This year's fourth NAVAIR Fleet Environmental Information Exchange (FEIE) was held at Naval Station Norfolk, co-hosted by Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.

Fleet representatives from various Navy and Marine Corps hazardous material, supply, and corrosion control programs came to this year’s exchange to discuss their environmental aviation-related issues with NAVAIR environmental and acquisition experts, as well as learn about new technologies and network with their peers. Forty-seven needs were collected, with burning issues ranging from environmental training and education to hazardous waste disposal. All action items collected at the FEIE have been distributed to the appropriate NAVAIR subject-matter expert for follow-up.

The Marine Corps attendees all agreed that there is a pressing need to establish a standard Marine Corps Military Operating Specialty (MOS) for hazardous materials control, as these functions are currently performed on a collateral duty basis. By creating the MOS, they believe they would greatly benefit from reliable training and processes, which in turn will help consistently meet mission readiness and environmental requirements.

Other topics included the need for consistent hazardous materials control systems between Navy and Marine Corps aviation maintenance operations; manual discrepancies and electronic publications; leveraging the Navy’s Technology Needs Survey process for the Marine Corps; F-14 fueling operations; pre-positioning hazardous materials for deployments; Qualified Products Lists; shelf-life; and many other items related to support equipment and hazardous materials management.

In addition to discussing their pressing needs face-to-face with the people who can initiate or effect results, attendees benefited from hands-on demonstrations of new technologies. The highlight of the demos was a corrosion control tool kit that uses bristle-disk technology for corrosion touch-up repairs.

AMC(AW) Ron Higham, an aviation structural mechanic with VAW 120, Airborne Early Warning Wing, US Atlantic Fleet, participated in the fleet evaluation of the bristle-disk technology and attended the FEIE to talk about the experience with his peers.

“Working with NAVAIR on new technologies before fleet introduction is the best way to do business,” said Higham. “The original disks we tested were blue, and it was difficult to find broken bristles because the color blended with the shop surroundings. We asked to have the color changed so that if a bristle broke off we could see it easier. Now the disks are bright orange and yellow. Fleet deck plate testing is a great idea because the sailors get to check out the technology before being transferred to the fleet.”

Attendees also received demonstrations on automatic particle counters and steam cleaning, and were briefed on the Navy shelf-life program, HMAUL processes, and general series manuals. Hazardous Communication training was also conducted for training credit.

For information on this and future information exchanges or the action items, please contact Herman Varmall, NAVAIR Environmental Planning and Management, 301-757-2155.