Rear Adm. T.K. Shannon, commander, Military Sealift Command (MSC), visited the submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) to meet with Sailors and civil service mariners (CIVMARs) and present the ship with the Captain David M. Cook Food Service Excellence Award, May 12.

The Captain David M. Cook Food Service Excellence Award is given out to ships that demonstrate quality menu planning, preparation, and receive positive customer feedback.

"This award was six years in the making," said Dave Terrell, CIVMAR supply officer aboard Frank Cable. "We achieved it through the layered accomplishments of several chief stewards and several officers-in-charge. This was not achieved overnight. We took constructive criticism and we ran with it."

Frank Cable was nominated for the award in the past, but was not selected. Winning this time around was a result of a refocusing of prior efforts.

"I felt proud winning this award, because this is the first time for Frank Cable," said Irineo Lazarte, chief steward on Frank Cable. "We were nominated last year and we went up to the finals, but we just didn't win. It was the same effort from the supply officers all the way down, as well as the repair division of the military."

Lazarte credits hard work and multiple improvements over the last year as determining factors for being selected.

"Since last year, we started doing more painting, deep cleaning, we even requested the help of some assistant store keepers to do some of the work we weren't able to," added Lazarte. "With the help of the supply utilities that we have, we were able to win this award. So it was a team effort from everyone involved."

Frank Cable, forward deployed to the island of Guam, conducts maintenance and support of submarines and surface vessels deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility and is currently on a scheduled underway period.