MAYPORT, Fla. – Mr. Eric Lind, Executive Director for Commander, Navy Regional Maintenance Center (CNRMC), was at Southeast Regional Maintenance Center (SERMC) January 26 to present the Secretary of Defense Depot Maintenance Excellence Award for medium-sized field activity in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.

The annual SECDEF awards are presented for outstanding achievement in military equipment maintenance. SERMC’s approximately 1,000 military and civilian professionals are tasked with providing maintenance, modernization, technical assistance, contract oversight and many other critical services to 19 Mayport-based ships and other units operating in the southeast area of responsibility.

“Command Master Chief Jiles and I were honored to be able to attend the award ceremony in San Diego before the holidays,” said SERMC Commanding Officer Capt. Justin Dowd. “But I really wanted to get everybody together here because although Master Chief and I were the ones that accepted the award, it’s really due to the hard work from each and every person and across every code at SERMC. Thank you for what you do each and every day.”

Lind added, “Congratulations again to the entire team. I sit on the evaluation panel for these awards, and when they get above the Department of the Navy level, you were competing against more than a hundred other maintenance activities for the award across Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, and against aviation, land and sea commands.”

“This award demonstrates sustained superior performance in ship repair, maintenance and modernization, greatly exceeding expectations of the warfighter over an entire year’s worth of work, so, as Capt. Dowd said, all the hard work that you consistently put in everyday is what really makes this award special,” Lind continued.

SERMC completed 141 Continuous Maintenance Avails and 4,071 Fleet Tech Assists – a 19 percent increase over FY22; and resolved 442 Casualty Reports, including numerous emergent repairs. SERMC’s Maintenance Execution Teams also executed 61 Preventative Maintenance Avails on 10 Littoral Combat Ships, a 15 percent increase over FY22. This represents a great deal of painstaking work. Just thirteen CMAVs in the 4th, 5th and 6th Fleet Areas of Responsibility, for example, included more than 24,172 maintenance checks.

SERMC also executed 15 TSRA visits in Mayport, completing 2,937 assigned checks. Beyond Mayport, the Engineering Department provided 88 subject matter experts to support 30 Total Ship Readiness Assessment events at Regional Maintenance Centers around the globe including Hawaii; Rota, Spain; Norfolk, Virginia; Naples, Italy and San Diego. SERMC also provided 2,529 hours of training to ship’s force in operation, maintenance, troubleshooting and repair of shipboard systems during these TSRA visits.

SERMC’s motto of “Keeping Our Fleet Fit to Fight!” reflects the command’s mission accomplishment, support to warfighters, and innovative maintenance processes. This was the first Secretary of Defense Maintenance Award for SERMC.