March 29, 2024

Great Mills HS Suffers 17th US School Shooting in 2018

Great Mills HS

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Morning Coffee logoeconomic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018, Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, MD, became the 17th school to experience a shooting this year. CNN quoted St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron, “This is what we train for, this is what we prepare for, and this is what we pray that we never have to do. On this day, we realized our worst nightmare.” Blaine Gaskill, school resource officer, is credited with disabling the 17-year-old shooter in an exchange of fire. The shooter injured two students, one in stable and the other in critical condition Tuesday evening. The shooter was later pronounced dead. Lexington Park, Maryland is at the top of CNN’s 2018 shooting list research, which has been recording about one a week since Jan. 1.

On a prouder note of notoriety, The New York Times gives a shout-out to some of our best known Southern Maryland stuffed ham-meisters, in a story about the ham stuffed with kale, cabbage, and lots of pepper that hasn’t ventured much farther than St. Mary’s County.

And there’s even more local pride to go around in The Tester’s continuing series commemorating Pax River’s 75 years of naval aviation excellence, 1943-2018. This second installment spotlights Pax River Safety Specialist Wayne Walker, who has worked at the installation for 40 years.

The Navy is exploring costs saving opportunities by purchasing its next two aircraft carriers in a block-buy, reports Bloomberg, asking Huntington Ingalls Industries to define achievable savings on a block purchase of the third and fourth carriers in the new Ford class.

American Machinist reports Pratt & Whitney completed an upgrade to the F-35 , implementing automated tracking of life-limited propulsion parts at 12 sites around the world.

The F-35C, the last JSF variant to be declared combat ready, will join the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in 2021, reports Popular Mechanics. The Navy’s first fifth-generation fighter is stealthier with an extended range and will eventually comprise half of the strike fighters based on carriers.

China’s most powerful rocket will fly for the third time late this year, reports Space News. The launch is crucial to upcoming projects including a lunar sample return, space station module launch, and a 2020 mission to Mars.

The US is at war in at least seven countries, Slate reports on the new provision requiring a White House report to Congress on where ongoing US military operations are taking place.

Military Times reports Team Hawaii wins Culinary Team of the Year for the fourth year in a row. A total of 332 gold, silver, and bronze medals went to 232 of the 450 military chefs.

Contracts:

Aviation Systems Engineering Co., Lexington Park, Maryland ( N00421-18-D-0026); Ausley Associates Inc., Lexington Park, Maryland (N00421-18-D-0027); Precise Systems Inc., Lexington Park, Maryland (N00421-18-D-0028); and Tekla Research Inc., Dumfries, Virginia (N00421-18-D-0029), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost reimbursable line items to provide program management services in support of the program offices that fall under the Program Executive Office for Weapons Systems. Services to be provided include program management, acquisition management, financial management, management of government furnished items, configuration/data management, risk management, security, and operations activities. In addition, this procurement provides for minimal engineering management, logistics management, test and evaluation management functions that related directly to program management support. The estimated aggregate ceiling for all contracts is $210,710,000, with the companies having an opportunity to compete for individual orders. Work will be performed at the individual various awardee facilities sites located in Lexington Park, Maryland, and Dumfries, Virginia, and is expected to be completed in August 2023.  Funds are not being obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. These contracts were competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals as a 100 percent small business set-aside; nine offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Ausley Associates Inc., Lexington Park, Maryland (N00421-18-D-0021); Bowhead Science and Technology LLC, Alexandria, Virginia (N00421-18-D-0023); Precise Systems Inc., Lexington Park, Maryland (N00421-18-D-0024); and Tekla Research Inc., Dumfries, Virginia (N00421-18-D-0025), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed-price, cost-plus–fixed-fee, and cost reimbursable line items to provide program management services in support of program offices that fall under the Program Executive Office for Unmanned Systems. Services to be provided include program management, acquisition management, financial management, management of government furnished items, configuration/data management, risk management, security, and operations activities. In addition, this procurement provides for minimal engineering management, logistics management, test and evaluation management functions that related directly to program management support. The estimated aggregate ceiling for all contracts is $205,561,000, with the companies having an opportunity to compete for individual orders. Work will be performed at the individual various awardee facilities sites located in Lexington Park, Maryland, Alexandria, Virginia, and Dumfries, Virginia, and is expected to be completed in August 2023. Funds are not being obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual tasks as they are issued. These contracts were competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals as a 100 percent small business set-aside; nine offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

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