Sailors aboard aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) completed a maintenance availability period at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Nov. 18.

A maintenance availability is an in-port period, during which Sailors, civilian employees, and contractors perform repairs and maintenance that cannot be done while the ship is at sea.

The availability began after John C. Stennis returned from Unit Level Training Assessment-Sustainment in the Pacific Ocean in early October. This was the second maintenance period the ship carried out since returning from a successful seven-month deployment in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

"We are getting ready for PIA, a planned incremental availability," said Lt. Cmdr. Brent Miller, from Grand Island, Nebraska. "The last [maintenance period] was very small, and this time we did 2-3 times as much work."

PIA is a more extensive, longer maintenance availability John C. Stennis will carry out at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in 2017.

According to Miller, the key to John C. Stennis' timely completion was teamwork.

"While working with our PSNS contractor teams, it felt as if we were really one team," said Miller.

John C. Stennis Sailors, along with PSNS workers and contractors, performed extensive shipboard maintenance including laying down non-skid on the flight deck, repairing and replacing nine airtight and watertight doors, and performing assessments on all four aircraft elevators.

Miller said there were two general purposes for this maintenance availability -- to fix whatever needed to be fixed before the ship returns to sea, and getting a head start on some PIA maintenance.

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