English fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett wrote, “If you do not know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are, and if you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you’re going. And if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going wrong.”

While this is true for everyday experiences in life, it is also true for the projected progression of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) as she makes her way through refueling complex overhaul (RCOH).

George Washington’s crew accomplished many things in 2018. Some of them can be easily seen, while others aren’t so obvious.

“As you come down the starboard side of the ship every day, and that’s where everyone comes in, you can just look up and see that we have an O-9 and O-10 level back on the island,” said Capt. Glenn Jamison, commanding officer aboard George Washington. “We’ve got radar masts back on the ship. We’ve got two arresting gear engines that have come back.”

Jamison went on to mention that although he could not go into detail about the exact developments going on in the propulsion plant, good progress is being made.

Like the starboard side of the ship, the port side of George Washington is coming along as well.

“If you go up the port side of the ship, you’ll see a new [close-in weapon system] sponson, [and] you’ll see a new NATO sea sparrow sponson,” said Jamison.

In addition to the improvements and upgrades visible outside the skin of the ship, Jamison also stated how many of the department spaces within the ship are coming back together.

“If you’re in medical department, you can go down and see the medical spaces that are coming back together,” said Jamison. “You’ll see a lot of the painting, decking, [and] lagging that all our ship’s force team has truly been coming together around. There are a lot of things coming together around the ship.”

While much has been accomplished, there is still much work ahead. As with any major renovation project, challenges are expected.

“What we’ve done since we came into RCOH is the program team, and it’s one team, one fight,” said Jamison. “This is the shipyard, [supervisor of shipbuilding], the contractors, and we all come together, and we focus on where the problems are as opposed to patting ourselves on the back for all the good stuff that’s going on.”

Jamison continued to give an example of how all the parties worked together to overcome obstacles.

“We had some material that was coming late to the propulsion plants so the leadership of those three arms that we talked about took a trip to Pittsburgh and fixed that problem,” said Jamison. “Some of the other problems we’re working through have to do with our Sailors not being in the rates they expect to be in. That’s why I put such a focus on getting people out underway, at sea…cycling [them] through the production teams. It’s the training piece that we owe to all our Sailors.”

One of the key components to championing the adversities at hand is balance. It is vital to find the right balance between production and training. As the workload for 2019 shifts, achieving balance will be an ongoing effort.

“We’re going to see some departments have increased loading and some slightly decreased loading,” said Jamison. “I’ve got production teams working up to about 250 percent and others teams working down now in single digit percent. So, we’re working on balancing that. We’re in the heavy industrial part of RCOH. We have undocking coming up. We’ll finally put water back on the hull of this great ship in May 2019.”

In an effort to reach balance, production teams will be restructured in 2019.

“Revamping the teams is basically rebalancing where the production needs are – that’s one part of it,” said Jamison. “The second piece is, we’re restructuring. The structure we originally did, did a lot of good for us. Historically, we are the most successful RCOH. Now that we’re in the heavy industrial phase, it was time to restructure. It also gets Sailors back in their rates in their parent departments. That helps with training of Sailors in their rates.”

Although there will be changes in 2019, the ship’s end goals remain the same.

“For 2019, my goals haven’t changed,” said Jamison. “I want to focus on production. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I want to make sure that this doesn’t turn into every other project that has come from an RCOH where everyone is at the end game and it all comes down on the Sailors’ backs. So, I really want to focus on keeping that steady stream in production. I also want to focus on training. We’ve got about 1,600 of our Sailors that we’ve put in schools, other ships, or hands-on in-rate experience, and I want to keep that number growing.”

If the crew can take the same attitude toward 2019 as their commanding officer, it should be smooth sailing.

“This is the best command I’ve ever been at,” said Jamison. “The work our Sailors are doing on any given day is very important. We are the plank-owners for George Washington to take her out to the year 2047. Five billion dollars, 48 months to take this ship out to 2047. She is going to come out of the yards as the most advanced capital warship in the world. That’s pretty awesome!”

Join the conversation with GW online at www.facebook.com/USSGW and www.twitter.com/GW_CVN73. For more news from USS George Washington, visit www.navy.mil/.

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