THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300408
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Every building project has a manager, someone who can say, halfway through construction, ``Hey, that's not what we planned,'' or, ``The plan stinks; better try something else.''
In the U.S. Navy, for as long as there has been one, that person has been the engineering duty officer. Each of the Navy's 1,033 ``E.D.'s'' is managing billions of dollars worth of work in progress.
They are the ``the grease that keeps the industrial machine going,'' said Cmdr. David Lienard, the Atlantic Fleet's maintenance scheduling officer.
``We watch over contracts for shipbuilding and repairs, and requests for modifications to the original contracts,'' Lienard said.
The engineering duty officers negotiate changes in Navy contracts.
``Our job is not so much on the `watchdog' side as it is on the `everybody wants to do the right thing side,' '' he said. ``We're not trying to catch bad guys cheating on contracts so much as we're trying to make sure all the good guys work together to expedite the building or repair process.''
With close to 200 ships and submarines operating in the Atlantic Fleet, and nine or 10 usually undergoing repair in Hampton Roads at any one time, that's a lot of decision-making.
E.D.'s work in the area's more than a dozen naval and civilian shipbuilding yards. They are also stationed at the fleet's technical support centers and aboard ships.
One of them, Lt. Cmdr. Ron Thompson, is stationed in the office of the supervisor of shipbuilding and repair at Newport News Shipbuilding, where he worked closely on the attack submarine Greeneville as assistant project officer.
The ship was christened earlier this fall by Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore.
``A submarine costs somewhere around $700 million to build,'' Thompson said. ``Half of that goes to the contractor and the other half is spent on government-furnished equipment to run it. Our contractors build a good ship, but you need someone who's knowledgeable about how ships work, and their systems operate, so that when problems come up someone can say whether or not you should pay for extra work.''
If there are delays, he said, the contractor can ask the government for more money and, ``ultimately, the government pays.''
``The contractor is going to get his $350 million, but in the year and a half of testing, if changes are made to the original drawings, new gizmos are added and government parts don't work properly, he'll get more.''
Thompson and Lienard said local shipbuilders know their business.
``If a request for changes comes into our office, 99 percent of the time it's legitimate,'' Thompson said.
Engineering duty officers are not involved with designing or awarding the original contract for ship repair or construction. Their work begins when the contract is signed and doesn't end until the work is finished.
``We're just being good stewards of what's already been negotiated for,'' Lienard said.
To get the expertise they need to approve costly building or repair modifications, E.D.s must have an unusual combination of skills and education. Each officer must have a technical master's degree and generally has served at least one sea tour on a ship or submarine.
``We're unique,'' Thompson said. ``Normal line officers operate ships. They train, deploy and fight; they don't like it when their ships go into drydock and get torn up. But we're part of a small cadre that knows not only about that, but about the nuances of dealing with contractors who build and repair those ships.'' by CNB