NOAA and the U.S. Air Force kicked off a nationwide awareness campaign for new advanced personal locator beacons. Many of these new beacons use global positioning system technology, making it easier and quicker for NOAA satellites to pick up their distress signals and relay an accurate location to the rescuers. With the White House in the background, beacons were presented to representatives from two Vermont Boy Scout troops. Over forty scouts, their leaders and parents traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in the news conference.

Deputy NOAA Administrator James R. Mahoney at the introduction of a new awareness campaign for advanced personal locator beacons, many of which use NOAA satellites.

San Simeon, the opulent California mansion of famed media mogul William Randolph Hearst, is the newest site of a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter, now broadcasting local weather and emergency information from the Los Angeles NWS Weather Forecast Office. The transmitter at Hearst Castle will help the residents, commercial and recreational mariners throughout the central coast of California, as well as mariners from Big Sur to Point Conception, receive the most current weather information. Long the playground of the Hollywood stars of the 1920s and ’30s, Hearst Castle was immortalized as Charles Foster Kane’s mansion Xanadu in Orson Welles’ classic film Citizen Kane.

Crowds gather outside the opulent Hearst Castle for the dedication of the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter at the famed California mansion.

The NOAA research ship McArthur is no more, but its legacy lives on in its replacement, the McArthur II. NOAA decommissioned the 37-year-old McArthur and commissioned its replacement, McArthur II in May.

“Although I am especially sad to say goodbye to McArthur, which I commanded more than 10 years ago, we are delighted to have McArthur II to replace her,“ said Rear Admiral Evelyn Fields, director of the NOAA Commissioned Corps and NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations.

“Over the past few years NOAA has acquired and converted for research five vessels from the Navy that would have otherwise been taken out of service,” said Tim Keeney, the Commerce Department’s deputy assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere. “These ships are on average about one-third the age of the NOAA ships they’ve replaced. Through this inter-agency cooperation, we have been able to maximize the use of national assets while decreasing the average age of the NOAA fleet and upgrading NOAA’s ship support capability and habitability.”

Seven former commanding officers of the NOAA Ship McArthur joined in the decommissioning ceremony. From left to right, Kenneth Lilly, James Morris, Evelyn Fields, Craig Bailey, Michele Bullock, Kenneth Perrin, and William Sites.

NOAA Administrator Lautenbacher visited Ottawa in late May to encourage active Canadian participation in the upcoming Earth Observation Summit and emphasize the importance of bilateral cooperation on a broad range of atmospheric, ocean and environmental issues. During the two-day visit, he met with Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Minister Robert Thibault and other government officials. Environment Minister David Anderson promised that Canada would participate in the EOS and would be supportive of efforts to develop a global and integrated earth observation system.

NOAA Administrator Lautenbacher with Ambassador Paul Celluci, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada.

What do you get when you place the three largest NOAA offices in Tampa Bay together for a day of orientation, information sharing, and an afternoon at the beach? The foundation of a stronger, more corporate NOAA identity; something far greater than the sum of its parts in the region. Late last month, as part of a NOAA-wide initiative to improve internal and external coordination, the three major NOAA components in west central Florida gathered. Employees from the NOAA Fisheries’ Southeastern Region office in St. Petersburg, the National Weather Service’s Ruskin Weather Forecast Office, and the NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) gathered together at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to learn more about each others roles in the area’s greater NOAA mission. Hosted by AOC, NOAA employees and families were able to take a closer look at NOAA aircraft and boats, and meet one another to share experiences at a picnic on the shores of Tampa Bay.

Local staffers and their families get a tour of a G-4 hurricane surveillance jet at during NOAA’s Tampa Bay Day.

In May, the NOAA chapter of Blacks in Government awarded four $1,000 scholarships to outstanding graduating high school seniors. The funds came from the generosity of NOAA employees, friends, and the Federal community through the Combined Federal Campaign. At least one scholarship is reserved for the child of a NOAA employee.

Honoring the four scholarship winners were (from left to right) Bernard Cody, president of Blacks in Government (BIG); Courtland Milloy, Washington Post columnist and Black Entertainment Television; India Fisher, Nydria Humphries, and Charles Fleming, the three Washington area scholarship winners; and Barbara Tobe, vice president and chairman, BIG Scholarship Committee.

 

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Date Last Updated: June 25, 2003 1:55 PM