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Ike Team Scores Excellent During TSTA/FEP

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060310-09
3/10/2006

By Journalist 2nd Class (SW) Benjamin Ballweg, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Public Affairs

ABOARD USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (NNS) -- USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) pulled into Pier 12 at Naval Station Norfolk March 10 after a 25-day underway period and a score of Excellent on her Tailored Ship’s Training Availability and Final Evaluation Period (TSTA/FEP).

The Afloat Training Group (ATG), embarked as trainers and evaluators, recommended Ike be considered Emergency Surge Ready.

ATG scrutinized Ike’s Integrated Training Team (ITT) during the underway period. Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Martin, Ike’s training officer, is the ITT coordinator.

“The Integrated Training Team is, in essence, the coalescence of all the various training teams on the ship,” said Martin. “It allows us to fight the ship integrated as you would in the real-world scenario, all these different folks, all these different parts working together to keep things running smoothly and keeping Ike safely afloat.”

Ike began standing up her ITT last summer, during her Post Shakedown Availability (PSA). Since then, the push has been on to get ITT and the ship ready for TSTA/FEP.

“I think [TSTA/FEP] really is the culmination [of our work since PSA], if you look at it from a unit level,” said Martin. “Now we can turn to and look to maintain that readiness that we’ve achieved now, and we feel like we’ve come a long way, particularly in the last month. I would say this 25-day underway period has really made the difference for Ike and the training teams involved.”

Ike started moving beyond the unit level during this underway period. TSTA/FEP was the first time the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier had her embarked air wing aboard since before her mid-life Refueling Complex Overhaul. Together, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7 and CVN 69 make Team 769.

CVW-7 qualified 86 fixed-wing pilots on carrier landings and 18 rotary-wing pilots on deck landings during the underway period. The wing also managed to conduct 1,376 launches and recoveries altogether.

“All the squadrons of CVW-7 had been training with other squadrons in coordinated strikes, but this was the first time the wing had trained together as a unit,” said Lt. Chris Sullivan of CVW-7’s Operations staff. “The coordination with the ship meant for fairly complex exercises.”

“Across the board, we did a real good job,” said Martin. “The Integrated Training Team completed the Total Ship Survivability Exercise with a grade of 96, which included Damage Control Training Team also scoring a 96, and a score of 97 on the Zebra setting.

All teams worked hard across the board and each performed well, including Medical Training Team who set the standard with straight 100s in all graded evolutions.”

“The last 25 days, walking around the ship, seeing what Ike’s made of has drawn a very strong impression, been very positive,” said Eisenhower Strike Group Commander Rear Adm. Allen Myers. “I like what I see right now, and I like what I’ve seen over the last 25 days. I’ve seen professionalism, I’ve seen warrior spirit, and I’ve seen teamwork.”

“When it comes right down to it, we excelled as a team,” said Ike Commanding Officer Capt. Dan Cloyd. “We defined excellence as a team. We recognized it’s not about any one of us, although it takes all of our individual efforts, but it’s collectively how we add that together across the whole spectrum of people here … to produce excellence.”

The FEP grade of Excellent and recommendation of Emergency Surge Ready means Team 769 is ready to start integrating beyond the lifelines.

“[After the unit-level phase], you enter the intermediate phase, which is the coordination throughout the strike group,” said Martin, “and then you look to the more advanced [Joint Task Force Exercise] and sustainment phase, which allows you to carry that readiness into combat to conduct operations.”

Over the 25-day underway period, Ike held 14 general quarters drills, five mass casualty drills and four underway replenishments (UNREPs). Seaman Isaiah Reid of IKE’s Deck Department’s 1st Division was a linehandler for the UNREPs, and was busy in the aft galley the rest of the time.

“It was a good experience, because we hadn’t been out that long [since I’d been aboard],” said Reid. “It also gave me a good feel for what’s coming when we deploy.”

Team 769 is scheduled to conduct the Composite Training Unit Exercise with the Eisenhower Strike Group, and Joint Task Force Exercise with even more forces, before deploying later this year.