ENGINEERING CASUALTY CONTROL

This chapter provides general information on engineering casualty control, a phase of damage control. If a review of damage control principles and related information is necessary, see Basic Military Requirements, NAVEDTRA 10054 (cur-rent edition), Military Requirements for Petty Of-ficer 3 & 2, NAVEDTRA 10056 (current edition), Fireman, NAVEDTRA 10520 (current edition), and Naval Ships Technical Manual, chapter 079. The mission of engineering casualty control is to maintain all engineering services in a state of max-imum readiness and reliability. To carry out this mission, it is necessary for all personnel concerned to know what actions are necessary to prevent, minimize, and correct any effects of operational and battle casualties on the machinery and the electrical and piping installations of their ship.

The primary objective of casualty control is to maintain a ship in such a condition that it will function effectively as a fighting unit. This re-quires effective maintenance of propulsion machinery, electrical systems, interior and exterior communications, fire control, electronic services, ship control, fire main supply, and of such miscellaneous services as heating, air condition-ing, and compressed air. Failure of any of these services will affect a ships ability to fulfill its primary objective, either directly, by reducing its power, or indirectly, by creating conditions which would lower personnel morale and efficiency. A secondary objective of casualty control is to minimize personnel casualties and secondary damage to vital machinery.

You can find detailed information on casu-alty control in the Engineering Casualty Control Manual, the Damage Control Book, the Ships Organization Book, and the Ships Repair Party Manual. Although these publications vary from ship to ship, they explain the organization and the procedures that must be followed when engineer-ing casualties, damage to the ship, or other emergency conditions occur.