By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eboni Cameron and Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dimitry Chepusov
USS JOHN C. STENNIS, At Sea (NNS) -- USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) will return to its homeport of Bremerton, Wash., after completing 21 days at sea in support of fleet replacement squadron carrier qualifications (FRSCQ) and an offload of the ship's ordnance.
Stennis embarked five squadrons in March for FRSCQ, qualifying 34 new pilots who completed 641 arrested gear landings.
"We gave every pilot the opportunity to get qualified by having the deck ready at all times," said Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Handling) 2nd Class (AW) Christopher Callahan. "That took hard work and dedication from everybody."
After the completion of FRSCQ, Stennis began preparing for its ammunition offload. Within two days, 1,300 lifts were performed through connected and vertical replenishments to offload 2.5 million pounds of ammunition.
"It was tiring, but rewarding to get the job done," said Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class (AW/SW) Travis Bohling. "We had to get all the ordnance off the ship to enter into the industrial environment of [planned incremental availability]."
Stennis' Executive Officer Capt. Michael Wettlaufer said this underway period went very well.
"We finished our qualifications ahead of schedule, there were countless numbers of enlisted surface and air warfare qualifications and we improved our knowledge and readiness for our planned incremental availability."
Known as PIA, it is part of a cycle that all ships go through, which is normally followed by sea trials, work-ups, deployment and a surge period, before going back into another maintenance phase.
"We have been preparing for PIA since before I took over a year-and-a-half ago," said Stennis Commanding Officer Capt. Joseph Kuzmick. "That's how much effort it takes to do one of these things."
Since its last deployment, the ship completed 3100 arrested landings and qualified 115 naval aviators as the only platform available to do so in the Pacific.
"So we have been the workhorse for the aircraft carrier Navy," said Kuzmick. "Everyone else that's not deployed has been either working up to deploy or getting a maintenance availability done themselves."
After completing a six-month Western Pacific deployment in the summer of 2009, Stennis returned to sea again in a surge-ready status and completed five underway periods between September and April.
"We have been extremely successful; great work," said Kuzmick. "We don't need a whole lot, we just get the job done and that's become the Stennis way of doing things and I love it."
