All Montanans can be proud of the future USS MONTANA’s crew — and the excitement and dedication they have about being and doing their best. Commanding Officer CAPT. Mike Delaney provided the following:

MONTANA COMMITTEE HELPS RAISE CREW MORALE

               On a fall Saturday afternoon, you may notice some college football teams with a bunch of small stickers affixed to the back of their helmets.  The stickers often have some tie to the school mascot and are given to players for either team or individual accomplishments.  A MONTANA crewmember took the idea a step further by proposing similar stickers that could be affixed to crewmembers’ hard hats while in the shipyard, recognizing Sailors for “a job well done”.  While the Navy has a well-established award system, the stickers are used to recognize performance or actions that may not warrant a Navy award, but are still worthy of recognition.  When this concept was presented to the USS Montana Committee, they ran with it, coming up with the design and providing several hundreds stickers to the crew.

               The command recently provided stickers to MONTANA Sailors in the Engineering Department who participated in the most efficient Post Reactor Core Hot Operations testing period ever conducted in the history of the VIRGINIA-class submarine program.  Below is a picture of Lieutenant StJohn Richardson’s hard hat adorned with several stickers.  Lieutenant Richardson, a Montana native, is a junior officer onboard MONTANA and has been recognized on several occasions for exceptional performance.  The crew is extremely appreciative of the small gesture that goes a long way in building a motivated, high-performing MONTANA team!