Last S-3 leaves NADEP; Viking SDLM program ends
By Bill Bartkus

It’s the end of an era at Naval Air Depot North Island. The last S-3 Viking to go through Standard Depot Level Maintenance (SDLM) left the NADEP during informal ceremonies early last month. Cmdr. Alan Micklewright, NADEP North Island director of Product Management, and Lt. Cmdr. Doug Lucka flew the aircraft back to Sea Control Squadron 22 in Jacksonville, Fla., via a refueling stop at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, the same day. Lucka, assigned to the staff of Commander, Naval Air Force Pacific, has orders to NADEP North Island.
The S-3 program came to NADEP North Island from NADEP Alameda, Calif., five years ago when the San Francisco Bay area naval air station closed under the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. A number of employees transferred to North Island with the program.
“This is a farewell to the S-3 Viking’s SDLM program,” said NADEP North Island Commanding Officer Capt. Emory Chenoweth. He said that the S-3 would now be maintained under the Integrated Maintenance Concept (IMC) by sailors at their squadron hangar with help from NADEP North Island artisans and engineers.
“This is the end of an era in the S-3 Viking’s long and storied history,” Chenoweth said. He mentioned that Micklewright had the right idea to hold the special “last rollout” ceremony for the people who came down from NADEP Alameda and from NADEP North Island all of whom brought the program together and made it successful.
Capt. James Kelly, commander, Sea Control Wing Pacific, attended the rollout ceremony. Referring to Kelly, Chenoweth said, “He’s our customer, he’s our partner, and what we do is directly supportive of his efforts to put capable aircraft on our carrier decks in support of maritime national defense.”
Chenoweth said that he had the utmost respect for the people who came from Alameda and to NADEP North Islanders for what they did and how they banded together to accomplish the mission. He told the crowd that nearly 30 percent of the current workforce had been involved in some sort of previous base realignment and closure action.
“What you do as professional civil servants is important. It’s more than important … it’s vital,” Chenoweth told the S-3 artisans and engineers. Through its entire program life, you have sustained this vital warfighting asset for the fleet. The aircraft, the community have seen challenges, have seen mission changes. But in terms of versatility, I don’t think there is a community in the U.S. Navy that is more capable, more adaptable and more versatile than the S-3 Viking community with the things they have done.”
He said that when he was on an air wing staff, the squadron that dropped the most ordnance from Fallon, Nev., during weapons detachments, were not the A-6 squadrons at that time but the S-3 squadrons. “They could carry forward firing ordnance in terms of Zunies and other types of missiles. They did the ASW (antisubmarine warfare) mission; they did the surface surveillance mission; they did strike support; they did mining. The community is well represented in terms of its adaptability and versatility, and I think they’re well represented here by the kind of professional civil servants who have served them over the last 20 years.”
According to Bob Bealo, Code 6.1.6.2, NADEP North Island worked on 88 S-3B Vikings and six ES-3B Shadows from 13 sea control squadrons on both U.S. coasts. Bealo said that NADEP artisans and engineers reduced the turnaround time down to 210 days last year compared to 410 plus days when the S-3 SDLM came here in 1995.
S-3 personnel have already migrated to the E-2/C-2, F-14 and F/A-18 programs at North Island, the H-1 IMC program at Camp Pendleton, the H-60 and the S-3 IMC programs at North Island, and the Components program. The remaining few will join these product lines based on desires and requirements as NADEP North Island completes the special repair aircraft in house. The S-3 Peculiar Support Equipment will transfer over to S-3 IMC and will be split between both coasts where numbers are sufficient to do so. Bealo said that machinery, such as the planetary grinder, would remain in Building 472 to support S-3 and other component workload that will still be supported by the depot Components program.
“The Depot will continue to be a vital part of S-3 maintenance into the future with the Integrated Maintenance Concept and the things that we are doing jointly in concert with the fleet,” Chenoweth said.
To symbolize and commemorate the end of the S-3 SDLM program, each S-3 teammate and former S-3 teammates (now working other NADEP North Island programs) received a special patch designed by Frank Casha, Code 6.1.6.5.0.1. The patch shows San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge on the left with the words NARF (Naval Air Rework Facility) Alameda. The San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge with an aircraft carrier and the words NAVAIR Depot NI are on the right. An S-3 is in the center flying between the two cities. Centered on the bottom of the patch is: 1978 S-3 Depot Maintenance 2001. A fitting memento of a successful program gone by.