Congressman Sestak Honors Local Navy Engineers for 100 Years of Excellence PDF Print E-mail

 

 Submits Congressional Record Entry in Their Honor

 

November 18, 2010

Media, Pa. – Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-07) recognized 100 years of outstanding service to our nation by men and women of the Delaware Valley who have worked at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center to ensure the United States has the world’s premier Navy. In an entry into the Congressional Record this week, the Congressman expressed his gratitude to the thousands of patriotic Americans who have contributed to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division--Ship System Engineering Station (NSWCCD-SSES) during the past century. The station is part of a network that represents more than 54,000 individuals at 34 locations around the world where many of our finest scientists, engineers and other experts in their fields have the task of conceiving, designing and perfecting “the performance of ships, submarines, military water craft, and unmanned vehicles.” According to the division’s website, the Philadelphia facility “is recognized as the center for naval machinery.”

“That workforce reflects the hard working, industrious nature of dedicated patriotic Americans throughout the Delaware Valley,” said Congressman Sestak. “The results of their labor are a stronger nation and safer world.”

 

Here is the full text of the Congressional Record Entry:

Mr. SESTAK. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the 100th Anniversary of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division--Ship System Engineering Station, NSWCCD-SSES, at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center. Since 1910, when Secretary of the Navy Beekman Winthrop authorized the first funding be directed to what is now the Ship Systems Engineering Station, SSES, that organization has served our community, Navy and nation with great distinction.

 

Today, SSES executes a budget of over $850 million and employs 1,600 engineers, scientists, technicians and support personnel. That workforce reflects the hard working, industrious nature of dedicated patriotic Americans throughout the Delaware Valley. The results of their labor are a stronger nation and safer world. With the singular purpose of sending USN Bluejackets to sea with the best possible equipment, this proud organization, under the leadership of Rear Admiral Jim Shannon, Captain Alexander Desroches and Patricia Woody maintains a covenant between our citizens and Sailors. It guarantees that our Navy will always be better designed, built and maintained than any other in the world. In conflicts for a century, our Navy has sailed into harms way with a quantitative advantage in readiness that is the result of those talented, dedicated professionals of SSES Philadelphia and their 54,000 colleagues of the Naval Sea Systems Command, NAVSEA, located in 34 cities across the United States and Asia. Together they help fulfill the vision of General George Washington, who wrote to Marquis De Lafayette nearly two hundred thirty years ago, “It follows that as certain as the night succeeds the day that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it everything honorable and glorious.”

 

As NAVSEA and NSWCCD-SSES work today to support our naval forces in two conflicts, it is my honor to join all the good citizens of the 7th Congressional District of Pennsylvania and Americans throughout this great nation in recognizing their 100 years of excellence in naval engineering and wish them another century of continued success in every endeavor.

 

Born and raised in Delaware County, former 3-star Admiral Joe Sestak served in the Navy for 31 years and now serves as the Representative from the 7th District of Pennsylvania. He led a series of operational commands at sea, including Commander of an aircraft carrier battle group of 30 U.S. and allied ships with over 15,000 sailors and 100 aircraft that conducted operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. After 9/11, Joe was the first Director of “Deep Blue,” the Navy’s anti-terrorism unit that established strategic and operations policies for the “Global War on Terrorism.” He served as President Clinton’s Director for Defense Policy at the National Security Council in the White House, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University.  According to the office of the House Historian, Joe is the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to the U.S. Congress.

 

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Media Contact: Jonathon Dworkin 610-892-8623