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GW, CVW 5 Pass COE With Flying Colors

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080905-14
Release Date: 9/5/2008 1:43:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Bryan Reckard, USS George Washington Public Affairs

PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- USS George Washington (CVN 73) and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 passed their Combat Operations Efficiency (COE) certification with flying colors Sept. 2.

Cmdr. Brad Brown, George Washington's air boss, noted that the ship's crew received the highest possible score on the COE and did it on the first official day of the evaluation.

"There are several metrics that the Navy measures as far as your training and readiness," Brown said. "We were only supposed to make [the second highest level]. However, we did so well that we exceeded [expectations] and actually achieved [the highest level] early and maintained those standards."

Cmdr. Stephen Blasch, George Washington's mini boss, added that the COE allows the ship to operate in areas where there are no aircraft divert fields.

"In order to do that, there are a lot of things that we have to accomplish," Blasch said. "A lot of it involves time. The big picture is, the less time it takes to launch and recover a cycle, the better we're going to be, because that's less time that the aircraft are attempting landings."

While several days were written into the ship's schedule leaving plenty of time to successfully complete the certification. George Washington's crew was able to pass the COE on the first official day of the evaluation, which was an important step towards getting to the crew's new home in the forward-deployed naval forces.

"The original plan was that we would take a couple more days than what we did," Brown said. "However, we came out of the blocks running hard and it paid off. The air wing's performance was exceptional, the integration between the flight deck and air wing and the pilots and the air crew and the maintenance on the air wing was exceptional, so everything flowed and we got done earlier than expected."

CVW 5 and George Washington have been underway with each other for less than two weeks, but both sides came into the team positive, excited and ready to work hard.

"I think as a whole everybody has come into this relationship with the expectation that it's going to work," said Brown. "We have a great relationship with the CAG (Commander, CVW 5) all the way down to the deckplate airmen. Everybody's excited and ready to go. We're Sailors and we love being at sea and doing a good job for our country, and everybody's on board with that. It's really exciting to be a part of that team."

George Washington is conducting training and operating in the eastern Pacific Ocean before continuing to Japan, where the ship will replace USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) as the U.S. Navy's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier.

For more news from USS George Washington, visit www.navy.mil/local/cvn73/.