Landmark
January 2017
The Official Newsletter of USS Emory S. Land
EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
Landmark
January 2017
On the cover: MR3 Cory Eldridge and MR3 Deanna Crowley pose for a photo during Emory S. Land’s Masquerade Holiday Ball.
The Official Newsletter of USS Emory S. Land
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LANDMARK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rear Adm. Richard Correll visits the machine shop on Emory S. Land as part of his tour of the submarine tender.
4 FAMILY READINESS
6 GINGERBREAD HOUSE COMPETITION
Get to know the members of your Family Readiness Group.
ESL Sailors gathered on the mess decks for a holiday gingerbread house competition
8 SANTA RITA SENIOR CENTER
10 ESL WINS MULTIPLE BATTLE “E” MISSION AREA AWARDS
Sailors volunteered at a local senior center to help decorate for the holidays.
Multiple departments have been recognized for excellence.
12 2016 HOLIDAY PARTY
24 CAPTAIN’S CALL
The command welcomes the holiday season with a night of food, drink, and prizes.
Capt. Bradley discusses the first quarter of 2017.
25 CMC INTERVIEW
26 CHAPLAIN’S CORNER
CMDCM Green discusses current events in the Navy and on the ESL.
Lt. Jefferson is back with her piece titled ”Continuing with Change in the New Year.“
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
Family Readiness Group
Elissia Livingston President
Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) are an integral part of a support service network bundling key support services such as ombudsmen, Fleet and Family Support Centers (FFSCs), chaplains, school liaison officers and child development centers at the command level. These services provide coordinated support to service members and their families.
What is the purpose of a FRG? • Prepare members for deployments and homecoming.
• Provide family support during deployments. • Help families adjust to challenges and to support one another in times of personal, unit or area crises. • Welcome/mentor members who are new to the Navy lifestyle. • Coordinate social events, such as holiday celebrations.
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Hafa Adai ESL Family! My name is Elissia Livingston and I am your FRG President. My family is from the great state of Texas and we have been on Guam going on four years. I have been a military spouse for 12 years and we have three crazy kiddos; Hannah, Trevor, and Makenna. We have had the pleasure of being able to experience being stationed at the Naval Academy, one of our favorite duty stations, Go Navy Beat Army! We have truly enjoyed our time so far here on Guam and are grateful for the wonderful and amazing opportunities we have been given. I love being able to volunteer with our Military families. I have been a part of McCool Elementary/ Middle School PTO for two years. It is nice to be able to give back and support my fellow spouses and their families, as so many have done the same for me. I am excited to be working with our ESL family and look forward to getting to know y’all!
Giannina Reber
Melissa Reyna
Hello ESL family, my name is Giannina L. Reber and I am your FRG Vice President. I am originally from Lima, Peru. It was there that at the U.S. Naval Research Unit 6 I met my sailor, who has been proudly serving his country for more than 13 years. We have been on Guam for almost three years and we have a super-hyper demanding-to-beentertained, two-year-old boy named Viktor. Currently, I volunteer at Navy Marine Corps Relief Society in the office site as a Case Worker. You may see me at thrift store where I keep the uniform locker organized or at the Budget For Baby class that I teach once a month. This is my first experience with an FRG and I’m more than pleased to have the opportunity to help and support my fellow spouses and their families.
My name is Melissa Reyna and I am honored to be the Treasurer of the ESL’s first Family Readiness Group. My husband and I recently celebrated 15 years of marriage that has included, 10 years of US Navy, five joyful homecomings and countless travel memories throughout the world. I spend many of my days homeschooling my three children: ages 14, 7 and 4. Most of said days are enjoyable, even more so when they begin with coffee. My first experience with an FRG was a fantastic one and I hope to help give others the same enjoyable support system that was previously provided to me.
VP
Treasurer
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
Gingerbread House Competition Photos by MC3 Joshua Cote
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“I coordinated the event and it turned out great. It was much more fun than I could have ever imagined. It was my first time making a gingerbread house, and I had my little HGTV interior design. We had 24-hour liberty chits to give out as prizes. -IT3 Ashley Benjamin
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Volunteering at Santa Rita Senior Center
EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
Photos by MC3 Daniel Willoughby
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“I love volunteering. I do it whenever I get a chance. I had fun at the senior center because of all the stories I got to hear from the seniors there. Moments like those really make the whole thing worth volunteering for.
-ET3 Patrick Reilly
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
EMORY S. LAND WINS MULTIPLE BATTLE “E” MISSION AREA AWARDS
STORY AND PHOTO BY MC3 JASON AMADI
“THIS WAS A TEAM EFFORT AND SHOWS HOW WELL WE WORK TOGETHER.
-Lt. Brandon Carver The submarine tender, USS Emory S. Land
Carver stated the weapons department and the
(AS 39), received three mission area Battle “E”
crew have set a new standard upon the success of weapons
awards for excellence January 1.
inspections.
Emory S. Land won the Supply Blue “E”
“It speaks volumes about us as a command,” said
Award, Weapons White “W” Award, and the
Carver. ‘The weapons award gives us a snapshot of where
Personnel White “P” Award in the 2016 Battle
we were and where we’re going. The same can be said
Efficiency Competition.
about winning the supply and personnel awards.”
“This was a team effort and shows how well we work together,” said Lt. Brandon Carver, weapons
Emory S. Land’s supply department, comprised of 50 Sailors and 75 Military Sealift Command (MSC)
officer on Emory S. Land. “It also shows how well we civilian mariners, earned the Supply Blue “E” Award for overcome adversity, because we’re roughly 50 percent supply excellence after earning a grade of “outstanding” manned in the weapons department and we still took
during a Pacific Fleet Postal Assist Visit in March 2016,
this award.”
“outstanding” during the type commander Supply
The weapons department conducted highvisibility operations in 2016, including Operation
Management Inspection in October 2016, and an “outstanding” in the Disbursing portion of an unannounced
Heavy Thunder leading in an important torpedo-firing Fleet Logistics Center Field Examination Group inspection. exercise, and successfully demonstrated the Land’s capability to conduct a full guided-missile destroyer
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reload.
Cmdr. Cameron Rogers, the Land’s Navy supply officer said, “We did countless inventories, served tons
of meals, and issued thousands of
population expanded from 350
appreciative of the crew’s work and
parts.”
personnel to more than 800
effort, stating it as a “new benchmark
Sailors and civilians.
for success.”
Rogers added performance was the key to success during the inspections.
Senior medical officer
“I am extremely proud of the
aboard the Land, Lt. Timothy
hard work and dedication displayed
Wilcox said the increase in
by the entire crew during 2016,”
was Navy or MSC -- we aced every
crew, the hard work, and being
said Bradley. “These mission area
look we got from external agencies.”
inspection ready, boosted the
awards were well-deserved and have
morale of his division through the
set a standard of excellence for all to
“Excellence” award.
emulate.”
“It didn’t matter whether it
In 2016, the ship’s crew expanded in support of the twotender concept between Emory S.
Emory S. Land’s
Land and USS Frank Cable (AS
commanding officer, Capt.
40). The medical division patient
Douglas A. Bradley, is
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
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Photos by MC3 Daniel Willoughby Landmark JANUARY 2017
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
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“It was a fun and well organized event. Everybody had a good time and people there got to communicate with folks they might not get to otherwise. You got to see the other side of a lot of people. Instead of just seeing the military side, you kind of got to see their civilian side as well. -MM1 Sandro Lara Landmark JANUARY 2017
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
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“It was pretty amazing. The masquerade theme was a lot of fun. A lot of people dressed up and had their little outfits. ET1 Kohler and his wife won the competition, they had this little steam punk thing going on. The divers had on these really cool luchador masks too. It was awesome.�
-IT3 Ashley Benjamin
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
Sailors Support Holiday Party at Asan Mayor’s Office
Photos by MC3 Daniel Willoughby
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“Throughout the course of the year, I took pleasure in participating in several community relations projects on Guam, but this one was the most significant by far. I think that children who live in orphanages may feel less than desirable and left out especially around the holidays. When given the opportunity, I can say, without a doubt, it’s our responsibility to present to those who are less fortunate compassion and the sense or belief that we are all in this together. The sailors who participated in this comrel helped those children close out the year with an awesome gift giving ceremony, which helps build optimism towards the new year.”
-DC1 Jeffery Dallemand
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
Photos by MC3 Joshua Cote
GIVE BLOOD. GIVE LIFE.
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“Anytime that it’s possible for me to give blood, I do it. I guess it’s kind of a good feeling for me knowing that someone out there might need it and I’m always happy to give it.”
-ET3 Dominic Kreider
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
CAPTAIN’S CALL
Capt. Douglas A. Bradley
and continues in line with my mission to be safe and be respectful of one another. That shows respect for the crew, our mission, what we stand for and where we want to be as we continue to proceed through the year and build up our professional reputation. We proved that we can get the work done and enjoy ourselves in a safe and responsible way. How has the double maintenance availability (CMAV) gone thus far? Great! We planned and excecuted over 400 jobs, including a very difficult pump replacement. All CMAVs are filled with challenges. We always face unexpected issues and learn something new. Although not everything went as we wanted, I’m proud of the determination of the crew and the support they provided through the availabilities. I was very pleased with the repair department’s ability to integrate teams from Pearl Harbor Shipyard, Norfolk Shipyard, Frank Cable, and CSS-15 to get all the work done. Now that we’re back from the stand-down and the double CMAV is winding down, what else do we have to look forward to in the near future?
How did you spend your time during stand-down? I know you came back to the ship frequently, how much time did you actually take off? I came to support the work that needed to be done, but I was still able to take time off with my family here on the island. The time off afforded me the opportunity to do a couple different things. I went to a few holiday gatherings with neighbors and friends and a couple engagements out in the community, including the COMREL at the mayor’s office. I was also able to enjoy the island of Guam with my family. We hiked, went to the beaches, excerised together with biking and swimming, and caught up with a few of the movies that were playing at the base theater, like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. On the subject of Rogue One, how do you think it stacks up to the rest of the series?
We’re still the lead maintenance activity in Guam. As I look at the first quarter of this year, we’ve got a few big events coming up. First and foremost, our duty as the lead tender in Guam will continue. We have a number of CMAVs lined up consecutively or concurrently over the next couple of months. We have a very large CMAV coming up to support USS Topeka, so that’ll be a big challenge for us as we continue to develop our maintenance and repair capabilities. In conjunction with that, we also have our Fleet Maintenance Activity Assessment (FMAA) by COMSUBPAC later this month. FMAA is an external review of our repair department and their ability to do work, so that’s a major inspection for us as a tender, and I look forward to showcasing our world-class repair team. One of the other big evolutions will be the integration of the USS Frank Cable Sailors. As Cable prepares to leave, we’ll be absorbing about 400 of their Sailors into our repair department and across the ship.
I loved it! It was a little grittier, a little different flavor than the other movies. Of course *spoiler alert* it dovetailed to where I saw the very first movie back as a kid, which was great. You got to see the transition, Darth Vader and all that stuff, and of course *spoiler alert* all the heroes from Rogue One ended up dying, which is very different from the classic Star Wars movie. I loved the action. I thought the last battle sequence in the film was great, one of the best for Star Wars.
That’ll be a huge capability that expands what we can do here on Guam and I think it’ll also provide more repair capability across the waterfront. We’ll have a potential centralized location of leadership and planning for the CMAVs and it could allow more flexibility for the tenders to operate away from Guam, while still having a capability that’s ashore.
How did the stand-down period go for the rest of the ship?
Welcome back and happy New Year. From what I’ve heard thus far, everyone seems to have enjoyed time off and I was pleased by that. I go back to the ship’s party that kicked off our stand-down. It was a great event and I think everyone should be very proud of our MWR team. It was a great way to end 2016 and I look forward to great things in 2017. It’s great to have everybody back.
There were some Sailors who were supporting the repair work at a higher pace than others on the ship, so they were working more hours over the stand-down, but I think we were still able to provide some breaks in there. We’ll look for opportunities to open up down-time for some of those Sailors. I’m pleased with the crew and the fact that we didn’t have any drug or alcohol related incidents reported over the stand-down period on or off base, which is a win for the ship. I think that speaks well for the crew
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Is there anything you’d like to add, sir?
Nothing has changed with regards to my expectations for 2017. Be safe, be respectful, be honest and be ready!
INTERVIEW WITH THE CMC
CMC William L. Greene
Do you have any thoughts on the return of Navy enlisted ratings? It was a surprise that they went away and a surprise that they came back. I think there was just this big push to get rid of gender specific titles and they thought this was the best way to go. Sailor feedback told them that wasn’t the case. I’m glad the rates are back and I hope we keep the initiative. I’d still like to see advancement exams go away and promotions be based on merit and recommendation. That change came as a result of a lot of Sailor feedback. How much feedback do Sailors give here? I think we get a lot of great feedback from the crew. They don’t have to put on a comment card. If they’re going to put their name on it, they might as well email their concerns to me so I can forward it up to the person who may own the issue. But I always enjoy feedback from the crew. Sometimes it’s silly and sometimes it’s something we haven’t thought of like what we’re doing with the bag checker watch. Now that stand-down is over, what is the way ahead for Emory S. Land? Obviously, the number one priority moving forward is repairing submarines. Since we got back last April, the schedule has always been in flux as far as which submarine is going to be here. USS Topeka will probably be our top priority. That’s probably the one job that the whole Pacific Fleet is going to be wondering about once we complete this double CMAV. We’ve got major repairs, a major retest and lot of eyes looking at what we’ll be doing with that. How was your stand-down? It seemed you, the XO, and CO were still here a lot. Just because we came in a couple hours a day doesn’t mean we didn’t have a great stand-down. That’s normal
considering we had two major CMAVs going on. The dynamic was just a bit different. Of course there were things that came up that the CO, XO, and myself had to look into, but overall I had a great stand-down. I had lots of time off, some extra sleep and had time to spend with my kids. It was great. How do you feel the repair department handled working through much of the stand-down period due to the double CMAV? Our job is to repair submarines here and we can’t control the fact that two submarines had to be worked on during the holidays. I wish we could and we were able to give everyone the same opportunity to take a ton of leave during the stand-down period. But our repair department pushed through and did exceptionally well. As leaders we have to look for the time to say “Okay, these Sailors didn’t get a stand-down, where can we give them maybe two weeks off and allow them to fly out?” I want to give a shout out to the repair department. There are a lot of people who get more time off because they don’t carry the same workload, but I want to make it known that I definitely love the repair department.
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EMORY S. LAND Public Affairs
C
haplain’s orner
Lieutenant Takana Takana Jefferson Skelton Lieutenant Command Chaplain Chaplain Command USS Emory Emory S.S. Land Land (AS (AS 39) 39) USS
Continuing with Change in the New Year
quote that states: “Insanity is doing the same thing
ourselves to change? Every comfort that we have in
The New Year is often greeted with excitement and
over and over and expecting a different result.”
life is through the new way of thinking of someone
enthusiasm because of the thought of the endless
It is easy to fall back to our old ways and attitudes. It
who had to change.
opportunities we have for a new beginning and
is easy to blame our situations, others and even life for
change. We are looking to do away with the old and
not achieving our goals. Why? because it takes real
flat and the sun revolved around the earth. We have
start something new. However, how many of us have
effort to sincerely want to make the necessary changes
since learned this information was incorrect. Why?
made resolutions to lose weight, start a new diet,
in our lives and stick by them. How many of us have
because someone with new information and a new
exercise more, go back to school and even spend more
always done a certain thing or gone a certain place or
idea changed or challenged the old way of thinking.
time with family or loved ones? With this question in
even church because that is all that we knew or know?
mind, how successful have we been? It never ceases
We have no idea why but because this is
for being different. Sounds familiar? I think of Jesus
to amaze me how we start out strong or with our
the way we were taught or experienced then it must
who too had to challenge a way of thinking that was
best intentions of achieving our goals but then life
be right. We are comfortable with what is familiar
resistant to change. Instead of only the law, Jesus says
happens.
to us. Change requires us to go outside our comfort
why not add grace, mercy, forgiveness and most of
zone and to take a risk that we might not achieve
all love. As you continue on with your new year don’t
same cycle from our previous year. Now we are
what we set out. However, how will you know if you
forget that it is through the challenge of change and
disappointed and discouraged because our new year
don’t try? How do we know what our lives, hopes
the renewing of our minds that we are able to achieve
is looking a lot like the old year. There is a famous
and aspirations can achieve if we don’t challenge
our goals.
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Happy New Year to all aboard the ESL!
We find ourselves continuing within the
Early astrologers believed the earth was
This astronomer had to risk being ridiculed
The Official Newsletter of USS EMORY S. LAND (AS 39)
Commanding Officer Captain Douglas A. Bradley Executive Officer Commander Robert L. Lopez Command Master Chief CMDCM (SS/NAC) William L. Greene Public Affairs Officer Lieutenant Bradley Newsad JAGC Editing/Design/Journalism MC3 Jason Amadi MC3 Joshua Cote MC3 Daniel Willoughby