Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. – Vice Adm. David Dunaway, commander of Naval Air Systems Command, paid a visit to the workforce at NAVAIR Lakehurst on Tuesday, March 11.

In his first visit in 2014, Dunaway spent an hour with the Lakehurst team at a Town Hall meeting in the base fitness center. More than 500 employees attended the meeting to hear the admiral discuss a number of wide-ranging issues and take questions from the audience.

One major theme Dunaway stressed was the pending DoD budget reductions.

“Although we may think otherwise, funding reductions are a healthy thing," said Dunaway. "After 12-13 years of war, we really need to reset our funding baseline while still maintaining our warfighting capabilities. The forward deployment of our land-based forces has become an unsustainable expense. Yet we live in an increasingly unstable world where the threats to our security continue to multiply.”

Dunaway believes that we can maintain our forward presence by projecting our power on the seas. So for the foreseeable future, he feels support for the carrier Navy should remain strong.

Another theme hit upon by Dunaway centered around long-range strategy.

"As a command, NAVAIR must continue to develop and implement a long-range strategy or else we will fail ourselves and our nation," Dunaway said. "That long-range strategy includes taking care of our people – our human resources, continuing to develop our integrated warfighting capability and making sure it all remains affordable."

Dunaway made it clear to the Lakehurst team that he is a strong proponent of the Competency Aligned Organization concept. It allows the command to take multiple organizations with different functions – work through their issues and disagreements – and devise a positive outcome that supports overall mission success.

"People" was another overriding issue stressed by Dunaway during his Lakehurst visit.

He is very proud of the NAVAIR workforce and how well they handled the two furloughs in 2013. “I am thoroughly impressed with how dedicated our employees are to the mission,” Dunaway said. “This past year, many folks told me how badly they felt when they could not put in the necessary hours to support the warfighter during the mandated furlough period.”

“In the coming year, NAVAIR intends to hire about 1,800 new employees to supplement our experience and knowledge base within the command. Over 9,000 people in our current workforce will be eligible to retire in the next five years. It is critical that we begin to replace our senior force with young and journeymen employees,” said Dunaway.

Having a personalized visit and Town Hall meeting between Dunaway and the workforce gave the Lakehurst team a unique chance to learn what the focus and direction of the command is for the long term. The visit also was a valuable opportunity for the admiral to express his appreciation for the dedication and support the Lakehurst team provides each and every day to NAVAIR, the Navy and the American public.

During the visit, Dunaway also met with members of NAVAIR Lakehurst’s Executive Leadership Council, toured several lab facilities and visited the Test site to receive an update on the Electromagnetic Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) facilities.

He also presided over a graduation ceremony of about 40 of Lakehurst’s engineering interns and was pleased to welcome the newly trained young professionals into the NAVAIR workforce.