What is Ray Mabus busy with nowadays?”
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus got a first hand look at the work and workers of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Monday and was suitably impressed by both. “This has been a terrific day for me,” Secretary Mabus said, during a short meeting with the press at the shipyard’s pass office following his tour. Turning his attention to the workforce he said, “I want to brag on them” for doing the kind of work they do because there is “zero tolerance” for defects where submarines are concerned. “I want to thank the people here for being so welcoming and for doing such a good job for the Navy and the country,” he said. He said the work on submarines at the yard is being done well, under cost and ahead of schedule, meaning that more of the submarines can be kept at sea. He cited the cooperation between all parties involved at the shipyard for accomplishing this, and noted that what happens at Portsmouth happens other places as well. “This is one shipyard,” he said of the Navy facilities, “and one N
Raymond Edwin “Ray” Mabus, Jr. (born October 11, 1948) is 75th United States Secretary of the Navy. Mabus served as Governor of the U.S. state of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992 and as United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Mabus was born in Starkville and is a fourth-generation Mississippian; he grew up in Ackerman, the only child of the owner of the local hardware store. After attending public schools, he graduated from the University of Mississippi where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, and holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins and a law degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He also served in the U.S. Navy.
