Dahlgren Division employees receive Peer Recognition Awards

Eight employees of the Warfare Systems Department for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) received Peer Recognition Awards for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 (October - December 2011).

James R. Hall (W22) was named Employee of the Quarter. As the warfare system engineering manager for PCU Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) class aircraft carriers since 2004, Hall is vital to the ship integration and design team, demonstrating exceptional knowledge about and understanding of ship construction and delivery.

During recent funding challenges, on Hall's recommendation and without sacrificing ship deployment capabilities, the Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) 10.0 Ship Integration Program Manager deferred over $20 million. Hall was acknowledged by PEO Aircraft Carriers CVN 21 Future Aircraft Carrier Program Manager (PMS 378), Naval Sea Systems Command 05V, Systems Engineering for Aircraft Carrier Design, PEO IWS 10.0, and the Warfare Systems Engineering Technical Team (WSETT) as a dedicated peer who demonstrates superb leadership and mentoring skills while considering the warfighter and organizational benefits.

Hall interacts with Naval Air Systems Command and PEO Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence to ensure the CVN 78 warfare system is integrated not only into the ship but is interoperable across System Commands. His ship integration experience is unmatched and his counsel is sought out by WSETT and program office personnel alike, earning him the moniker, "Professor" Hall.

Dedication and Perseverance

Two employees garnered W Department's Dedication and Perseverance award.

Alan Faulkner (W41) supports Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) team efforts and performs a critical role supporting all test activities required for CEC certifications. As a relatively new W41 employee, he has proven to be self motivated and extremely driven.

In early November 2011, Faulkner fell while playing basketball and tore his Achilles tendon. He was encouraged take the time necessary to properly heal this injury before attempting to face the rigors of walking around the workplace. Faulkner, however, returned to work shortly after his accident. He continued to provide the expected level of support required, conducting and completing his assigned tasks, and performed his duties without complaint. His swift return is attributed to his unwavering dedication to NSWCDD, his department, and his team.

Gerry ("Glen") Hobbs (W51) is W51's senior enterprise systems developer supporting the sites planning agent and the Next-Generation Switch Controller (NGSC) technical lead and head developer.

His knowledge of Aegis systems and development practices and methods has been instrumental in deploying systems to replace obsolete and unsupportable equipment across Aegis land-based sites. To minimize operational impacts, deployments are scheduled over weekends and holidays, requiring Hobbs' availability during off hours. This has created hardship; however, without complaint, he met all delivery milestones providing additional equipment types, security enhancements, and user interface improvements, resulting in lower life cycle support cost.

The Aegis Training and Readiness Center (ATRC) transitioned to the NGSC over its Christmas stand-down. While many of his coworkers took time off for the holidays, Hobbs worked long hours to meet the needs of the ATRC, the Sailors, and the Fleet. His dedication and perseverance resulted in a quality product delivered on time without disruption to ATRC training schedules.

Employee Development

Jeremy Kelly (W15) received the Employee Development award.

Since joining NSWCDD in May 2011, Kelly quickly became one of the most productive authors of new research and technology proposals. His work is of the highest caliber, going beyond mere proposal review, to researching background material and becoming intimately familiar with field standards. He contributed to the doctrine and modeling of a novel U.S. Marine Corps communications system, meeting directly with the program sponsor; facilitating productive communication across service, organizational, and technical boundaries; and exceeding expectations researching solutions to difficult computational modeling tasks.

Kelly has been solicited to evaluate new technologies on behalf of the NSWCDD Chief Technology Officer, which is atypical for ND-2 level personnel. The ability and confidence necessary to independently generate new proposals at Kelly's level of creativity often takes far longer to develop and underlines his efforts to educate himself about both current warfighter needs and of the requirements for funding naval research projects. His presence promotes continuing employee development for our entire work group.

Technical Excellence Awards

Bob Blunkosky (W42) is an exemplary Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) data tools team lead. He is also an outstanding and dedicated member of the Aegis Data, Analysis, and Reduction (ADAR) team supporting Aegis and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ADAR work through the development of libraries and programs, and providing timely ADAR program updates and fixes.

Blunkosky developed the USS Independence (LCS 2) data reduction tool, which is part of the ADAR environment and available through the 8-ball Graphic User Interface. He is an invaluable point of contact for all ADAR analysts regarding Aegis, Aegis BMD, and three LCS configurations, never hesitating to assist analysts with any questions or issues.

Additionally, Blunkosky expertly manages the data from all LCS configurations, working tirelessly and diligently with engineers from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division, to ensure the NSWCDD LCS analysts receive the data required to successfully and effectively carry out their responsibilities. He is truly a valuable asset to our organization.

Mark Giewont (W22) has achieved a level of focus and maturity in his technical aptitude normally reserved for those with years of experience.

From October through November 2010, the Littoral Combat System (LCS) project used W42 laboratory space analysis tools to review how a specific LCS module handled navigation data. As is typical of information developed within a laboratory environment, the understanding developed by analysts is often difficult to follow and must be condensed to salient points presented in a manner allowing higher level management and decision makers to grasp the relevance of the relayed information.

Giewont excels in this area, analyzing data at an exceptionally fast pace, identifying relationships that are extremely difficult to see, and effectively translating these complex observations into a form easily understood by those with a lesser knowledge base.

He worked as part of a small team to develop the LCS brief and contributed significantly to its success, effectively leveraging his technical expertise while balancing by the critical requirement to clearly and concisely relay information to decision makers.

Dwayne Nelson (W24) has leveraged his multiple technical degrees to create new work processes significantly improving the execution of W24's day-to-day work. His fresh viewpoint facilitates development of innovative approaches to problem solving and producing deliverables faster and more accurately.

An integrated ship check tool he developed for Littoral Combat Ships has been well received by Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ships Program Manager 505. He also designed offshoots of this tool to increase the efficiency of amphibious-class ship checks. Nelson designed a spreadsheet to track both current and future Aegis and amphibious combat system hardware and software configurations. The spreadsheet is designed to auto-populate using reports downloaded from the Warfare Interface Systems Engineering site, significantly increasing efficiency of production updates.

He has shown great skill in developing innovative tools and processes to track and monitor complicated system interfaces and upgrades and has demonstrated top technical knowledge in the field of combat systems integration.

Jeff Shaffer (W71) is the technical lead for the Aegis Data Analysis and Reduction (ADAR) Data Tools group for Aegis, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, and Littoral Combat Ships. He manages ADAR tool suite maintenance and updates; tactical data and data dictionary management; and the ADAR Graphic User Interface and its underlying tools and libraries.

Shaffer led development of the ADAR Enterprise Installer, providing packaged installation of ADAR and numerous other data tools created by organizations internal and external to NSWCDD, and assists developers in integrating their tools into the ADAR environment. Shaffer ensures all testing data from Combat System Engineering Development Site, Surface Combat Systems Center, and Integrated Warfare Systems Laboratory (IWSL) is available for analysts as it is received. He works closely with the IWSL commercial systems group to ensure the environment runs smoothly and tools work properly. Shaffer is quick to respond and resolve discrepancies or interface issues, and his expertise and work on analysis tools has been vital to our success.