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Reservists pitch in
at shipyard
Close to 500 assist Pearl Harbor
workers with day-to-day duties
Nearly 500 reservists are helping to ease the workload at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard this year.
"It's a win-win situation for everyone," said David Stock, the shipyard's operations manager who also handles Navy Reserve officer assignments. "We at the shipyard don't pay a nickel since it comes out of the Navy Reserves, and the reservists get to do real-world work."
Last year, more than 300 Naval Reserve officers and enlisted sailors supplemented 800 active-duty uniformed personnel and 4,200 civilians at the state's largest industrial operation.
In addition, there are 187 island residents who work at the shipyard and are members of the reserves or the National Guard in Hawaii.
The reservists use their time at the shipyard to fulfill their annual requirement of two weeks of active duty while others tack on additional days to meet their weekend drill time. The shipyard accounts for its labor costs in terms of each "man-day," or each person's full day of work on a particular project.
"Our fiscal year doesn't end until the end of September," said Chief Petty Officer Martin Carey, the shipyard's reserve coordinator, "and so far this year we have had a little more than 300 reservists. We could hit 500 by the end of year.
"They are untapped resources, and we are tapping into them."
Reservists may take over a shipyard position for two weeks during someone's absence, analyze shipyard business processes, provide training, or, in the case of many enlisted reservists, even augment the waterfront mechanics in maintaining Pacific Fleet ships and submarines.
Lt. Loukas Papadopoulos, who has spent all of his nine years in the Navy as a reservist, said he is contributing to the needs of Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Fleet. Most Naval Reserve officers performing annual training at the shipyard are engineering duty officers like Papadopoulos.
Last year, he completed a series of corrosion studies on a Pearl Harbor warship, and the results were used to develop the vessel's maintenance overhaul program.
Papadopoulos, 35, has been coming to Hawaii since 1999, when he was a member of a Navy Reserve unit assigned to the shipyard. After his unit was dissolved three years ago, Papadopoulos continued to fulfill his monthly weekend drill and annual training requirements by reporting to Pearl Harbor.
"This is one of the places where everything is pretty well coordinated," said Papadopoulos, who in civilian life is an engineer with Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, Calif. "They know what to do with you."
Petty Officer Kevin Hodge, who has spent the last 14 years in the Navy Reserve after being on active duty for four years, completed his third annual training in the shipyard this month.
"It was word of mouth that led me to Pearl Harbor for the first time in 1998," said Hodge, who works as a firefighter in the Houston Fire Department.
Hodge had been in the islands in 1988 when his ship, the cruiser USS Texas, participated in the Rim of the Pacific naval war games. Hodge, 36, has combined his 13 days of annual training this year with another six days of drill time. Last year, he worked at the shipyard for nearly a month.
Carey, 45, said that experienced sailors, like Hodge, bring a lifetime of knowledge with them.
"Their supervisors tell me that when they come here, they are not kids," Carey added. "They've been in the Navy and have done the job. They are more stable. They bring their life experiences ... and that's why we want them back."
