Brian Bourgeois – Class of 1982

Personal Data

• Bourgeois, Brian, CAPT, USN (Ret)
• Tulane Naval ROTC Class of 1982
• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Tulane University, 1991

Historical Events:

• Cold War
• Persian Gulf Tanker War

Assignments / Engagements

Enlisted:

• Dec 1975 – Enlisted USN
• JAN-MAR 76 Recruit, Recruit Training Command, Orlando, FL
• Basic Electricity and Electronics School, 19 MAR-16 APR 76, Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, IL
• BEE & Electricians Mate A School, 19 APR-17 JUN 76, Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, IL; promoted to EM3
• JUL-NOV76 Instructor, BEE school, SSC Orlando, FL
• Naval Nuclear Power School, 6 DEC76-26 MAY 77, Naval Training Center, Orlando, FL
• Naval Nuclear Power A1W Prototype, 13 JUN-10 DEC 77, Idaho Falls, ID; promoted to EM2
• JAN 78-JUL 78 USS Nimitz CVN 68
• Letter of Commendation, Manager A1W Nuclear Reactor Plant, December 1977

Midshipman:

• AUG 78-MAY 82 Tulane University, Naval ROTC Scholarship

Commissioned:

• Commissioned May 1982
• Surface Warfare Officer School, Basic, 14 JUL-10 NOV 82, Naval Training Center, Newport, RI
• FFG7 Main Propulsion Assistant (MPA) School, 15 NOV-17 DEC 82, Naval Training Center, Newport, RI
• LM2500 Gas Turbine Change-out, 17-21 JAN 83, Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, IL
• FFG7 Central Control Station (CCS) Operations School, 17 JAN-4 FEB 83, Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, IL
• MAR83-MAY86 USS McInerney, FFG8. Employed as Main Propulsion Assistant and Electrical Officer. Duties included supervision of 21 personnel in the areas of ship’s propulsion, electrical power, and fuel storage and services. Additional duties included Underway Officer of the Deck, in-port Command Duty Officer, Officer in charge of Training for Engineering watch standers, Senior Engineering Officer of the Watch, System Manager for the Ships Administrative computer system. Instructor for the Navy Afloat Educational Program. Served in two Persian Gulf deployments during the Iran-Iraq ‘Tanker War’.
• Repair-Locker Damage Control-Team Training, 24-27 0CT 83, Fleet and Mine Warfare Training Center, Charleston, SC
• JPS Aviation Fuel System, 2-4 MAY 84, NAVPHIBSCOL Little Creek, VA
• Fire Fighting Team Training, 10-11 MAY 84, Fleet Training Center, Mayport, FL
• Letter of Commendation as Main Propulsion Asst. for restructuring Engineering Dept. Training and PQS Program; Commander Middle East Force, March 1985
• Navy Achievement Medal as Main Propulsion Asst. for ship’s outstanding performance in the Atlantic Fleet Propulsion Examining Board Operational Propulsion Plant Examination; Commander Cruiser-Destroyer Group Twelve, October 1985
• Navy Achievement Medal as Administration Officer for ship’s outstanding performance in a 3M, Immediate Unit Commander’s Command inspection, a publication on the ship’s SNAPII administrative computer capabilities, development of an exhaustive set of Basic Engineering Casualty Control Exercise Drill Scenarios (BECCE) for the FFG7 ship class, and development of a failure prediction technique for the 400Hz Static Frequency Converters used on the FFG7 ship class; Commander Naval Surface Force, Atlantic Fleet, August 1986
• Beneficial Suggestion Cash Award for Developed Maintenance Procedures on the 60/400Hz Static Frequency Convertors, Commanding Officer USS McInerney, May 1986

Naval Reserve Service:

• May 1986 -Left active service, returned to Tulane University for graduate school
• MAY86-AUG86: Assistant Training Officer, NR USS John Rodgers, Tallahassee, FL; non­supervisory
• AUG 86-AUG 91: Executive Officer/Training Officer, NR Ships Intermediate Maintenance Activity (SIMA) San Diego 210, New Orleans, LA; 100 personnel
• AUG 1991-Received PhD from Tulane University in Electrical Engineering; went to work full time at the Naval Research Laboratory Detachment at Stennis Space Center, MS.
• SEP 91-0CT 93: Operations Officer, NR Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare (MIUW) 212, Gulfport, MS; 10 personnel
• Navy Achievement Medal, Commander MIUWU 212, September 1993
• OCT 93-0CT 95: Commanding Officer, NR Ships Intermediate Maintenance Activity (SIMA) San Diego 210 New Orleans, LA; 100 personnel
• U.S. Navy Total Quality Management Class, 28 FEB-11 MAR 94, Pearl Harbor
• Navy Commendation Medal, NAVMARCORRESREDCEN NOLA, SEP 1995
• OCT 95-SEP 97: Commanding Officer, NR Naval Embarkation Assist Team (NEAT) 110; Bessemer, AL; 40 personnel
• Amphibious Warfare Indoctrination, 1-2 JUN and 22-23 JUN 96, Bessemer, AL
• Naval Embarkation Assist Team School, 12-23 AUG 96, NAB Coronado, CA
• Naval Liaison Officer and Navy Control of Shipping Fundamentals, 14-25 JUL 97, Norfolk Naval Station, VA
• OCT 97- MAR 98: Training Officer, NR (Naval Station Annex) NSA NOLA 110, New Orleans, LA; 30 personnel
• MAR 98-SEP 98: Volunteer Training Unit (VTU), New Orleans, LA; non-supervisory
• SEP 98-SEP 01: Executive Officer/Training Officer, NR Naval Station Annex (NSA) NOLA 110, New Orleans, LA; 30 personnel
• Reserve Components National Security Course 12-23 JUL 99; National Defense University, Washington, DC
• Navy Commendation Medal, NAVMARCORRESREDCEN NOLA, APR 2001
• OCT O1-0CT 03: Chief of Naval Research Assistant Chief of Staff (CNR ACOS) for Manpower; Reserve Liaison Officer (RLO) for ONR Autonomous Operations FNC, NR ONR S&T HQ 106, Washington, DC; 200 personnel
• Navy Commendation Medal, Chief of Naval Research, 27 AUG 03
• OCT 03-0CT 04: Executive Officer, NR ONR S&T Headquarters unit; 20 personnel
• OCT 04-JAN 06: NR ONR S&T Unit 102; non-supervisory
• JAN 06-MAR 07: Commanding Officer, NR Volunteer Training Unit (VTU) 8282; 10 personnel
• Reserve-Officer Strategy and Policy Course, 24 APR-5 MAY 06, Naval War College, Newport, RI
• APR 07-MAR 08: NR NAVSEA 119; Pascagoula Naval Shipyard; non-supervisory
• 1 APR 08 Retired the uniform

Memorable Moments on the USS McInerney:

• Serving under Capt. Richard West.
• Discovery of a Basic program compiler on the FFG7 SNAP2 administration computer and development of a computer program to automatically create daily fuel & water reports.  This eliminated the frequent chastising I received when the manually computed totals were in error. I passed the program to other FFG7 class ships.
• 3 straight days and nights spent working with ETC Welch on the ship’s 400Hz Static Frequency Convertor’s (SFC’s) – all 3 units had failed.  This intense effort resulted in the development of a troubleshooting procedure to predict failure of these unit’s for the FFG7 Class.  The 400Hz SFC’s provide  power for radar and weapons systems.
• Flame out of both gas turbines upon attempted startup, preceding planned departure from Guantanamo after 2 weeks of engineering casualty training.  At the time I was on the pier waiting for the next ship to come in to beg for fuses for our 400HZ frequency convertor’s; all of ours had been blown during the engineering drills.  I heard the first turbine spin up and then fifteen feet of flames shot up out of the stack.  Thinking to myself: ‘this isn’t good, but at least we have two’.  I heard the second turbine spin up and then fifteen feet of flames shot up out of the stack.  Darn.  It was an impressive site that drew everyone from the base to pier side.  The officers on the bridge tried to go out of the starboard bridge door all at the same time, in a classic Keystone cops manner.  The CO, Capt. ‘Skeets’ Meyer, shouted down to me and asked ‘is this normal?’.  With a straight face I shouted back ‘No’.  He then shouted down to me ‘is it safe?”.  Still with a straight face, I replied ‘I don’t think so’.   Our Gas Turbine Senior Chief saved the day by deducing that a PMS check done on both turbines the previous night had caused the new fuel control units to fail to full throttle; he changed them out that night with the two units we had before and we were underway the next day.  NAVSEA wouldn’t take the word from mere sailor’s about the cause of the failure for months, so we took it upon ourselves to notify all FFG7 class ships not to perform the PMS check.
• Keeping the ship underway 1.  The gas turbine controls are powered through a mega-sized Uninterruptible Power System (UPS), and prior to getting underway the system failed.  Troubleshooting revealed that a single transistor on a control board in the unit was the fault, but the ship’s spares load out did not include this board.  A trip to Radio Shack remedied the problem; don’t tell anyone.
• Keeping the ship underway 2.  I was on the bridge during sea and anchor detail, on our way to an important diplomatic port call.  We received a call from engineering that one of the two steering control units failed, preventing us from leaving.  ETC Welch reported that the 240-120V step down transformer in the unit had blown.  I had an outrageous idea and asked ETC Welch what the current rating on the transformer was.  With that, I requested permission from the XO to leave the bridge to take a look for myself.  The unconventional solution was employed after receiving permission from Squadron – we spliced in a power cord and plugged it into a nearby 120V outlet.
• Proudest moment – when we ranked number 1 in the Atlantic Fleet for the FFG7 class with the Propulsion Examining Board (PEB).  This was a multi-year endeavor overcoming the ship’s first Chief Engineer’s biases that only officers were competent to stand engineering Central Control Station (CCS) watches and that equipment shouldn’t be cycled for casualty drills because they might break.  During the PEB our CCS watch stander’s were 1st and 2nd class petty officers, all of whom received awards for their performance.

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