SILVERDALE, Wash. –
Trident Refit Facility Bangor (TRFB) received the Naval Retention Excellence Award, also known as the Golden Anchor, from Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) for fiscal year 2020 after receiving a 100% on its annual Command Career Information Program review.
The award is given to commands with superior accomplishment in executing programs that best enable Sailors to succeed in the Navy and for directly supporting the concept of Brilliant on the Basics, a charge from the U.S. Navy to reinvigorate efforts to foster an environment where Sailors and their families want to stay in the Navy.
TRFB’s Command Career Management Program is led by the Military Personnel Division (MILPERS) (Code 110) and the Command Career Counselor (CCC), Machinist Mate (Auxiliary) 2nd Class Leo Zhang, a native of Monterey Park, California.
“My goal is to take care of Sailors,” said Zhang. “My team helped me do that. We worked together to meet all of our requirements for career development boards (CDB) and Career Waypoints (C-Way) applications which not only helped the Sailors, it helped the command.”
TRFB was one of the 29 NAVSEA activities that received the award.
“This award was unprecedented in that it was earned in an unorthodox manner. MMA2 Zhang and his team of counselors were successful in working an exception to policy that recognized our civilian hiring of separating and retiring Sailors here at TRFB,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brian Curran, TRFB administrative officer. “The exception was granted on the fact that we are not only retaining our talent in uniformed service, but also in the civil service of the Department of the Navy. This type of out of the box thinking is exactly why Zhang was the TRFB Junior Sailor of the Year.”
TRFB’s career counseling team consists of one CCC, two alternate CCCs, and 27 departmental and divisional career counselors who manage the careers of nearly 600 Sailors.
“It is not only a testament for the Sailors reenlisting, but proof that the Command Career Counselor and his team are great at the Brilliant on the Basics programs, taking care of Sailors and giving them options to plan their lives and careers,” said TRFB Command Master Chief T.R. Glazner. “Not everyone gets this award. Thank you, TRFB Sailors, for staying Navy and thank you to our career counselors for a job well done!”