NADEP employee named NAVAIR Civilian Logistician of the Year

By Patsy Lowe, Public Affairs Assistant

One logistician’s work earned him the honor of being named Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Civilian Logistician of the Year 2000. The envelope, please! And the winner is — Sam Taylor, a Naval Aviation Depot logistics management specialist with the AV-8B Harrier engine program.

Taylor received a plaque commemorating his award on Nov. 5 at NAVAIR Headquarters aboard Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md. RDML Walter B. Massenburg, Assistant Commander for NAVAIR Logistics, did the honors.

“Sam was instrumental in identifying and championing the use of the Blendable Boroscope for the AV-8B Harrier,” Massenburg said. “This technology is of great value to the AV-8B community because it provides a much easier and far less expensive method of checking the aircraft’s engines for foreign object damage (FOD) and debris.”

Col. T. B. White III, AV-8B Program Manager at NAVAIR, agreed. “Implementing the Blendable Boroscope will be a significant boon to the AV-8B community in terms of safety, reliability and maintenance procedures,” he said.

“Using the Blendable Boroscope will produce tremendous cost savings and significantly increase fleet readiness,” Hawk Hibbs, Lead Logistics Manager with the AV-8B program, explained. “The Blendable Boroscope provides a way to diagnose potential engine damage without having to first remove a wing and then the engine. This technology eliminates the doubt without having to tear the aircraft apart.”

The Blendable Boroscope combines a fiber-optic boroscope with a series of miniature grinding tools and a second scope equipped with a video camera. Not all FOD-damaged engines can be repaired using this system, but it is estimated that approximately one-third of existing FOD incidents are suitable candidates.

Taylor has worked for the Department of the Navy for a total of 35 years and is taking the award in stride. “It really belongs to the whole team,” he said, “ not just me.”

Pretty humble words from a guy who just saved the Navy an estimated annual $7.5 million. Congratulations, Sam!

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