Hutchison talked about several of the technical accomplishments at Carderock during his time as commanding officer, such as repairing an underwater acoustic measurement system, building a scale model of a part of the new Columbia-class submarine, conducting full-scale ship shock trials for Ford-class carriers and watching the Orion space module launch into space, something Carderock engineers modeled and tested years ago having now come to its destination. “I have really tried to get myself out there as much as I could, and I think that has made a big difference, and the workforce has been extremely receptive.” “I have been asked how I have impacted the strategic direction of a command of nearly 3,000 people that are located in seven different states, and my answer was ‘one person at a time,’” he said, adding that he not only had to intentionally think from a strategic command level, but also had to engage at the deck-plate level.
When the pandemic restrictions lifted a bit, Hutchison scheduled a walk through every Monday of a different space on base, having now been to almost every building at West Bethesda at least once, if not multiple times, and out to all of the detachments, several of them a couple of times. “I did not let the pandemic deter me with trying to engage with the workforce in a meaningful way, whether that be dialing up early to Teams calls, staying on late, setting up time to have conversations or mentorships with people to really just get to know them more,” Hutchison said. Hutchison acknowledged the challenges of taking command during that time, but he said getting out and meeting people was still one of his priorities. When he first came onboard, the country was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hutchison, who took command in July 2020 as Carderock’s 39 th commanding officer, described his three-year tour at Carderock with a single word: “Amazing.” Hutchison as Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division’s Commanding Officer (CO) during a change-of-command ceremony held in West Bethesda, Maryland, on May 12.
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