Refueling Complex Overhaul (RCOH) beckons to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) from the shipyard in Newport News across the Chesapeake Bay to her current dwelling, pierside at Naval Station Norfolk.

To prepare for this evolution, GW Sailors developed diverse teams to inspect and input the status of every space throughout the ship. Each team is composed of a supervisor and Sailors who are electrical technicians, mechanical technicians and trained safety inspectors.

"The RCOH space inspection teams are our second set of eyes," said Petty Officer 1st Class Gerald Johnson. "They're looking at everything; valves, corrosion, damages and things like that. It's an overall [inspection] of material conditions and discrepancies that can be taken care of during RCOH."

The teams will use RCOH space inspection sheets to find and mark down the contents of spaces, such as the amount of battle lanterns, lights, J-dial outlets, etc. They also take note of the condition of equipment found in the space.

Images are taken and packaged with completed inspection sheets of the 2,402 spaces the teams are responsible for examining. These packages are cataloged into binders labeled with the 20 departments who own the spaces.

"PO1 Johnson and I created the workflow for the teams," said Chief Petty Officer Charles Hart. "We'll hand a team a space inspection sheet and send them out. Our goal is to get each team to fully inspect 30 to 40 spaces a day."

Hart said the entire ship will be completely surveyed before February if the teams keep up their current pace.
Prior to the beginning of the space inspections, Sailors were urged to chronicle known discrepancies in the Organizational Maintenance Management System-Next Generation (OMMS-NG).

"Oct. 31 was the ship's deadline to have jobs submitted into OMMS-NG to ensure work packages would be created to reflect those jobs," said Hart. "The purpose of the space inspection team is to identify any remaining jobs to assist work center supervisors in submitting any future work packages to the ship's Maintenance Manager (Lt. Cmdr. Jeremy Smith) as he manages the maintenance budget."

Hart said that the ship's Maintenance Manager liaises with zone managers at the shipyards to communicate OMMS-NG jobs. Zone managers are responsible for finding out what work needs to be done and who needs to do it, whether it's GW Sailors or contractors.

Hart was stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) when it was in the yards and recalled his experience.

"For those of us who were on the TR, who brought the ship out of the yards, it was a nightmare," said Hart. "Trying to figure out what was done and what wasn't done, especially when it came to valves. Valves that were set up in the past four or five years were not actuated, so when we went to load off different plants, the valves were bursting because they weren't being properly maintained."

The space inspection teams were initially focused on valves. It evolved into an overall focus of the space's condition.

Hart says that GW is taking lessons from TR as well as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), which is currently in Newport News wrapping up the later stages of RCOH.

RCOH can be broken down to three phases. The first phase involves unloading the ship's equipment, furniture and tools not welded, wired or piped into place. Then the second phase is mostly governed by contractor work inside the skin of the ship, refurbishing and repairing items on board.

"The third phase is the one that catches all the headaches of trying to put everything back together," said Hart. "We're trying to minimize the headache between the first phase and the third phase."

The RCOH space inspection teams are not grading departments on their spaces. They are a second set of eyes, and they are looking out for the ship's condition before it is dry-docked at the shipyards.

Hart said he is proud of what the inspection team's capabilities are and the amount of support received from GW's crew.

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