Holidays and Heroes founder participates in Navy’s Leaders to Sea initiative

Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base

NAS JRB FORT WORTH, Texas— Naval Air Station (NAS) Joint Reserve Base (JRB) Fort Worth and Navy Recruiting District Dallas joined forces to send the President and Founder of Holidays and Heroes, Ms. Kerre Randel Ortegel, aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt as a participant in the Navy’s “Leaders to Sea” initiative on June 6-7,providinginsightintothedailyworkings of a Navy ship at sea “Thiswasoneofthemostmemorableand informative adventures I have ever taken part of,” said Ortegel. “The excitement of flying on a V22 Osprey, and landing on the back of an aircraft carrier, then to step onto the flight deck and see all the planes was awe-inspiring.” Thepurposeofthe“LeaderstoSea”initia- tive is to provide civilians with no Navy background the opportunity to experience firsthand what it’s like to live and work at sea, acquaint them with the capabilities of navalshipsandshowcasetheshipandcrew

“The most exciting part of the day was to experience flight operations from the flight deck, with F-18s taking off on the starboard side,andlandingontheportside Itwasfun towatchallthedeckhandsintheirdifferent coloredjerseysorchestratingthemovement of all the planes. The deck hands were nicknamed ‘Skittles’ as different job roles were identified by their corresponding colored jerseys,” explained Ortegel. Ortegel’s brother served as an Aviation Maintenance Administrator onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt during Operation AlliedForcein1999forsixmonths AccordingtoOrtegel,thismadethe“LeaderstoSea” program, where she had the opportunity to tour the same ship, even more impactful.

“Beinginthehangar,seeingalltheplanes, helicopters, and their maintainers gave me a sense of just how big the carrier is from theflightdeckandthehangar,”saidOrtegel.

“We also got to go into the Theodore Roosevelt Museum room, where we saw several artifacts on display, including a “big stick” which is also the nickname for the carrier.”

Ortegel expressed her admiration for the professionalism of the sailors she encountered. “I was impressed those young men and women from 18 24 years old were giventheresponsibilitiesofhandlingmultimillion dollar equipment,” said Ortegel. “I am now inspired knowing what they are giving up living on a ship for months at a time mostofthembelowdeck,rarelyseeing the light of day. They work, eat, and sleep and start over again the next day. They give uptheluxuryofcivilianlifetomaintainand defend our freedom.”

NSWCPD hosts first event of 2023 Leadership and Innovation Speaker Series

ByJosephFontanazza

Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) hosted its first installment of this year’s Leadership and InnovationSpeakerSeriesforahybridaudienceonMay10,2023.

The Leadership and Innovation Speaker Series is meant to give a diverse group of industry and government leaders a forum todiscussleadership,innovations,management,cooperation,andeffectiveworkplace practices

NSWCPD Chief Engineer Adam “Scott” Freednerconnectedtheevent’sthemeback tothePhiladelphiaDivision’scoreprinciples that were instilled from the organization’s foundingduringhisopeningremarks

“LeadershipandInnovationarecertainly two of the founding principles here at NSWCPD.WhenwedidNationalEngineers Week our Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Dr Eugene ‘Michael’ Golda delved into our command’s history, pointing out how and whytheseprinciplesaresuchanimportant partofourDNA, Freednersaid.

“During that event, we heard how our founder George Wallace Melville was promoted to Admiral by President Grover Cleveland in 1887, and subsequently be called upon to lead and innovate which he did greatly I’m proud to say we will continue spotlighting people like Adm. Melville in this Leadership and Innovation Series, hecontinued.

Freedner introduced the Director for SurfaceShipDesignandSystemsEngineering (SEA 05D) J. Carey Filling to applause fromtheNSWCPDcommunity Inhisposition, Filling is the head of the group within theNavalSeaSystemsCommand(NAVSEA) Naval Systems Engineering Directorate thatprovidestechnicalsupporttoU.S.Navy surfaceships

Filling showed his appreciation for his reception and his strong working relationship with NSWCPD through his NAVSEA leadershiprole

“NSWC Philadelphia is certainly part of our team and I tell people all the time that Philadelphia is one of our closest work- ing warfare centers and you all are heavily engagedinourdesignefforts Youallareintegraltohelpingusbuildfuturefleets,”hesaid.

Filling’s keynote focused on the many innovations going on in the NAVSEA community, highlighting the Navy’s work with directed energy as a way to continue the United States’ strategic advantage over itsadversaries.

“Whydowewanttousedirectedenergy?

Well, we talked about the cost of rounds for our guided missile destroyer. If we have weaponsthatareonlyusingenergy,thenour fuel tanks become the magazine, and that has a lot to do with the Philadelphia team for power and cooling These weapons are verypowerandcoolinghungry,”Fillingsaid.

Hecontinued,“Itlowersthecostpershot and increases the magazine We want to be able to increase power, increase range and increaselethality.”

AfteraQ&Asessionwiththehybridaudience,itwastimeforNSWCPDCommanding Officer Capt. Joseph Darcy to give his closingremarks

“We appreciate this time to step away and pick our heads up We get to see what is going on in Washington D.C. and what’s going on in the Pentagon to see what leadershipistalkingabout,”Darcysaid.

“As a personal story, I built ships and then I worked in the program office, but it wasn’tuntilIwenttoworkforSEA05Dthat I understood the intricacies of how we do whatwedo,”Darcycontinued.“We[atPhiladelphia]areessentialandfewpeoplegetto see what we do here We thank people like Mr Fillingforcomingtotalktousandbringing an external perspective to give us some extraprofessionaltimetogrowandseewhat isoutthere.”

NSWCPD employs approximately 2,800 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team does the research and development test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for the non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and materialforNavysurfaceshipsandsubmarines NSWCPDisalsotheleadorganization providingcybersecurityforallshipsystems.