{"id":6930,"date":"2023-04-24T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=6930"},"modified":"2023-04-25T06:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T06:49:43","slug":"frce-engineers-expertise-garners-designation-as-navair-fellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=6930","title":{"rendered":"FRCE Engineer\u2019s Expertise Garners Designation as NAVAIR Fellow"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mark Sapp, a welding and materials engineer within FRCE\u2019s Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) Engineering Department, was inducted as a NAVAIR Fellow during a March 23 ceremony in California, Maryland.<\/p>\n

Sapp has catalogued an extensive list of accomplishments during his 28-year career at the depot. He was inducted into the NAVAIR Fellows Program in 2011 as an Associate Fellow. Being made a Fellow, the first from FRCE, represents the culmination of excellence demonstrated throughout Sapp\u2019s career, said MRO Engineering Department Head Stuart Clayton.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark\u2019s accomplishments go far beyond FRC East, with the ultimate benefactor being the warfighter,\u201d Clayton said. \u201cHis career has proven that technical excellence is more than utilizing engineering rigor to achieve greater repair capability or cost savings; it highlights the importance of staying curious and passionate in one\u2019s discipline, pursuing what is in the best interest of the warfighter, and setting standards that have widespread and long-lasting impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NAVAIR Fellows program, which was established in 2000, features three tiers: Associate Fellow, Fellow and Esteemed Fellow. Associate Fellows represent the top 3% of NAVAIR scientists and engineers, while Fellows represent the top 0.75%. The title Esteemed Fellow is reserved for just the top 0.25%. The program is national in scope and is open to all NAVAIR engineers and scientists. Nominees must have a well-established history of significant technical contributions and accomplishments within naval aviation.<\/p>\n

As a result of his work within NAVAIR and with other branches of service, equipment manufacturers, professional organizations and mentees, Sapp\u2019s influence in the aviation welding community spans the globe, said Materials Engineering Division Director Robert Mehring. He nominated Sapp for the recognition, and said he felt Sapp\u2019s credentials spoke for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark is regarded as the absolute authority within NAVAIR for resolving welding and material joining challenges,\u201d Mehring said. \u201cHis expertise is sought after by many across the Naval Aviation Enterprise, and his engineering services are constantly in demand by NAVAIR, the Air Force and the Coast Guard. Mark\u2019s technical contributions have made impacts at all levels of maintenance and acquisition, both within and outside the Department of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sapp began his Navy civilian career as a welding engineer at Charleston Navy Shipyard shortly after graduating from the Ohio State University. He moved to FRCE after the shipyard closed a few years later and, since then, has gone on to set the standard for technical knowledge in the field of aviation welding engineering. Sapp serves as a voting member on committees that write welding and brazing standards for the American Welding Society and International Organization for Standardization (ISO). He is one of just 12 American members of the ISO\u2019s welding working group, and the only Department of Defense representative. He also serves as the technical point of contact for several collaborative projects with academia, industry and other Defense Department organizations.<\/p>\n

Despite his depth of experience, Sapp said he never imagined he\u2019d earn such high praise and recognition. However, he\u2019s not in it for the accolades \u2013 Sapp, who retired from the Navy Reserve as a chief petty officer, is first and foremost interested in supporting the Fleet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I\u2019m appreciative that NAVAIR is recognizing my work, but it goes a little deeper than that,\u201d Sapp said. \u201cThe military has been with me since \u201976 and, when I think of what I\u2019m doing, I\u2019m thinking of the guy that\u2019s having the mortar thrown at him, and how I can make his life more comfortable. I can\u2019t stop the mortar from being thrown at him, but I can keep him from having to fix something or give him the means to fix it right then and there, if he needs to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I would ever reach Fellow. To me, that\u2019s where all the PhD\u2019s and the higher grade engineers at NAVAIR headquarters work,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut I looked at the nomination form and they wanted me to explain what I\u2019ve done since I made Associate Fellow that has helped NAVAIR, and I realized I could do that. If it\u2019s in NAVAIR and it has the word weld in it, you\u2019re going to find my name somewhere very close, maybe even at the top of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his focus on the Fleet, Sapp also places great importance on mentorship in his day-to-day operations. He has served as a mentor for an estimated 100 engineers from FRCE, FRC Southeast and FRC Southwest, along with several other Naval Commands and other facilities. Sapp\u2019s colored pencil illustrations of welding repairs have become a coveted collectable among those who\u2019ve sought his guidance in making repairs that aren\u2019t covered in the technical manuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just enjoy teaching. My door is always open,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t care who you are, which platform or program you\u2019re assigned to; I don\u2019t even care if the problem you\u2019re trying to solve isn\u2019t related to welding. If you want to come in, we\u2019ll sit down and root through how to make repairs that aren\u2019t in the technical manual.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically teach them to think. That\u2019s what I do,\u201d Sapp continued. \u201cWe all had the same physics classes, we all had the same math classes \u2013 even after 40 years, we\u2019re still using the same mechanical engineering textbook. So I teach them how to think, and when someone approaches me for help, I don\u2019t write anything down. I don\u2019t tell them how to make a repair, but I do pull out my colored pencils and I\u2019ll draw the repair and even make a storyboard out of it so they can see, step by step, what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

For someone who lives and breathes welding \u2013 Sapp even has a website dedicated to welding history, and is working on a book covering the same subject \u2013 being recognized as an authority in his area of expertise and helping mold the future of the occupation within the command has been extremely gratifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I would be as successful as I have been, but it\u2019s been a joy,\u201d Sapp said.<\/p>\n

FRCE is North Carolina’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Sapp, a welding and materials engineer within FRCE\u2019s Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) Engineering Department, was inducted as a NAVAIR Fellow during a March 23 ceremony in California, Maryland. Sapp has catalogued an extensive list of accomplishments during his 28-year career at the depot. He was inducted into the NAVAIR Fellows Program in 2011 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6932,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930\/revisions\/6932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}