” said Peck. “Heat stress is going to become a greater issue as temperatures rise.”
Lincoln Sailors Commemorate Memorial Day
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Story and photos by MC3 Jonteil Johnson
ailors attached to the Nimitzclass aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) visited Washington D.C. in honor of Memorial Day, May 27. Lincoln Sailors participated in tours that highlighted Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the significance of Memorial Day. “Lincoln Sailors have an opportunity to understand the sacrifices young men and women made to secure our liberty,” said Senior Chief Fire Controlman Eric Paschal, group leader of the trip to Washington. “It gives a general sense of what it means to be a service member.” Sailors saw a wreath laying ceremony at the U.S. Soldier’s and Airman’s Home National Cemetery. While there, Lincoln Sailors attended a ceremony honoring Gen. John A. Logan, who was credited with being among the first men to recognize May 30, 1868 as Memorial Day. Next, Lincoln Sailors toured the cemetery and learned about the history behind Logan and other service members buried there. This cemetery was the first national cemetery in America and was a precursor to nearby Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Later, Lincoln Sailors toured Lincoln’s Cottage at Soldier’s Home. Here, they learned why Lincoln spent a quarter of his presidency at the cottage and the historic things he did there, such as writing the Emancipation Proclamation and drafting the 13th Amendment. Lincoln’s personal struggles were also highlighted,
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including the loss of his son during his presidency. “It means a lot to the staff and the retirees that Sailors can come and show their support,” said Callie Hawkins, the Associate Director for Programs at Lincoln’s Cottage. “We hope that in the future more Sailors will come.” “I think after being here our Sailors will have a better understanding of the man our ship proudly honors,” said Paschal. “We realize President Lincoln was not only a great strategist, but he was also a normal man who dealt with tragedy and heartache throughout his term.” Paschal said many of Lincoln Sailors don’t have the privilege of fully understanding the meaning behind Memorial Day. “Many people think of Memorial Day as just another day off,” said Paschal. “Today we had the opportunity to give up our day off and recognize why we really celebrate this day and why it’s special.” After the tours, Lincoln Sailors were able to sit down and eat lunch with veterans housed at Scott Commons, a new retirement home built on the grounds. “I enjoyed spending time with the locals at the retirement home,” said Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Cody Dicarlo. “They shared interesting stories and offered great advice.” After leaving Scott Commons, Lincoln Sailors decided to take the opportunity to visit more historic sites in downtown Washington. Among them: the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the Lincoln Memorial. Tourists from around the world lined up excitedly to take pictures with them and thank them for their service. “It feels good to be recognized for the sacrifices we make on a daily basis,” said Dicarlo.
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mwr soccer tournament Lincoln Sailors Battle for Gold Story and photos by MC3 Danian Douglas
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espite overwhelming odds and a gutsy performance, Sailors attached to the Nimitzclass aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln narrowly missed out on advancing to the tournament finals in the Naval Station Norfolk MWR Soccer league May 30, at the Capt. Slade Cutter Athletic Park. Needing a crucial win against USS Harry S. Truman to advance, Lincoln started with only 8 players, conceding early and trailed 3-0 at the half, despite some good opportunities from the front line. “We started without a full team due to work commitments,” said team captain Hospital Corpsman 2nd Manuel De Lira. “Also, we lost a few key players since last year and a couple of us, including myself, took some serious injuries.” De Lira changed the lineup and swapped players often to combat the heat, but their hopes of a comeback took a dismal turn after conceding a fourth goal from a Truman counter-attack midway through the second half, then sank with a fifth from a penalty shot, shortly after. Lincoln’s speedy forwards kept the pressure on the Truman defense, however, and were rewarded with back-to-back goals from defensive lapses late in the game. Despite the heroic effort, they could not stave off defeat and were eliminated from the tournament. De Lira said that despite elimination, the Sailors benefitted from playing in the league, which featured 20 commands from the Hampton Roads area. “We had people from different countries, ethnicities, states, skill levels, and departments on the team. We even had our first female player this season,” said de Lira. “It helps bring us closer under one accord and it helps our networking vastly when we have people from different departments playing with and meeting each other.”
Lincoln’s Supply Officer, Cmdr. Eric Oettl, whose robust tackling kept Lincoln’s score sheet respectable, reiterated the benefit of such events. “The competition certainly helped our Sailors come together as a team and understand the value of teamwork in any endeavor,” said Oettl. “Playing for the Lincoln soccer team also built camaraderie, morale and pride in our great ship.”
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CO Visits GE Warehouse
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Story by SN Phylicia Hanson Photos by MC3 Jonteil Johnson
he Commanding Officer of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Capt. Karl O. Thomas, visited the GE Warehouse, one of Lincoln’s satellite locations June 3. This warehouse is being used during Lincoln’s refueling complex overhaul (RCOH). During Thomas’ visit, he recognized several Sailors for their outstanding work. “The GE warehouse has several different functions that all work out of this one general location,” said Thomas. “We have both Supply Department and Weapons Department’s Transportation division who work out of here.” Ten Sailors from Transportation were recognized for more than 1,000 driving hours in the Hampton Roads area without a single incident or mishap. “We wanted to show our appreciation to these outstanding Sailors,” said Thomas. “So we came up with an award to recognize them and their great driving abilities, called ‘Safe and Sound Driver Award.”’ “It was pretty amazing to have the CO come and award us,” said Aviation Structural Mechanic 3rd class Joshua Bowland. “That is a great leader, someone who points out the people doing the ‘not so great’ jobs and giving them awards to boost morale.” Among the Sailors that Thomas recognized was
Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Donnie Dowell. Dowell received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal from Thomas for his outstanding work in the community relations program, volunteering and coordinating over 1,000 volunteer hours this quarter at Newsome Park Elementary School in Newport News, Va. “This is such a huge honor,” said Dowell. “To have my Commanding Officer single me out in front of my entire Chain of Command, and tell my junior Sailors that I am a worthy role model, I am so blown away right now.” After awarding Lincoln Sailors, Thomas took a tour of the warehouse. “We wanted to give the CO a full visual of what has been stored,” said Cmdr. Eric Oettl, Lincoln’s Supply Officer. “And, we wanted to give him a full idea of the issues that we have come across, the problems we have overcome and the everyday work load we are looking at.” The skipper was also shown the shipboard coordinated on-load and outfitting plan warehouse, which contains equipment from Lincoln that will either be refurbished or thrown away before Lincoln’s crew moves back aboard the ship in about two years.
Operations Kicks Engineering to The Curb Story and Photos by MC3 Danian Douglas
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ailors attached to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln’s (CVN 72) Operations Department (OPS) defeated their shipmates from Engineering (ENG) with a dominating 10-7 victory in the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Captain’s Cup Kickball Tournament Championship game May 22 at Huntington Hall field. At the end of the game, MWR’s Leading Chief Petty Officer, Senior Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) Ronnie Padilla presented OPS with the Captain’s Cup trophy for the tournament, which was organized by Lincoln’s Medical Department. The tournament fielded 19 teams and featured simultaneous matches to speed up the process of elimination to the finals. “We had a big turnout,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Faviola Vail, Medical Department’s leading petty officer. “Some departments had so many players that they had to register multiple teams.”
OPS’s Meteorological Officer, Lt. Cmdr. John Marburger, explained how they took control very early, causing ENG to struggle throughout the game. “A big second inning for us was the turning point of the game,” said Marburger. “Some big kicks and untimely errors proved to be costly for the Engineering squad. They dug too deep a hole and never could recover.” OPS’ Administration Leading Petty Officer, Yeoman 1st Class Darrell Johnson described what the trophy meant to his department. “With this being our first victory in the Captain’s Cup series, we are very happy with the win,” said Johnson. “ Welcoming the opportunity to see the competitive nature of his shipmates, Johnson said that Captain’s Cup events also give Sailors the opportunity to interact with other people throughout the command.
AREER NAVIGATOR W I M F Lincoln Sailors hat t
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From USS Abraham Lincoln Public Affairs and Command Career Counselor’s Office
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he Navy is bringing together all enlisted career management policies, processes and multiple information technology systems under the umbrella of the Career Navigator program as announced in NAVADMIN 149/13 and 150/13, released May 30. The program will replace the Navy’s Perform-toServe (PTS) program and provide Sailors with tools and information to plan and execute their career decisions. Career Navigator will use “Career Waypoints” to replace the former “Fleet Ride” system used for PTS. Career Waypoints supports Sailor decisions about where to go next in their career, both in job and location. The program will include the enlisted career management processes that allow Sailors to give their intentions to reenlist, reclassify, designate into a rate, convert or transition between Active Duty and Reserves. Changes to the system and policy will occur in the next few months. According to a forthcoming NAVADMIN, all Sailors will know the results of their reenlistment requests sooner. Regardless of status, Sailors will know the results of their requests at least 10 months prior to the end of their contract. As early as this fall, some Sailors will receive realtime confirmation to reenlist.
For E-5 and below, categories of skill sets have been developed to streamline the processing of reenlistment requests. Sailors in skills that are in the “open” reenlistment category will be approved on their first applications. Sailors with skills that are in “competitive” reenlistment categories or that have special requirements will be screened according to their year group manning. The entire Career Waypoint process is to be simplified based on rank, performance evaluations, and critical Navy Enlisted Classifications. Sailors will have time to consider converting to another rating if there is no room in their current rate. The process has also been aligned with order negotiations through Career Management System-Interactive Detailing (CMS-ID) so Sailors will have more time to apply for the orders they desire. All together, the new process is expected to be simpler, provide responses sooner, and it returns reenlistment power to the Commanding Officer. For more information regarding the new Career Navigator program see Lincoln’s Command Career Counselor Office.
Know Your Shipmate R
eligious Programs Specialist (RP) Seaman Alexis Howard started her naval career three years ago as an undesignated seaman. “I joined the Navy to find direction in my life,” said Howard. “I also wanted to get out of my hometown and see the world.” The Yakima, Wash, native became an RP in November 2012 and is currently working with USS Abraham Lincoln’s Command Religious Ministries Department (CRMD). “Being able to work in CRMD has given me the opportunity to help people,” said Howard. “I understand a better way of approaching people who are dealing with issues and pointing them in the right direction to finding an answer.” Howard’s rate is responsible for supporting Navy chaplains in developing religious programs to meet the needs of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel and their families. “It’s really just one more step in my career,” said Howard. “I want to get every qualification that’s possible while I’m here.” One of her aspirations while still standing duty for the Navy is to have her 10-week-old Labrador become a therapy dog. “I really want to organize a community relations project (COMREL) where a group of Sailors go visit young children or old people and my dog would be able to come with me,” said Howard. “I would be able to hang out and play with my dog and help people at the same time.” When she’s not busy helping Lincoln Sailors or organizing COMRELs with the chaplains, Howard is preparing to take courses to obtain a degree in Nutritional Science. “I like to eat healthy and live a healthy lifestyle,” said Howard. “Making nutritional science a career would allow me to do something I love to do and make it my job.”
Story and Photo by MC3 Benjamin T. Liston Howard will be frocked to 3rd Class Petty Officer June 7.
“I joined the Navy to find direction in my life.” -SN Howard
Story and photo by MC3 Christina Naranjo