Within the face of debilitating obstacles and hurdles, Sailors on board the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82) devised a inventive answer to revive the ship’s engineering plant to deliver Lassen again into the struggle.
“From the analysis, to the planning, to the execution, this repair is the epitome of self-sufficiency and speaks quantity concerning the sailors now we have onboard this ship. It’s really the Sea Satan spirit,” stated Cmdr. Christopher Turmel, commanding officer of Lassen. The Sea Satan is Lassen’s mascot, adopted from Medal of Honor awardee Clyde Lassen’s helicopter squadron.
The difficulty was first found when Sailors responded to an uncommon noise coming from a lube oil pump hooked up to one of many ship’s principal discount gears. Additional investigation revealed {that a} coupling gear was not partaking. This casualty pressured the engineers to lock considered one of two shafts, considerably lowering Lassen’s obtainable velocity and proscribing her maneuverability.
At first, the restore half required appeared months away. Nonetheless, these Sailors discovered an appropriate substitute onboard. The trail to that substitute was not going to be straightforward. The staff pored over drawings and schematics, and consulted with technical advisors at Southeast Regional Upkeep Middle (SERMC). The staff decided they must carry out a fragile precision reducing of the broken coupling gear with out damaging the interior shaft.
Grasp Chief Equipment Repairman Matthew Keller, Lassen’s upkeep and materials administration (3M) chief, joined the staff of engineers to execute two precision cuts to take away the coupling, a process not simply achieved with the pitch and roll of a ship that’s underway. Sailors, together with Gasoline Turbine Methods Technician (Mechanical) 2nd Class Jacob Johns, Gasoline Turbine Methods Technician (Mechanical) Fireman Tanner Furbee, and Fireman Alejandro Carrillo-Rodriguez, spent greater than 12 hours aiding within the coupling elimination.
Subsequent, they needed to set up the brand new coupling, one more step solely difficult by the ship’s underway standing. Due to the scale differential, Chief Gasoline Turbine Methods Technician (Mechanical) Andrew Kingsbury needed to get inventive, using the ship’s galley ovens to warmth the coupling thus increasing the metallic in order that it might slide into place.
In all, the ship was capable of set up and check the spare gear, and return the ship’s plant to full operation in lower than two days. Benjamin Miner, a visiting port engineer from Norfolk, famous that the identical process in port would have taken a staff of consultants a number of days, and that Lassen’s efforts have been “actually distinctive.”
“Our Sailors’ diligence and dedication to teamwork and a tradition of self-sufficiency saved the Navy an estimated $200,000 in restore prices and, probably, months of missed operational alternatives,” stated Lt. Eric Skogerboe, Lassen’s chief engineer. “This was a staff effort and exhibits that ships may be self-sufficient at sea even on probably the most difficult points.”
