Leading by example: FRCE supervisor receives Navy League safety award

Dedication to safety excellence has earned a Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) supervisor the Admiral Vern Clark Safety Award for fiscal year 2024.

Angelo Owens, who serves as the depot’s Safety and Occupational Health Division director, was acknowledged during the 2025 Sea-Air-Space Exposition’s Navy League Luncheon April 8 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Owens’ receipt of the award marked the second time in the award’s 10-year history that a member of the Naval Air Systems Command’s workforce has been recognized with the honor.

Presented annually by the Navy League of the United States, the Admiral Vern Clark and General James L. Jones Safety Awards honor individuals, units or organizations within the Department of the Navy whose outstanding contributions to safety planning and execution have fostered a culture of safety in their workforce. The awards celebrate those whose efforts have made safety integral to mission success, reduced fatalities and mishaps, and had a measurable impact on the command’s overall safety program.

“It’s an honor to accept this award on behalf of FRC East,” said Owens. “Even though this is considered an individual award, I feel it’s reflective of the command as a whole because it was only possible through teamwork. This award recognizes and the efforts of so many people who have contributed to the success of our safety programs.”

Brian Snow, who serves as the Deputy Safety director under Owens’ supervision, said he nominated Owens for this award due to the major impact Owens has made on the depot’s safety program since his arrival at FRCE in 2020.

“Angelo has been the driving force in reducing risks for FRC East employees,” said Snow. “Leveraging Navy directives, Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations and Voluntary Protection Program tools, he effectively leads his team toward success, ensuring the highest standards of safety and compliance. He is a no-nonsense, consummate safety professional who fully understands the importance of safety in an industrial environment and is relentless in his pursuit of reducing injuries and illnesses.”

Amy Morgan, Owens’ supervisor and head of the command’s Compliance and Quality Department, said Owens is exactly what she was looking for when recruiting for the Safety and Occupational Health Division director position.

“Angelo is extremely skilled and accomplished,” said Morgan. “He came in with a lot of real-world experience, professional certifications and education. This is a complex industrial environment and the work we do here supports a very important mission. I knew bringing him in, he would not only be able to lead the team but also lift them up.”

Prior to his career at FRCE, Owens served in the Navy for 24 years, during which he was an electrician, deep-sea diver and explosive ordnance disposal technician. Owens said he has been able to apply a lot of what he learned during his time in the military to his current role.

“I started out as an electrician and in 1984, I went to a deep-sea diver school,” said Owens. “There, we used the same types of air samples to test the scuba air that we use to test the air here at the depot. I then became an explosive ordnance disposal technician. We would dive, parachute, and we worked on all foreign and domestic ordnances, including both improvised explosive devices and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

“For each position I held, came a new set of rules, regulations and training requirements, all of which focused on keeping us safe while performing very high-risk and dangerous operations,” Owens continued. “When I transitioned to my current position, having that background knowledge and experience, along with a good understanding of the Navy’s safety procedures and protocols, was very helpful. FRC East has an explosives safety program and a radiation safety program, and I was able to bring the knowledge I gained as a master explosive disposal technician in the Navy and apply it to those programs.”

In recent years, Owens has focused on improving some of the depot’s major compliance programs, including the Confined Space Program, Explosives Safety Program and Radiation Safety Program, according to Morgan. She said these efforts have played a major role in the facility’s standing in the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program and recent inspection.

“Angelo has placed a particular emphasis on strengthening these programs, and we are seeing the fruits of his labor,” said Morgan. “If not managed properly, each of these programs has the potential to cause serious injury. Drawing from his vast knowledge of these programs, he has organized additional training for our program managers and funding to purchase updated equipment. These efforts have proven successful, as demonstrated in our most recent Aircraft Maintenance Inspection; where we saw significant improvements in these areas and achieved an overall score of 96%.”

Morgan said Owens has helped mitigate the many of the depot’s most serious and expensive safety and health hazards by pursuing nontraditional training and funding sources to supplement the command’s current training opportunities for the workforce.

“Angelo went out in search of external sources that would either provide free training or fund training for our workforce and he was successful,” said Morgan. “He didn’t just sit back and say, ‘Okay, I’m going to live with what we are able to pay for here.’ He really pushed and leaned into finding other resources that have helped to further develop our safety programs and keep our workforce safe.”

In addition to his ingenuity, Snow believes Owen’s leadership style and go-getter attitude have played a significant role in the success of the depot’s safety programs.

“His leadership style, which focuses on providing guidance and support, has brought the safety team together and motivated them to put forth their best efforts,” said Snow. “Once a plan is in place, they know they have his full backing as it is carried out. He motivates the team to think creatively when tackling challenging issues, while remaining vigilant for potential hazards and offering guidance whenever necessary.”

Owens said by empowering his teammates to succeed, he is not only setting them up for success, but also the command.

“One of the biggest things I focus on is doing everything I can do help those around me improve and excel,” said Owens. “I look at each individual and think of how I can build that individual up, and make them a stronger, smarter and better professional with greater opportunities. Whether this is accomplished through additional training, one-on-one chats or creating a completely different workflow – I do whatever I can do to help. Focusing on their career and knowledge growth, in turn, helps me accomplish our mission, which is to protect our workforce and promote our command.”

Owens said that concept of safety as a team effort extends throughout FRCE and even beyond the command.

“Not only is it the supervisors and employees who perform the work, it’s also our entire Quality and Compliance Department and the executive leadership team,” said Owens. “Then you add in our higher echelons: Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers and Naval Air Systems Command, as well as the Department of the Navy, the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They have all contributed to our success by supporting our goals and the safety of our personnel.

“We’ve worked very hard to ensure the command’s safety programs remain in place and effective, but its success ultimately depends on the employees and supervisors that are performing the work,” Owens continued. “We must collaborate, work as a team and empower every member of our workforce with the knowledge and understanding of how we approach safety and why we do it that way.”

Instilling a culture of safety throughout the command benefits both FRCE and the fleet, said Morgan.

“By having a command that is focused on the safety of our FRC East family, we have more people who are healthy, here every day and ready to support the mission of the warfighter,” said Morgan. “The less injuries we have, the less cost that is to the command and the greater Navy. It’s a win-win situation in that our workforce remains safe and is here to support the mission, and it’s less costly.”

According to Owens, keeping the workforce safe and saving taxpayer dollars are not only the primary goals of the depot’s safety program – they are his goals, as well.

“What I really focus on and what I really desire is to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities,” said Owens. “Our primary purpose is to get aircraft in and out as fast as we can. Every time someone gets hurt, depending on the severity of the injury, we lose time, manpower and money. By providing the proper training and personal protective equipment, we can prevent these injuries, mitigate lost manpower and save the money we would have paid out for medical costs, all of which helps us to get aircraft back to the fleet faster and more efficiently.”

FRCE is North Carolina's largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.