We Are MSC: Chief Engineer Elizabeth E. Pingree
17 July 2025
WE ARE MSC --
We Are MSC – Chief Engineer Elizabeth E. Pingree
This week’s “We Are MSC” highlights East Machias, Maine native Elizabeth E. Pingree, the Chief Engineer aboard fast combat support vessel USNS Supply (T-AOE 6).
How long have you worked with MSC?
Pingree: It’ll be ten years this summer.
What is your job aboard USNS Supply?
Pingree: As Chief Engineer, I am the head of the engineering department. Engineers keep the lights on, the propellers turning, the toilets flushing, the showers hot, the freezers cold, and everything in between. If it’s broken, we’re probably the ones that’ll come to fix it.
What do you enjoy most about working with MSC?
Pingree: Finding creative solutions to new problems, which I guess has more to do with engineering and less to do with MSC. Anybody can fix the “textbook” problems, but not every problem has a clear, cookie-cutter answer. It’s the ones that make you take a step back and scratch your head for a minute (or a few days) that feel like such a triumph when you figure it out. Sometimes you’re presented with a mystery, and you have no choice but to follow all the clues until you’ve solved it.
What has been your favorite memory while working at MSC?
Pingree: One of the coolest things that I’ve been a part of thus far was an engine change out. Right before our last deployment, we had a bad bearing in one of the gas turbines, and because the metal particulate had worked its way into the compressor and the power turbine bearings, the decision was made to change the engine out before we deployed (which absolutely turned out to be the right decision), rather than just go with one engine down (not a good situation when you’re in hostile waters). Because time was of the essence (normally we deploy with the carrier strike group, but we wound up delaying about two weeks for this), and contracting always takes longer than one would wish when you need things done immediately, ship’s force disconnected the old turbine and prepped the intake and the module for its removal. Everyone was involved, from the chief and myself (I was the 1st A/E at the time), the 2nd A/E and the 3rd A/Es, to the ETs and electricians, cargo engineer and dachas, UJE, wipers, and even the reefer. Once the MARMC team came to pull the old turbine and install the new one, they had very little prep work left to do; they could just start. A week later, we started up the new turbine for a quick test, and the next day we left for the weapons station to load ammo and catch up to the strike group overseas.
And as cool as it was to see the turbine change out, what I really love about it was how the whole engine department came together to make it happen. Everyone knew how critical it was, and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t really their job. We needed all the help we could get, and they all showed up because that’s the team we have built here.
As a Chief Engineer, how do you support the MSC mission?
Pingree: Military Sealift Command’s mission is to “empower global warfighting capabilities” and “to support the joint warfighter across the full spectrum of military operations. MSC delivers agile logistics, strategic sealift, as well as specialized missions anywhere in the world, under any conditions, 24/7, 365 days a year.”
Delivering logistical support anywhere, anytime, under any conditions is what the T-AOE Fast Combat Support platform excels at. As the chief engineer, it is my responsibility to see that the vessel is ready to meet that mission. From the day-to-day operation to long term repair planning, it is my job to keep the ship going so that she can continue to show up when and where the Navy requires her.