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Home : Media : News
NEWS | Aug. 16, 2018

Meeting the mission: San Diego mechanic seeks efficiencies, helps next generation

By PSNS & IMF Public Affairs

Shantelle Clark is a supervisory marine machinery mechanic with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility San Diego Detachment’s Marine Machinery Division. She started with the command as a helper-trainee in 2005, before enrolling in the apprenticeship program. She graduated from the program in 2010.

 

Briefly describe your job.

 

I direct personnel in troubleshooting, repairing, overhauling and installing numerous types of marine machinery and equipment. I coordinate between shops, and at times ship’s personnel, to ensure work will be progressing efficiently and on schedule. 

 

What do you like about your job?

 

When all members of the job team are able to come together and work efficiently to get a job done and a ship underway.

 

We recently completed emergent work on (a ship). Crews from the shipyard and ship’s force came together, working long hours, to swap out the damaged piece of equipment, allowing the ship to be ready to continue its mission. Even the personnel who weren’t conducting hands-on work were at the ready to run for tools and materials when the mechanics needed them.

 

How does what you are doing benefit the command and beyond?

 

What I do benefits the command by helping to ensure the Navy’s continued confidence in our abilities as an organization to complete the work they need while maintaining fleet readiness. This doesn’t mean the work that we accomplish directly, but also the assistance that we give to ship’s force in order to help their personnel gain the knowledge and mechanical experience they need to successfully conduct repairs while underway.

 

I also work to ensure personnel under my supervision understand how to excel in their current positions, and I provide them the tools they will need for their future success as they move on to bigger and better things in our shipyard. This benefits the command by ensuring that there will continue to be well-rounded, critical-thinking individuals who possess the know-how and foresight to solve problems for generations to come.

 

What has been a memorable moment or an encouragement to you about your job at PSNS & IMF?

 

One of the moments that will be forever ingrained in my mind is the camaraderie that existed among the crew while we were completing one of the D-5 conversions. We worked together so well that we were able to complete the machining of the missile tubes in half the time as the crew of the previous project. In my mind this entrenched the need for a crew to sync well together in order to exceed the expectations of the project.