INDIAN OCEAN - When underway, access to essentials like toiletries or uniform items is important. Equally critical to many are the creature comforts of home like snacks and entertainment. There is only one place Sailors can get everything they need during deployment: the ship’s store.
Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) enjoy a top-ranked ship’s store, managed by Retail Services Specialists who have earned a Ship’s Store Retail and Service Excellence Award for a fourth year in a row.
Sponsored by the Naval Supply Systems Command and Navy Exchange Service Command, the award program formally recognizes contributions of the ship’s Retail Services Specialists in contributing to quality of life for afloat Sailors and Marines. The awards evaluate Retail Services Specialists performance in daily operations and services, via customer surveys and performance trends.
To be considered for this award, ships must demonstrate accountability, sustainability and crew support by meeting certain benchmarks as outlined by the program. An inspection of work spaces, including the ship’s store, laundry, and barbershop during the supply management certification—amid the basic phase qualification event—ensures that all the equipment meets sanitation standards and safety requirements. Online systems that monitor crew certification and equipment inspections, as well as customer satisfaction scores, are thoroughly reviewed. Ongoing supply inventory accuracy is another important area evaluated.
“We conduct inventories every week,” said Retail Services Specialist 2nd Class Luke Matheny, from Lake Elsinore, Calif. “Whenever we take something out of the store room or put it into the store or vending machines, we track everything to ensure it is accounted for.”
Another key part of a successful ship’s store is the Retail Services Specialists. A friendly, welcoming staff and atmosphere is necessary to keep Sailors coming back.
“This is a place outside of a Sailor’s work space that provides a break from [the] day-to-day,” said Retail Services Specialist 3rd Class Ladazia Conley, from Detroit. “I truly enjoy being part of that downtime that the ship’s store provides.”
The ship’s store aboard Sterett supports the crew in another direct way, having provided Morale, Welfare and Recreation roughly $70,000 during the current deployment for programs and events around the destroyer.
Sterett’s Supply Officer Lt. Geoffrey Rienstra, from San Antonio, said his team of 7 Retail Services Specialists work hard to support the crew throughout the ship.
“Their impact to crew’s morale is immeasurable," said Rienstra. "Based off their level of motivation, they feel the effect of their hard work on a daily basis. It's been a long deployment, and Sterett couldn't ask for a better group of Sailors to take care of them."
In addition to divisional responsibilities within the ship’s store, barbershop and laundry, the Retail Services Specialists hold a variety of collateral duties, including being a part of the flying squad, attending flight quarters and holding training petty officer positions.
“To be able to carry those responsibilities along with earning an Excellence Award is a phenomenal accomplishment,” said Retail Services Specialist 1st Class Jorge Beteta, S-3 division’s leading petty officer, from Margate, Fla.
As Sterett continues operations in U.S. 5th Fleet, the Supply Department Retail Services Division Sailors continue to perform their duties in support of the crew, day in and out.
“We have been earning this award before I even arrived here and we were held to a higher standard because of it,” said Beteta. “We are trying to carry it on to the next year, the year after that, and so on.”
Sterett is part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and Pacific through the Western Indian Ocean and three critical chokepoints to the free flow of global commerce.