I have about 2 million square
feet of interior and exterior production area, about 20 buildings,
three piers with 4,200 feet of berth
space, two floating dry docks, 61
cranes, vehicles, conveyor systems,
compressed gas and air systems. In
essence, I own everything in this
facility with the exception of the
ships on the water and the people
who work on them.
The shipyard is a little bit like a
family business to me, as my
youngest son works with me at the
shipyard. He is an outside machinist,
while also working toward his college degree. He is a senior this year,
majoring in mechanical engineering
at the University of North Florida.
On Navy ships, you’re either an
engineer or you’re a passenger. As
an engineer on board the ship, I
was responsible for everything that
allowed that ship to function and
operate. Everything I do here I’m
able to do because of the skillsets
that I picked up in the military.
My military experience taught
me that the most important thing I
can do is take care of the people
who work for me … to engage
them every day and care about
them in every way. I learned that if
you take care of your people, they
will take care of you. I learned that
you need to know your people or
you will fail them. If you fail them,
you can never be successful. I also
learned to always remain humble
and approachable, to lead them
from the front and always remind
them that they are important.
One of the pillars and core values of BAE Systems is that safety is
paramount, and for us it’s not just
a slogan. People are important and
we live that, breathe that, every
single day. I instill in my team
members a desire to take care of
our people always, in all ways.
The worst thing that could possibly occur in my position is for me to
have to deal with one of my team
members potentially becoming injured. I’m going on almost five years
without an accident and without an
injury in my department and I’m
pretty proud of that.
The industry is changing for my
shipyard. The workload is decreasing because of the state of the oil
industry that we support, so it
makes the job a little bit more
challenging. We have to do more
with less. That has an impact on
my people.
Doing our jobs and having an
impact on our customers, so the
next time they have a job that
comes up, they seriously consider
coming back to our facility because
of the quality of the work, the quality of life that we provided — all
that plays into what makes
my job very enjoyable.
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