Indian Head, Maryland –
Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD) leadership honored eight personnel — six employees from NSWC IHD’s Systems Engineering Department and two from the Expeditionary Exploitation Unit One (EXU-1) — with Department of the Navy (DON) Civilian Service Commendation Medals at the command, July 19.
The team members provided superior support to an emergent Secretary of Defense mission to the United States European Command Area of Responsibility (AOR) from October-December 2022. The operation was the largest maritime post-blast event to date, spanning multiple sites and several nautical miles.
The Navy Civilian Service Commendation Medal is awarded to DON and U.S. Marine Corps civilians who distinguish themselves by performing well above that which is expected of an individual commensurate with his or her grade or specialty, and above the degree of excellence appropriately reflected in the individual's performance evaluations or personnel records.
Systems Engineering Department team: Rachael Busby, Adam Goldberg, Rogelio (Roger) Ilamni, Horacio Nochetto, Otto Quinones-Melendez and Caroline Wiley
The NSWC IHD Systems Engineering team, led by Energetics Technology Division Director Adam Goldberg and Weapons Effects and Analysis Branch Head Caroline Wiley, provided unparalleled modeling, simulation and engineering expertise to the mission. The team’s efforts were instrumental as the operators recovered over 30 pieces of collected exploitable materiel off the sea floor.
The team included weapons effect analysts Rachael Busby, Rogelio (Roger) Ilamni, Horacio Nochetto and Otto Quinones-Melendez, who helped execute an extensive modeling and simulation effort utilizing the Dynamic System Mechanics Advanced Simulation software. The team gathered extensive amounts of data from across NSWC IHD, EXU-1 and the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center to identify modeling parameters of value, which culminated in a comprehensive report that provided valuable insights to senior leadership.
EXU-1 team: Ryan Hibbard and Ryan Kerth
EXU-1 Explosive Chemist Ryan Hibbard led the team that expeditiously processed more than 25 samples that answered strategic level intelligence gaps. His initiative and expertise were critical to develop new processes and procedures to identify explosives used and potentially attribution. EXU-1 Weapons Technical Intelligence Analyst Ryan Kerth managed the compilation and analysis across multiple organizations and modalities to produce succinct, accurate and timely maritime exploitation reports, which were critical for the intelligence community, AOR commanders and senior Department of Defense officials.
NSWC IHD — a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy’s Science and Engineering Establishment — is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, manufacturing and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify, render safe, recover, exploit and dispose of explosive ordnance threats.
-NAVSEA-