Naval Provide Programs Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Heart (FLC) Jacksonville offers built-in logistics companies for brand spanking new ship development in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the place Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) was constructed by Huntington Ingalls Industries.
The Navy accepted supply of PCU Higbee on Nov. 30. To organize for that milestone, army and civilian logisticians assigned to the FLC generated over 17,700 preliminary requisitions valued at greater than $16.9 million. They outfitted the ship with 97.13% of its allowed materials listing to make sure that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is prepared for sea. This exceeds the availability readiness goal established by NAVSUP and Naval Sea Programs Command.
But it surely wasn’t simply enterprise as standard with this explicit ship for among the NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville ladies who participated in its preparation. They really feel a part of the Higbee legacy.
Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee emigrated from Canada to america and have become a pioneer in Navy nursing, receiving the Navy Cross for her distinguished service combating the Spanish flu throughout World Warfare I. She was the primary ladies to have a U.S. Navy warship named for her, and DDG 123 is the second destroyer to bear her identify.
Nurses had been the primary ladies to serve within the U.S. Navy, starting with the official institution of the Navy Nurse Corps in Might 1908. Higbee was one of many authentic 20 Navy nurses often known as the Sacred Twenty. She served because the second superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps throughout World Warfare I and is credited with shaping the younger group and increasing it from 160 to 1,300 nurses.
Higbee’s story resonated with Yineiry “Genie” Ducre, who serves because the DDG Platform Supervisor for the FLC in Pascagoula. Like Higbee, Ducre is an immigrant and located a brand new house within the U.S. Navy. As a feminine Navy pioneer, Higbee opened the door for ladies like Ducre to have roles within the Navy.
“For me personally, it’s an honor. Like her, I used to be additionally an immigrant. My household got here from the Dominican Republic, and I joined the U.S. Navy,” Ducre mentioned.
“I really feel like I’ve come full circle, I began my Navy profession at 17 years outdated serving aboard the destroyer USS Mahan (DDG 72) within the Deck Division as a striker for storekeeper. I arrived aboard the ship two days earlier than the Navy birthday and reduce the cake,” she mentioned “Now, I’m the DDG platform supervisor.”
Culinary Specialist Senior Chief Lakesia Jackson leads the Fleet Help Staff and assists potential provide officers as they set up the Provide Division aboard pre-commissioning unit ships.
“I’ve served on lively responsibility as a culinary specialist within the U.S. Navy for 23 years, and it’s been an honor to work on the long run USS Higbee,” Jackson mentioned. “It’s superb, my daughter asks me once I go house, ‘What did you do as we speak?’ And it excites me to see her face mild up once I clarify to her what I do for the Navy to ship ships to the fleet.”
Analila “Lilli” Tosado is a Navy civilian assigned to the Outfitting Department. Along with being an immigrant and Navy veteran, Tosado has a daughter who works in drugs.
“My household migrated from Mexico, and I’m the primary feminine in my household to affix the army. I’m a retired U.S. Navy storekeeper,” Tosado mentioned. “My 22-year-old daughter works as a multi-skilled technician within the Medical Telemetry Division at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. It’s an awesome honor, the truth that she (Higbee) is a feminine. For her to be one of many first Navy nurses units an awesome instance for others to observe.”
The connections proceed. Rita F. Johnson-Amaker is a retired U.S. Army grasp sergeant and works as a purchase order card holder within the Technical Knowledge Department in Pascagoula. She is answerable for procuring general-use consumable materials for ships. Her aunt at the moment serves at a U.S. Air Pressure nurse.
“I really feel honored to assist a ship named after a feminine who served throughout WWI as a Navy nurse. Girls have all the time discovered methods to serve within the army in a single type of one other,” Johnson-Amaker mentioned. “Nursing was one of many first, and it’s a job that’s nonetheless in nice demand as we speak because it was again then.”
Vanessa Davis is a retired Navy storekeeper who has labored within the Pascagoula Outfitting Department, although she is at the moment the LPD platform supervisor.
“For me, it is full circle from serving on a ship to engaged on a ship that is named for a feminine. As a baby, I wished to affix the Navy. Now, I really feel proud to be related to the ship, particularly after studying about her,” mentioned Davis, who has a sister and niece who’re medical technicians. “She’s what I might’ve appreciated to study whereas I used to be serving on lively responsibility within the Navy.”
Iris Linder briefly crammed in as performing DDG platform supervisor whereas Higbee was beneath development. An Air Pressure veteran, she has household ties to Navy nursing.
“I retired from the U.S. Air Pressure with 27 years of honorable service, and have over 30 years of provide expertise. It’s an honor to work on this ship and know the trailblazing historical past behind its namesake,” Linder mentioned. “I’m additionally the one feminine in my household to affix the army. My grandmother was a civilian nurse on the Navy base in Cell and Pensacola, and my daughter not too long ago adopted in my footsteps and joined the U.S. Army.”
A century in the past, Higbee retired from the Navy on Nov. 30, 1922. She died in 1941 in Winter Park, Florida, and is buried at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.
This spring, PCU Higbee is scheduled to be commissioned into service at a ceremony in Key West, Florida.
Learn extra about Lenah Higbee on the Naval Historical past and Heritage Command: https://www.historical past.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/individuals/namesakes/lenah-higbee.html
NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville is one in all eight Fleet Logistics Facilities beneath Naval Provide Programs Command. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, NAVSUP employs a various, worldwide workforce of greater than 22,500 army and civilian personnel.
