Lincoln Rehab Team Saves Navy Nearly $3/4 Million

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jeremiah Mills, USS Abraham Lincoln Public Affairs

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (NNS) -- Sailors from the Air Department aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) recycled parts from the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) in an effort to save the Navy a pocket full of money during Lincoln's refueling complex overhaul (RCOH).

Eight Sailors travelled to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to acquire equipment to help repair the ship's flight deck fueling station and its two JP-5 fuel pump rooms.

Recycling Kennedy's equipment onto Lincoln saved the Navy six months of man-hours and $700,000, according to Lincoln's Air Boatswain, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Anthony Garcia.

"Attaining these resources has tremendously impacted the progress of repairing the ship's fueling systems," said Garcia.

The eight-Sailor team manually disassembled and transferred more than 100 valves, filters, caps and assemblies without cranes or pneumatic tools, which impressed the chief in charge of the team.

"Our Sailors put forth a Herculean effort on a major project for the improvement of our ship," said Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Fueling) Chief Cory Lee.

"It's as if we transplanted the vital organs of CV-67 and placed them into the Lincoln," said Garcia. "Naval vessels are like human bodies, its crew is the soul, its leadership the mind, and the fuel is the ships lifeblood. V-4 keeps that lifeblood pumping."

V-4 division is the aviation fueling unit within the Air Department responsible for fueling aircraft and maintaining the ship's fueling systems.

Lincoln is currently undergoing RCOH at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington-Ingalls Industries in Newport News.

Lincoln is the fifth ship of the Nimitz-class to undergo an RCOH, a major life-cycle milestone. Once RCOH is complete, Lincoln will be one of the most modern and technologically advanced Nimitz-class aircraft carriers in the fleet and will continue to be a vital part of the nation's defense.