USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) has received the Department of Defense (DoD) maintenance award for fiscal year 2003. The ship was the only Navy command to receive the honor, one of six given by the DoD to military commands worldwide. The award puts the West Coast carrier in contention for the DoD Phoenix Award, the top annual award in the maintenance competition.

The report cited FY ‘03 statistics and information on Abe’s mission accomplishments, effective use of maintenance resources, management innovations, and personnel quality of life programs. Though Abe AIMD leadership penned the award submission, they’re the first to say the award is much more than just their department.

“Aircraft maintenance is only a drop in the bottle of what goes on behind the scenes,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jim Parrish, Lincoln maintenance material control officer and author of the package. “The efforts of deck department, engineering, AIMD are what allow us to not to have to go back to the shipyard to get things fixed. That’s the type of effort I’m talking about.”

Lincoln and Carrier Air Wing 14 (CVW-14) were the definition of “mission accomplishments” in FY ‘03 with 16,500 sorties flown, which were a part of the award-winning effort.

“I can’t imagine people being out there in the heat of battle doing what we did,” said Parrish. “When you couple that effort with the amount of maintenance activity, the sheer numbers of the things we were able to repair was staggering.”

During more than 102,000 nautical miles (almost five times around the globe) Abe Sailors repaired more than 30,000 aircraft components and extended a hand to their shipmates in the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (ABE CSG) with almost 1,500 off-ship jobs in the books.

Upgrades during Lincolnís stay in Bremerton’s Puget Sound Naval Shipyard last summer played a large part in the award as well. Some examples are AIMD’s heightened capability to troubleshoot the F/A-18 Super Hornet, upgrades to Abe’s Carrier Intelligence Center (CVIC), and a new digitally automated JP-5 fuel delivery system which replaced the dated, analog version.

After the thousands of sorties that saw close to 30,000 total flight hours by CVW-14, along with more than 40 underway replenishments brought nearly 6,000 pallets of cargo and ammunition, and 30 million gallons of JP-5 fuel on board, Lincoln returned home in May 2003 without serious personnel injury or any major damage on record.

Safety initiatives underway earned Abe the Admiral James H. Flatley award for aviation safety, and its spotless record at sea made it the benchmark for the Navy’s 12 aircraft carriers.

Though safety was first in FY ‘03, Lincoln recorded other firsts. It was the first ship to operationally deploy F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and was the first to put the Man Overboard Indicating system (MOBI) into action. Among other things, Lincoln medical Sailors completed the first large-unit smallpox vaccination while deployed and the public affairs office headed the largest media embed on record with 31 print, television and radio journalists reporting “live from the Abraham Lincoln.”

The maintenance award also recognizes the personal maintenance of Lincolnís crew. According to the submitted package, “keeping the morale of the crew at the highest possible level is an important part of the Abraham Lincoln’s ability to perform its mission.”

The award not only covered Abe’s successes with equipment and people, but also recognized the betterment of the ship itself. The combined efforts in FY ‘03 that made this recognition possible also makes Lincoln a frontrunner for the coveted Phoenix Award to be awarded later this month.