aaron kastrup

Company Name: USS NIMITZ (USN) Title: Assistant Maintenance Officer | Training and Development | Workforce Planning | Labor Relations Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department, USS NIMITZ is the department aboard the aircraft carrier that enables all facets of pier-side and underway off-aircraft aviation maintenance. My role as the Assistant Maintenance Officer was to direct all training and staffing requirements for 300 to 350 technicians ensuring proper workforce and training requirements were met to support flight operations for multiple models of rotary and fixed wing aircraft. My biggest opportunity for success at this job was leading my department through a challenging 18 month period that involved taking the ship out of a dry dock maintenance period and rebuilding my staff into a capable and effective team of deployment ready aviation maintenance professionals. My team met all aviation and shipboard maintenance requirements weeks ahead of schedule enabling early removal from dry dock. A feat only accomplished by an aircraft carrier twice in two decades.

Company Name: Helicopter Sea Combat Wing, Pacific (USN) Title: Air Wing Readiness Officer | Project Management | Strategic Planner | Cost/Inventory Control Helicopter Sea Combat Wing, Pacific is the lead air wing for the Navy’s MH-60S helicopter and MQ-8B/C unmanned air vehicle fleet providing operational, administrative, maintenance, and training oversight to 16 Naval Aviation Organizations. As the Readiness Officer, I managed maintenance on the Navy’s largest helicopter inventory consisting of 274 MH-60S, 34 HH-60H, and 43 MQ-8B/C manned/unmanned helicopters providing maintenance leadership, regulatory compliance, and policy guidance to nearly 3,900 personnel at 16 activities. This was the most challenging and rewarding position that I held in my naval career. This opportunity enabled me to make immediate and lasting impacts on the Naval Aviation Enterprise in multiple areas to include cutting edge deployable technology, cost reduction efforts in the tens of millions, enablement of sweeping fleet level policy changes, and providing direct support to engaged combat forces.

Company Name: Fleet Logistics Squadron Thirty (USN) Title: Production Manager | Regulatory Compliance | Quality Control | Warehousing | Multi-site Operations Fleet Logistics Squadron Thirty provides the Navy’s carrier onboard delivery capability to all west coast aircraft carriers enabling continuous underway airborne delivery of mission essential supplies, equipment and personnel. As the Maintenance and Material Control Officer, I managed approximately 180 technicians and managers performing scheduled/unscheduled maintenance on 12 C-2A (R) aircraft resulting in the efficient delivery of 6,045 passengers and over 1.3 million pounds of cargo to underway aircraft carriers. This job afforded me the opportunity to establish almost a dozen remote overseas operating sites that became temporary logistics hubs for aircraft carrier strike groups in the Pacific and Mediterranean oceans as well as the Persian Gulf.

Company Name: Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Facility Sigonella, Italy (USN) Title: Process Improvement Director | Assembly Automation | Procedure Development | Reduction Scheduling Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Facility Sigonella provides intermediate level maintenance support to U.S. and coalition forces forward deployed in the Navy’s Fifth and Sixth Fleet operations. I fulfilled a multitude of roles at this job such as Production Management, Process Improvement, Human Resources, and Executive Leadership. Although the Executive Leadership role was challenging, I believe the most important experience I gained was my exposure to process improvement. I was able to lead multiple Lean and Six Sigma events improving customer wait times, identifying storage and preservation efficiencies, and streamlining complex human resource administrative processes.

Company Name: Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Twenty Three (USN) Title: Material Control Director | Logistics Distribution | Vendor Relations | OSHA Regulatory Compliance Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Twenty Three is a helicopter squadron that provides combat search and rescue, special warfare, anti-surface ship warfare and logistics support for Western Pacific units. My role as the Material Control Officer was to manage the $ 1.4 million annual flight operations fund. Provide oversight of all squadron expenditures, manage the Credit Card Purchasing program, the Hazardous Materials program, and the Support Equipment Issue and Control program. Being assigned to a newly established squadron, the highlights of this job were building a $10.5 million tool and support equipment program that enabled three maintenance units to deploy within a six month time frame. I was also able to stand up a Hazardous Material program that was recognized as the top program at state and federal level.