Naval Air Depot Cherry Point has received the 2004 Chief of Naval Operations Aviation Safety award. The prestigious award recognizes NADEP Cherry Point as a Navywide leader in promoting a proactive safety culture and a direct concern for quality is that is evident 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The emphasis on building quality into NADEP’s products, vice inspecting quality into its products, directly contributes to fleet readiness and safety.

Factors that contributed to receiving the award include:

·NADEP processed 32,144 components with only 33 discrepancies discovered in 2004.

·NADEP logged 613.4 mishap-free flight hours among two aircraft type, four aircraft models and 11 aircraft series in 2004. Of these, 437.3 hours were post depot level maintenance check flight hours, making a total of more than 3,700 mishap-free flight hours throughout the last five years.

·NADEP conducted safety standdowns to review pertinent mishaps, report hazards, and related statistical and risk management information to all air crew in an effort to prevent potential problems encountered in all phases of air operations.

·2004 aviation safety efforts included recurrent training for the air crew and production personnel closely associated with flight operations.

·NADEP Aviation Safety personnel worked closely with people from Occupational Safety and Health Branch and the Foreign Object Damage and Tool Control programs to reduce risk to air crews and workforce. Every effort was made to reduce risk with aggressive hazard identification, hazard elimination or mitigation, and quality improvements.

·NADEP’s introduction of the “Anymouse Program” to the artisans has yielded a wealth of information regarding the safety concerns and safety climate in the depot.

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Cutline: Adm. Wally Massenburg, commander, Naval Air Systems Command presents then NADEP Commanding Officer Col. John D. Gumbel with the 2004 CNO Aviation Safety Award.
Photo by Larry Conley