Eisenhower Named As 2010 SECNAV Safety Award Winner

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christopher Marshall, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Public Affairs

USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, At Sea (NNS) -- USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) was awarded the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Safety Excellence Award in the large deck combatant category at an award presentation at the U.S. Navy Memorial and Naval Heritage Center Theater in Washington, D.C., July 7, 2011.

The Department of the Navy Safety Excellence Awards were established in 2002 by the Honorable Gordon R. England to personally recognize Navy and Marine Corps commands that demonstrate extraordinary excellence by sustained mission success with simultaneous exemplary safety performance.

All award recipients of the award are presented with the SECNAV's distinctive white-and-green safety flag, which they are entitled to fly for one year.

"Our uses of operational risk management (ORM) during the 2010 deployment and our time in the shipyard is what got us here," said Commander Thomas F. Stanley, Dwight D. Eisenhower's safety officer. "Training, fixing problems on the spot and being knowledgeable about the risks kept IKE safe."

According to SECNAV Ray Mabus, safety and risk management are intrinsic to Dwight D. Eisenhower to effectively prepare for and complete her mission, whether at home or deployed in harm's way.

"Your safety accomplishments are proof-positive of your mission first, safety always command culture and your commitment to each other, to safety excellence, to the nation, and to the advent of the department of the Navy as a world class safety organization," Mabus said in a message announcing the awards.

Sailors aboard Dwight D. Eisenhower have been in a post incremental availability period since September of last year, but that has not stopped Sailors from catching the attention of SECNAV Mabus.

"We set a standard this past year and hopefully USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's safety continues to improve," said Stanley.