Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. – Vice Adm. David Dunaway, commander, Naval Air Systems Command, along with members of his staff, visited NAVAIR facilities at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL) April 30 in Lakehurst, N.J. The visit marked Dunaway’s first visit to meet Lakehurst employees as he recognized their achievements.

Accompanied by Capt. Mark Goodrich, Gary Kessler, Graham Harlowe, Robert Smith and Jeff Guarnero, Dunaway and his staff visited NAVAIR Prototyping and Manufacturing in Hangar 1 where employees from 16 buildings assembled for the manufacturing division awards ceremony.

In a simple ceremony, employees came forward individually or in groups to receive their recognition documents and have their photographs taken as the vice admiral congratulated them. As their accomplishments were read, each had a chance to exchange comments with the vice admiral.

In comments before departing  Hangar 2, Dunaway called on those present to visualize the many threatening parts of the world and then remember that it’s the U.S Navy’s presence, or potential presence, that restrains those that would do us or world stability harm.

As the NAVAIR commander continued his site visit, he came to Integrated Diagnostics and Automated Test Systems Automated Test Systems (IDATS) Lab where he met the team creating new products for advanced aircraft diagnostics and recognized those doing all the innovative work.

At the Support Equipment Lab, Materials Lab, and Support Equipment & Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (SE&ALRE) Lab, he saw demonstrations or heard explanations of their capabilities. At the materials lab, for instance, he demonstrated prior knowledge about an ongoing materials investigation presented. After several questions, he asked what they had going on that they had not presented.

Jo Anna McVey, materials engineer, escorted him to a FTIR Spectrometer in the corner they are using to investigate why polyurethane rollers are failing in a particular Marine Corps item. “In failure analysis, we don’t just ask why something failed but how we can fix the root cause,” said David Piatkowski, head of the work, “We fix future failures before they can happen.”

At his request, Dunaway met with 70 interns. To them, he said the world is a crazy place and naval aviation is the only force stabilizing the world.  “Many people do not want the United States to keep our standard of living. I want us to.”

He underscored that 90 percent of all the world’s goods are shipped by sea and our carriers are 4.5 acres of mobile U.S. sovereignty.

“We must be more efficient, get rid of waste and not do work that we do not need to do and innovate war fighting capability,” Dunaway said. “We cannot expect future resources to match the growing craziness in the world but I am an optimist and see the cup half full.”