By REBECCA MARCH
NAS Patuxent River Public Affairs Department

PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION, MD—A Sailor from NAS Patuxent River's Ground Electronics Maintenance Division has been awarded the Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence Naval Air Traffic Control Technician of the Year Award.

Electronics Technician 1st Class Anthony Babcock, GEM's radar terminal and equipment room work center supervisor, received the award during a ceremony April 6 in New Orleans. As an electronics technician with GEM, Babcock does maintenance and troubleshooting repair on air traffic control equipment.

"Winning that was a major accomplishment," Babcock said. "We provide direct service to the air traffic controllers so if they have any problems or issues, they'll come report it to us and we'll take action to fix any problems that arise."

In addition to his daily duties, Babcock successfully supported the installation of the National Airspace Systems Modernization upgrade which was completed last year. The $14-million upgrade included a new Digital Air Search Radar, Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System and Video Information Display System, which replaced legacy radar, display and processing systems. Pax River is one of the first stations within the Navy and Marine Corps to have its capabilities upgraded.

During the installation, radar air traffic control facility operations had to be relocated from the Air Operations building to a trailer-based temporary air traffic control facility. Babcock was tasked as the "subject matter expert" to ensure the radar equipment worked in the temporary facility. To complete this task, Babcock worked more than 50 off-duty hours doing micro/miniature-component-level work on elements in the beacon target extractor.

"His efforts not only saved the government in excess of $96,000 in repair costs, but also more importantly, ensured that the safe and effective transition from the local ATC facility to the TATCF occurred on schedule," according to Babcock's award nomination package.

Babcock also supported the "NASMod" (National Airspace Modernization Program) upgrade as the technical leader of a troubleshooting effort to identify and resolve failures of the TATCF's Integrated Voice Communication Switching System input line protectors.

"These failures affect any one of six individual IVCSS lines within an Air Traffic Controller's console, resulting in a complete loss of ATC communications," according to the award package.

Babcock traced the source of the failures to a ground potential difference between the trailer and the RATCF and installed a multi-strand ground conductor in parallel with the control and voltage lines to act as an electromagnetic field.

"His suggestions smoothed the installation of the National Airspace Modernization Program installations throughout the rest of the Navy. Other folks will reap the additional benefits [of his work]" said Tom Dealy, GEM officer.

Chief Electronics Technician Bryan Young said that one reason Babcock won the award was that his work not only benefited the air traffic control community here, but the Navy as a whole. He said that Babcock is on the forefront of "some of the technical advances that the Navy is going through right now."

"His efforts directly affect the entire Navy and that is the key to this award," Young said.

-USN-

Photo by Rebecca March
ET1(SW) Anthony Babcock monitors equipment in the radar terminal room in Air Operations here. Babcock received the Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence Naval Air Traffic Control Technician of the Year Award.