Approaching the six-month mark for Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH), the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) begins to undergo an important maintenance evolution to ensure the ship's mission readiness upon completion of RCOH.

The Damage Control division came in Jan. 20-21 to segregate the port side fire main from the starboard side, perform mass tag-outs to the port side's fire plugs and valves, and to slowly depressurize the port side's fire main system.

"The reason we're doing this is so that the shipyard can overhaul, first the port side, and then the starboard side fire mains," said Damage Controlman Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel Sawyer, a George Washington Sailor that participated in the evolution. "The valves on the ship have been operating for 25 years so some of the valves, seats and discs could be corroded. We haven't been able to provide any sort of isolation so when we're trying to do tag-outs on our equipment and try to fix our equipment, we can't isolate properly because the valves leak by. This maintenance is going to restore all of our valves so that we can properly maintain our equipment."

As of Jan. 23, approximately 75 percent of the ship's fire main has been depressurized and is scheduled to remain in Inactive Equipment Maintenance (IEM) until mid-July of this year while repairs are being made, said Damage Controlman Master Chief Petty Officer Orlin R. Volmer, the Assistant Damage Control Assistant (ADCA) and Leading Chief Petty Officer (LCPO) of the Damage Control division.

"On the port side, there's no fire main on the lines, it's entirely tagged down," said Damage Control Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Carroll, a George Washington Sailor that participated in the evolution. "We installed some blanks - a steel plate that blocks any water from escaping - on the starboard side and then slowly opened up the valves on each of the main branches of that side, allowing it to slowly release the fire main back into the system. This insures that we will still have half of the ship's fire main still pressurized and useable while the other side is down."

Sailors on the ship should be aware of the outages and are advised to learn where the closest working fire plugs are in the event of a fire.

"After six to eight months, the maintenance should be done and we can bring the port side fire main back up, making sure the repair work that was completed during that time was able to fix any potential issues," said Carroll. "We will then start the process of bringing down the starboard side of the fire main and go through the exact same evolution."

All affected fire plugs will have tags and labels on them, warning Sailors that the fire main is out of commission and giving the nearest location of an operable fire plug.

The importance of the fire main maintenance evolution is paramount to the ship and its mission, better preparing the ship in the event of a fire in the future.


For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from USS George Washington (CVN 73), visit www.navy.mil/.