Preventive Maintenance Team Makes Masks

With COVID-19 still sweeping the globe, it’s taken a lot of innovation among the crew of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) to keep sailors safe as they continue their mission of completing refueling complex overhaul (RCOH) and delivering the ship back to the fleet as the Navy’s most capable capital warship.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Justin Yarborough

To balance the health and safety of the crew with the ship’scritical mission in support of national defense, the command has enacted avariety of actions from shifting production teams’ objectives to focusing onthorough cleaning procedures throughout the day and across all spaces and workcenters.

With the Department of Defense (DOD) announcing in amemorandum from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper that DOD personnel wear facecoverings when they are unable to maintain a six-foot distance from oneanother, Preventative Maintenance Team 25 (PM-25) had to do some adapting oftheir own, changing gears to a new task: making masks for fellow sailors.

Following the DOD lead, the Department of the Navy issued naval administrative message (NAVADMIN) 100/20 on the same day, outlining specific requirements for the wear of face masks by Navy personnel. Masks are in production aboard aircraft carriers and squadrons as an initial protective measure until other face masks are made available.

“The Department of the Navy decided to take on theresponsibility of creating masks for essential personnel,” said AircrewSurvival Equipmentman 1st Class Lawrence Williams, leading petty officer ofPM-25. “From there, we took two blueprints and had to decide which one would beeasier to make. Ultimately, I settled on the design that made for fasterproduction.”

With a design ready to work from, the entire PM-25 team hasbeen hard at work putting masks together.

“Currently, we have aircrew survival equipmentmen workingaround the clock, ensuring that George Washington’s health and safety needs aremet against COVID-19,” said Williams. “We’re working as much as we can becauseissuing these masks to George Washington’s sailors who need them is a toppriority.”

Despite their small numbers, PM-25’s ability to providethese masks has a markedly high impact on mission readiness across the ship.

“Without masks, we cannot be on the job, or even around eachother,” Williams said. “By creating these masks, we combat the virus. We keepour sailors ready…during this health crisis.”

“When we took on this project, we knew that it was going tobe a hard and stressful process and that finding the materials would be evenharder,” Williams said. “Due to the outbreak, it’s been tiresome finding andacquiring them.

"With help from the medical department, dental department,and various other departments behind the scenes, we were able to obtaineverything necessary to make these masks.”