An aerial view of the Kenneth A. Kesselring Site in upstate New York.

Mission Success: KSO Employees Reflect on Accomplishments

Published July 24, 2024

In September 2011, Newport News Shipbuilding was awarded a contract to provide maintenance services on nuclear reactor prototypes at the Kenneth A. Kesselring (KSO) Site in West Milton, New York.

That successful mission has now come to an end.

For NNS, it marks a proud legacy of support for the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. For veteran shipbuilders who worked at KSO through the years, the milestone comes with mixed emotions. They will miss a job they loved, but can look back with gratification on challenges they have overcome.

KSO employees have played a critical role in the shipyard’s mission, even though the site is hundreds of miles from the Newport News waterfront.

“The primary mission of the site is to train nuclear officers and enlisted personnel to operate the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines,” said Tim Alexander, KSO director of programs. “The personnel who are operating nuclear reactors at Newport News, many of them have been trained here at the Kesselring site.”

He continued: “The role played by NNS at KSO, to perform maintenance in these reactor plants, is to support training the Navy operators. These are the very same Navy operators who are now operating nuclear reactors in Newport News, and ultimately, out at sea.”

Alexander trained at KSO as a Navy sailor and later taught there as an instructor. His professional and personal connection to the site is emblematic of others who served there.

In 2011, seven key managers traveled from Newport News to upstate New York to help establish the company’s presence and lay the ground work for providing services, which began in 2012.

Dan Ploutz was among that group, and he was the last to remain on site, having only recently retired. In the beginning, the seven managers knew each other, but they were not close. That soon changed.

“We had to rely on each other,” Ploutz recalled. “Everybody else was 600 miles way. None of us had our families up here permanently until after the contract started. We camped out at the Residence Inn in downtown Saratoga for three months, living out of a hotel.”

The task of standing up an off-site extension of NNS included onboarding staff, implementing company processes and procedures, and creating a company infrastructure. “It was absolutely the most difficult thing I have ever done in my 35 years of shipbuilding,” Ploutz said.

They brought considerable professional skill to the job, but it took more than that.

Personnel at the Kenneth A. Kesselring Site are shown here in this recent photo as work was winding down.

“What got us through this period were the relationships that the seven managers established with each other,” Ploutz said, “and the trust and vulnerability it took to accept help when it was needed, and to help others before they asked. That was the magic that actually lead to success.”

When NNS arrived on scene, General Dynamics Electric Boat was the incumbent, and had been on site for more than two decades. A majority of EB employees at KSO were offered to onboard with NNS. Town Hall meetings held in downtown Saratoga Springs provided EB employees with the information they needed to decide whether to transition to NNS or find employment elsewhere.

Karen LaTerra was the among the EB employees who transitioned to NNS. As an EB employee, she started at the site in 1987 as a member of that company’s administrative and finance staff. She moved over to NNS to work in the finance office and became the cost control/finance manager for the contract.

Between the two companies, she worked at the Kesselring site for 37 years.

“Newport News made it extremely easy,” she said. “It was a seamless transition, other than getting used to new processes and procedures. This site is very different than the shipyard, and we have a lot of different rules. But now we are all part of the team that is getting it over the goal line.”

The transition will affect people in different ways. Some longtime employees are retiring. Others will tackle new challenges, whether by staying in New York to find other employment or moving to Virginia to continue work at NNS.

“Part of the team has always lived here, like Karen,” said Alexander. “A group of people moved up here from Newport News and recognized the area as a great place to live and work. They’ve chosen to stay because they like it, and have integrated into the community. Some have never worked in the Newport News shipyard and are moving down there. That transition will be strange for them, much as it was for folks leaving Newport News and coming up here.”

Employees experienced a range of emotion as operations wound down.

“Just seeing people put their heart and soul into this refueling and overhaul, and then seeing them move on, it’s bittersweet, right?” Alexander said. “You’re happy that things have worked out for them, but you might not ever see them again.”

For more on the shipyard’s relationship with KSO, watch this video from Mary Cullen, vice president of Nuclear Propulsion.