Page 53: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2006)

June 2006 53

Yount Named 2006 Maritime

Person of the Year

George R. Yount, sector vice president of ship con- struction for Northrop Grumman Corporation, was honored by the U.S. Port of New Orleans Propeller

Club as the 2006 Maritime Person of the Year. The award is presented annually to a person who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in furthering and- promoting the maritime industry. Nominations are col- lected from past presidents and then a vote determines the winner. "I'm honored to be considered part of the maritime industry, which I think has enormous value to this nation," said Yount. "We could not have evolved without the strength of the maritime industry. It's an honorable profession that we're all in and I'm proud to accept this award on behalf of the men and women working at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems."

The award was bestowed in conjunction with

National Maritime Day, during a ceremony celebrating the club's 73rd anniversary. Propeller Club president

Jacqueline K. Tonguis made the presentation to Yount, the 47th Maritime Person of the Year.

Yount joined Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems sector in January 2002. Prior to joining Northrop

Grumman, Yount completed a 30-year career of serv- ice to the nation as a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. He was commissioned into the Navy following graduation from the University of Wisconsin, Stout with a degree in industrial education. He later received a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Naval

Postgraduate School. He received the 1996

Distinguished Alumni award from University of

Wisconsin, Stout, is a member of Sigma Xi, and a life member of the American Society of Naval Engineers.

His military awards include the Navy Distinguished

Service Medal, Legion of Merit with two gold stars,

Meritorious Service Medal with four gold stars, Navy

Commendation Medal with three gold stars, and

Combat V.

His naval career included service on both surface ships and submarines with operational assignments on four ships. More than 25 years of his career was spent as a naval engineer with assignments in five different shipyards and two repair activities.

Marinette Marine Wins Navy Deal

Marinette Marine Corp., Marinette, Wis., is being awarded $125,968,000 to exercise an option under a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for the manufacture of the improved Navy lighterage system to be delivered at Naval Amphibious Construction

Battalion One, Coronado, Calif. and Naval

Amphibious Construction Battalion Two, Little Creek,

Norfolk, Va., Expeditionary Warfare Training Group

Pacific and Blount Island Command, Jacksonville, Fla.

The work to be performed consists of manufacturing 300 powered and non-powered modules. Contractor- approved detailed design drawings will be utilized for full rate production. After exercise of this option, the total cumulative contract amount will be $170,379,551. This contract contains two additional one-year option periods, which if exercised, will bring the total contract value to $314,078,157. Work will be performed in Marinette, Wis., and the expected com- pletion date is December 2007. The entire period of performance if all options are exercised will be through

October 2009.

Port Security Legislation Passed

The House of Representatives passed legislation that would tighten security at U.S. seaports, requiring more "dirty" and nuclear bomb detectors and background checks on dockside workers. Under the measure, which was approved 421-2, the Homeland Security

Department would have to put in place enough radia- tion monitors to scan 98 percent of the cargo coming into the U.S. by the end of the next fiscal year, which is Sept. 30, 2007. With House passage, the focus of the port-security debate turns to the Senate, which plans to consider a similar measure within the next few months.

The Bush administration is generally supportive of the legislation, although it thinks the deadline for installing detectors is overly ambitious. Port security legislation was stalled in committee until Congress was spurred by the public outcry last month when DP World bought terminal operations at six major U.S. ports.

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