NNSY News

Shipyard Spotlight: Dustin Kuch – Shop 11 Shipfitter
April 9, 2025 — As an Army veteran and shipfitter since 2001, Shop 11 Shipfitter Supervisor Dustin Kuch is now using his experience and ability to develop others to benefit Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY)... MORE

An inspirational supervisor and mentor, Norfolk Naval Shipyard Shop 11 Shipfitter Supervisor Dustin Kuch is an engaged leader guiding his team to success and has been with NNSY for five years.

NNSY Team Answers the Call for Emergent Truman Repairs
April 9, 2025 — One of Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) lasting mottos that rings true across the waterfront is that America’s Shipyard will always step up to the plate to meet the mission – any ship, anytime, anywhere. When a need arises to repair, maintain, and modernize our Nation’s fleet, our employees will step up to answer that call. So, when an urgent need arose to perform urgent repairs following an incident that left one of our Nation’s finest in need, the NNSY team leapt into action to do their part... MORE

HST Combined Repair Team: Repairs led by Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center (FDRMC) with exceptional coordination and support from Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Ship's Force, and industry partner Theodoropoulos Group. (Photo Courtesy of FDRMC)

Norfolk Naval Shipyard Trivia
April 9, 2025 — The official Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) command history entry for April 28, 1965 is yet only one sentence long and reads as follows: "USS Skate arrived for nuclear overhaul job, the first such overhaul in the shipyard." ... MORE

USS Skate (SSN 578) surfaces for the first time at the North Pole on March 17, 1959.

Code 931 Takes Charge with Implementing Model Line Initiative at America’s Shipyard
April 9, 2025 — Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) recently launched a model line effort in the Inside Machine Shop (Shop 31), taking principles from noted author and Navy advisor Dr. Steven Spear and learnings from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) to meet commitments and goals in inspecting, repairing, and testing auxiliary ballast tank hull and back valves repaired at the shipyard. Through teamwork from deckplate to support – the group was able to come together to complete the work that had taken approximately 150 days to overhaul in the past to 35 days, a more than 75 percent reduction... MORE

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Shop 31 recently tested the pilot of the model line initiative with their auxiliary ballast tanks, utilizing principles from Dr. Steven Spear and learnings from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) to complete repairs that had previously taken approximately 150 days to now 35 days. This initiative was a huge win for the shipyard and was thanks to the teamwork from Shop 31, Code 100TO and the engineering department to ensure pre-planning and material acquisition was handled prior to the start of the job to ensure the mechanics could conduct non-stop execution of work.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Brent Davis Honored as One of the Labor Apprentices of the Year for 2024
April 9, 2025 — In the years prior to Brent Davis entering the Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Apprenticeship Program, he worked to make ends meet for his family in the local area, wondering if there was a lasting career waiting out there for him. A friend of the family, who’d been part of the program nearly a decade ago, urged him to apply for years – and finally Davis took a shot, getting accepted into the program as a boilermaker apprentice. He had no idea what a boilermaker truly did, yet he wanted to take on the opportunity and see where it went. Now a journeyman in the shipyard and an official Shop 41 Boilermaker, Davis graduated with glowing marks across the board for his workmanship. And due to his hard work and dedication to the craft, Davis was nominated for the Department of Labor (DOL) and Industry’s Division of Registered Apprenticeship Outstanding Apprentice of the Year – being selected as one of three from NNSY to win the title for 2024... MORE

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Shop 41 Boilermaker Brent Davis graduated from the Apprenticeship Program Nov. 7, 2024. He was recognized as the Code 930 Mechanical Group Outstanding Apprentice by the NNSY Chapter of the National Association of Superintendents (NAS).

Resilient, Resolute, Relentless: Month of the Military Child
April 4, 2025 — Although kids of today may experience some of the issues I had many years (more than I would like to admit) ago, there are issues that our children and teenagers face today that I never had to deal with like cyberbullying, overuse of screen time and trying to separate fake news from not to name a few. However, there are over 1.6 million kids who currently face challenges that most of their peers don’t. Things like moving to a new city, state or country every two to three years; having a parent absent for holidays, birthdays; and having their parents in a combat zone, not sure if they will make it home alive or not. This group of resilient, resolute and relentless children is known as the “military child.”... MORE

Three-year-old Philip Scott, one-year-old James Scott, NNSY Nuclear Regional Maintenance Department (NRMD) Electrician’s Mate (Nuclear) Anh Scott and NNSY’s Fleet Maintenance Submarine (FMB) Rubber and Plastic Shop (Shop 57B) Electrician’s Mate (Nuclear) First Class Michael Scott have been a military family since the birth of Philip Scott.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard has Its Own Cavalry Known as Navy Reserve Surge Maintenance Program
April 4, 2025 — All four public Navy shipyards: Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY), Portsmouth, Virginia; Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine; Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Bremerton, Washington; and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii have their own cavalry, the Navy Reserve Surge Maintenance Program (SurgeMain)... MORE

During their annual Navy Reserve two-week-long training period at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY), SurgeMain Charlotte Machinist Mate Third Class Ashton McDaniel (left) and SurgeMain Atlanta Machinist Mate First Class Kyle Leonard (center) watches NNSY’s Outside Machine Shop (Shop 38) Outside Machinist James Derrickson (right) as he demonstrates how to use a top-loaded ball valve, breaking down, taking measurements, using the center line tool to get the stem center line measurement and giving them a little refresher on some of the precision measuring tools that they would use and the proper tools to take apart the valve.

Talking Shop: Celebrating NNSY’s Pipefitter Shop (Shop 56)
April 4, 2025 — Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) Pipefitter Shop (Shop 56), consisting of approximately 450 shipyard employees, is responsible for bending pipe, fabricating hose assemblies, building complex piping systems, performing brazing operations and testing piping systems and components for carrier and submarine projects at NNSY as well as for off-yard carriers and amphibious warfare ships. Shop 56 also runs the acid room, which consists of large vats of acid solutions used to dip hard-to-clean components; plus, up until recently, Shop 56 had the only gasket-making capability onboard NNSY... MORE

Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Pipefitter Shop (Shop 56) Pipefitter Jason Roldan uses the tools and knowledge he learned as a physical education teacher for elementary school kids and serving in the U.S. Navy for four years. “Working with elementary school-age children taught me patience and how to work with others. The Navy taught me discipline and what it meant to become an active member of a team with the same common goal. I didn’t realize how the lessons I learned in the teaching field and the Navy would become so beneficial to me at my job here at the shipyard.”

Forging the Future: U.S. Trains First Australian Radiological Control Technicians to Support AUKUS Submarine Force
March 27, 2025 — PORTSMOUTH, Va. – In a milestone for the AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) enhanced... MORE

In a milestone for the AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) enhanced trilateral security partnership, four Australian civilian maintenance technicians, pictured with Norfolk Naval Shipyard commander Capt. James Mosman, graduated from the U.S. Navy’s Radiological Controls Technician Qualifying School (RCTQS) at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard March 26, 2025.

NAVFAC Public Works Department Members Honored for Snowplow Know-how
March 18, 2025 — Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Commander, Capt. Jip Mosman, honored members of Public Works Department (PWD) Portsmouth, March 10, for their outstanding recovery efforts after a mid-February snowstorm. The storm brought around 10 inches of snow to NNSY and Naval Support Activity-Portsmouth Virginia (NSA-PV), marking the region’s heaviest snowfall in 15 years... MORE

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Commander Captain Jip Mosman recognized members of the NAVFAC Public Works Department (PWD) March 10 for providing exemplary support in recovery operations following the February 19, 2025 snowstorm at NNSY and Naval Support Activity—Portsmouth Virginia (NSA-PV).