NW Fla. PWO military enginner of year

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Lt. Cmdr. Christopher J. McDowell, Public Works Officer (PWO) assigned to Naval Support Activity Panama City, was honored by Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) as the Navy’s ‘2020 Military Engineer of the Year’ at an awards presentation Feb. 14 at the Washington Navy Yard. Rear Adm. John Kora noted that he was “extremely pleased” with the selection of McDowell from “our Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast.” Rear Adm. Kora is commander at NAVFAC and Chief of Civil Engineers. In addition to being named the top military engineer, McDowell was a top 10 finalist at the National Society of Professional Engineers’ (NSPE) ‘Federal Engineer of the Year’ awards. Lt. Cmdr. McDowell leads a team of 72 employees with an annual budget of around $35M in construction and $41M in maintenance support for the base and its missions. McDowell was called to Philadelphia to resolve an issue with the Navy’s Foundry and Propeller Center at the old Navy yard that manufactures propellers for the Columbia class submarine. He established a plan to enlarge the 100-year-old foundry, upgrade the power grid and enable support for 15 different types of industrial gases, so production would be online in two years. “I had five months to develop hundreds of projects and then combine them into a major construction project,” said McDowell. In October 2018, Hurricane Michael devastated Bay County, Fla. McDowell’s main mission was disaster recovery. Hurricane Michael’s sustained winds of 161 mph was responsible for destroying/damaging 200 of the 368 facilities at NSAPC. Damages were estimated around $186M. Currently, McDowell’s biggest challenge is finding contractors to do the work needed to rebuild. (Source: NSWC Panama City 02/24/20) https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=112149&utm_source=phplist4759&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Feature+Stories