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Guam - It's been about a year since Cabras Marine Corporation was awarded the coveted US Navy Ship Repair Facility contract. But how has the company fared out?  


Just how capable are the repair services of Cabras Marine Corporation? Commander Joseph Casale, the commanding officer of the Military Sealift Command Guam, told KUAM News, "Cabras Marine has been doing excellent work since the ships arrived and we look forward to doing good work with them in the future."


Part of that work is on the US Naval Ship Amelia Earhart which docked at Naval Base Guam earlier this month. The USNS Amelia Earhart is here for scheduled repairs in a normal maintenance availability so she is a ship that has sailed throughout the pacific and Indian ocean and comes here for regular maintenance," expressed Casale.


The Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship deploys worldwide to replenish warships at sea and was most recently in the Arabian Gulf last winter. The USNS has approximately 100 civilian mariners on board. "The ship experienced some damage to the haul the haul damage is part of an ongoing investigation, so I can't talk too much about that, but I think what's illustrated here is that when a ship does sustain some sort of damage out at sea, it can come to Guam to get work done and get repaired here because this is the closest place to where we operate which is out here in the middle of the Pacific," he said.


Cabras is the closest integrated maintenance facility in a US territory in the pacific. Cabras president Joseph Cruz says since taking over the operations at the Shipyard nearly a year ago, the company has done up to 7 ship repairs both emergent and routine with the Amelia Earhart marking it's first for the year. "But what's significant about the Earhart is it came in with significant haul damage which means we had to cut the haul, and put a haul in it and replace it so we find the challenge very interesting because it's the first job that we're doing where we're actually cutting into the ship, replacing steel on the ship," he shared.


The job is expected to take 45-days, involving over 12,000 manhours with a total repair package at around $4 million. And with 232 people on staff with various trade capabilities, is Cabras up for the job? Casale said, "We're very confident that our personnel are qualified to perform the repairs and so far we're on schedule and that's what most important and we're meeting all the requirements that are expected of us at the moment."


The repairs for the US Naval Ship Amelia Earhart is expected to be completed in early February with the ship to leave shortly thereafter.