Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center's (MARMC) Waterfront Operations Department provided oversight and technical expertise during an extended 11-month Chief of Naval Operations availability to USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), due for completion in April.

"Before the repairs took place, we set a fueling milestone of Jan. 4," said Gunston Hall Project Manager Armando Samonte. "That's important because the ship cannot perform equipment testing without taking on fuel."

In order to meet that milestone, 19 fuel tank level indicators had to be repaired. Once the tank level indicators were repaired, Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center inspected and certified them.

With the indicators repaired the next step before refueling involved inspecting 69 tanks. Samonte also said, once the tank inspection is complete, MARMC will provide a repair list to Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic, which decides what repairs are to be performed.

In this particular case, eight tanks needed repairs.

"There is a lot of coordination going on here between repair, testing, inspection and documentation," said Samonte. "All of these moving pieces are going on inside the 11 months to get this ship back operational."

With the tank level indicators and tanks repaired, the refueling of Gunston Hall's tanks will begin as planned.

"The entire maintenance team, along with General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, did a great job working together to get this ship fixed," said Samonte.

For more news from Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, visit www.navy.mil/local/nssa/