Hampden woman tests helm aboard USS Stennis

HAMPDEN – U.S. Navy Seaman Caitlin Gunn, 20, of Hampden, aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, CVN 74, was involved in successfully testing and operating a state-of-the-art, touch screen digital helm and lee helm during a series of sea trials that began Dec. 12.

The installation of the navigation technology is part of an extensive, shipwide systems upgrade and ship restoration project conducted at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard 10 years after the ship was commissioned in December 1995.

Seaman Gunn is one of only a few digital-helm qualified instructors aboard the Stennis. Earlier this year, she spent one month aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, CVN 76, learning to operate the system.

“The helm’s console is completely digital. It displays many different readings, including the actual position of rudder,” Gunn said. “I help the sailors learn what to do and say, but once the order is entered into the system, the helm takes care of the rest,” she said.

The ship was in the shipyard for almost a year, undergoing the massive renovation project to make the ship the most advanced carrier in the fleet.

The new steer control console integrates all of the mechanical features of the older helm-lee helm onto a set of graphic user interface computer consoles. The system is already in use on other aircraft carriers in the U.S. fleet and has proved to be a leap in technology and capabilities.

The console also has a simulation program that will allow watch standers to simulate special evolutions, such as pulling in or out of port, without ever having to leave the pier – a definite benefit for training exercises.

The Stennis is scheduled to continue sea trials this winter and spring, when it will resume air operations and be joined by the other surface combatant ships of the strike group to continue training in preparation for deployments.

Seaman Gunn completed U.S. Navy basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill. A 2004 graduate of Hampden Academy, she is the daughter of Norma and Patrick Gunn.