[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15172]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING MERITORIOUS UNIT COMMENDATION TO PORTSMOUTH NAVAL SHIPYARD

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the best naval 
nuclear shipyard in America, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, 
ME
  Today, RADM Anthony W. Lengerich visited the shipyard to celebrate 
the Meritorious Unit Commendation presented to Naval Shipyard 
Portsmouth by Chief of Naval Operations Vernon E. Clark on May 12, 
2005.
  The Commendation in part reads as follows:

       The personnel of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and tenant 
     activities consistently and superbly performed their mission 
     while establishing a phenomenal record of cost, schedule, 
     quality, and safety performance. The Shipyard embraced the 
     One-Shipyard Initiative and is leading the transformation of 
     our Navy's nuclear ship maintenance base through innovation . 
     . . Portsmouth Naval Shipyard personnel established new 
     performance levels for submarine maintenance, modernization, 
     and overhaul work . . . The Shipyard completed six major 
     submarine availabilities . . . (and) reduced injuries by more 
     than 50 percent . . . Naval Shipyard Portsmouth's 
     extraordinary performance is translating into increased U.S. 
     Submarine Fleet readiness. By their unrelenting 
     determination, perseverance, and steadfast devotion to duty, 
     the officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian employees of 
     Naval Shipyard Portsmouth reflected credit upon themselves 
     and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval 
     Service.

  Today, at the ceremony marking this exceptional recognition, Admiral 
Lengerich told the men and women of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard:

       The Navy and the country need you to continue doing what 
     has earned you your reputation for professionalism and 
     patriotism. I'm talking about your work ethic, your 
     enthusiasm, your attention to detail, your willingness to 
     apply diligence in everything you do.

  Those of us in the Maine and New Hampshire delegations couldn't agree 
more.
  This is a shipyard that delivered six ships in a row a collective 60 
weeks early, that saves $82 million over the Navy's other shipyards for 
each submarine refueling, and $26 million for each major overhaul, that 
is the Navy's only ``Star'' Site for safety, that exports its 
innovation and best practices to other shipyards.
  Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has been in existence for 205 years. And 
while much has changed over the past two centuries, what has not 
changed is the shipyard workers' commitment to excellence, and the 
sense of each and every person there that they are contributing their 
own chapter to the remarkable story of Portsmouth--and to them we 
extend our most profound appreciation.
  From its earliest days, producing wooden ``ships of the line'' to its 
time as a Navy command during the War of 1812 to its production of 133 
submarines, including a record 31 in 1944, the yard has not only been a 
fixture on the New England seacoast, it has been a bulwark against the 
shifting threats to our nation and world across the span of two entire 
centuries.
  The yard was there when the British were our enemy. This yard was 
there during the darkest hours of World War Two. The yard was there 
when the Soviet threat in the heart of Europe fueled the cold war. And 
it has more recently borne witness to both the fall of the Berlin Wall 
and the end of the Soviet empire.
  Today, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard remains as critical today as it 
was 205 years ago.
  Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, ``For what avail the plough or sail, 
or land or life if freedom fail?
  This shipyard, this monument to American ingenuity, this testament to 
the American worker has for 205 years helped ensure that freedom will 
not fail. May this crown jewel of the Navy continue to exemplify 
Maine's motto, ``Dirigo''--``I Lead''.

                          ____________________