Mark Johnson News

The annual Surface Navy Association (SNA) West Coast Symposium was held on the waterfront at Naval Station San Diego on July 16, and provided attendees an update on some key operational and career developments important to the surface warfare community. Capt. Mark Johnson, president of the SNA San Diego Chapter, was the host and master of ceremonies for the symposium. Capt. Warren Buller, commander of LCS Squadron 1, provided a comprehensive update on the LCS program, to include a detailed summary of the status of mission package development.

Intermarine, LLC, has officially opened its state of the art Operations Center at Industrial Terminal, the leading breakbulk terminal on the Houston Ship Channel. They say that this landmark building is the only office building of its kind on the Ship Channel and houses Intermarine's entire technical, operations, traffic and terminal teams. The Operations Center is located at 14035 Industrial Road in Houston, Texas, and is a five story, 13,311 square foot building just 200 feet from the Houston Ship Channel.

The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) announced the selection of D. Mark Johnson, Director, Force Electromagnetic Environmental Effects and Spectrum Management Engineering Branch as the U.S. Navy, Naval Sea System Command (NAVSEA) Engineer of the Year and the NAVSEA candidate for the 2008 Federal Engineer of the Year Award. Thomas Choinski of the Naval Sea Undersea Warfare Center Division (NUWC), Newport Division was also named as a Top Ten finalist by NSPE. “This award is an overwhelming honor. In effect, I view it as validating the hard work of our field activities and contractor partners, and an admirable reflection of the value NAVSEA leadership places on its people.” said Johnson.

Twelve Navy researchers wrappped up a four-day underway period July 9 aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) (Ike), during which they conducted research for future improvement on U.S. Navy ships. The team consisted of nine researchers from the Naval Research Lab (NRL) and three from the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The team included electrical engineers, electronics engineers, a chemical engineer, meteorologist, research physicist and research chemist. One ship has been chosen every summer for the past three years for research opportunities and the current one-week underway period on board Ike offered a perfect opportunity for the team to conduct their research. “We are here to meet the challenges of ship improvement,” said ONR escort, Cmdr. David A.