Norfolk Naval Shipyard Makes Three for the New Business and Strategic Planning Officer

The U.S. Navy owns four public shipyards. They are Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) in Portsmouth, Virginia; Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNSY & IMF) in Bremerton, Washington; Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Kittery, Maine. Now that Capt. Bart Sievenpiper has reported to NNSY as its new Business and Strategic Planning Officer (Code 1200), he has been stationed at three of the four public shipyards.

“The first shipyard I served at was PHNSY & IMF as the Nuclear Assistant Project Superintendent (APS) and the Deputy Project Superintendent (DPS) working 688-class submarine dockings; specifically the Los Angeles class nuclear powered fast attack submarines USS Tucson (SSN 770) and the USS Olympia (SSN 717). This is where I learned how shipyards operate as the vendor if you will,” said Sievenpiper. “When I was stationed onboard the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) for the first time in my career, I served as Reactor Electrical Assistant while the aircraft carrier was undergoing its Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) at PSNSY & IMF. This time allowed me to see how shipyards ran from a customer’s point of view.”

Sievenpiper followed this up by working as the DPS at PSNSY on the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Docking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA), and he found it interesting to view one shipyard from both perspectives.

Sievenpiper continued, “Now that I reported to NNSY, I have three shipyards on my list of duty stations, where all three shipyards are providing me with skills, knowledge and experience from three different viewpoints of the shipyard life.”

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Waukesha, Wisconsin, it wasn’t until he started college at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in chemical engineering where he decided to join the U.S. Navy.

“I was your typical starving college student and knew I had to come up with a plan to set me on a better financial course than the one I was on,” said Sievenpiper. “I enlisted in the Navy in 2000 under the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) Program. Basically, the Navy paid me to go to college.”

Once Sievenpiper graduated college, he went through Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida where he was commissioned as an officer upon graduation. His next stop in his development came after serving onboard the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate USS Ingraham (FFG 61). He attended the Naval Nuclear Power School in Charleston, South Carolina and then he went to the Nuclear Power Training Unit, Kenneth A. Kesselring Site (KSO), West Milton, for prototype training. This is where he became qualified to become part of the Navy’s nuclear program. Later in his career, Sievenpiper earned his Master’s degree in mechanical naval engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Additional assignments for Sievenpiper include the nuclear aircraft carrier USS John Stennis (CVN 74) as the reactor electrical assistant. During his first of two tours onboard the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), he served as the reactor laboratories division officer. He served as the force maintenance officer for Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific and also as the Reactor Officer onboard Stennis.

Sievenpiper stated, “With my background of being stationed on several ships and two other shipyards, I feel this experience I gained will allow me to give a new perspective on things to meet NNSY’s mission of repairing, modernizing and inactivating our Navy’s warships and training platforms.”

Being stationed at NNSY will help him gain experience and knowledge on the business side of the shipyard. He will also encourage his team to find the best solutions even if it means thinking outside the box and trying something that has never been done before.

“People come up with solutions all the time, but are the solutions the best ones? Sometimes they are, sometimes they’re not,” said Sievenpiper. “We need to find the best solution to get the ships and submarines back to the fleet on time, so they can fulfill the mission they were built for.”

While not in uniform, Sievenpiper enjoys woodworking which he recently started doing. He claims he has tools and equipment that outmatch his current skill level. “We need to push ourselves beyond what we know. If we don’t, then how do we expect to better ourselves?” asked Sievenpiper.

Although it is a bit ambiguous to know what duty stations lie ahead of him, for now, he will focus on his job at NNSY. “It would prove interesting if I can serve at all four shipyards at one time or another,” said Sievenpiper. “But for now, I will focus on doing my part to contribute to the success of America’s Shipyard.”