watervliet arsenal's newsletter: salvo 30 april 2012

Vol. 12, No. 4 U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, NY April 30, 2012

SALVO“Service to the Line, On the Line, On Time”

Commanders ColumnPage 2

Boiler Plant TestPage 5

Visitors’ CenterPage 8

By John B. Snyder

Honors students turnlabs into classrooms

Photos by John B. Snyder

Take Your Child to WorkPage 6

Story continues on page 3, see Students

Steve Smith, the acting branch chief for Benét Labs fatigue fracture analysis group, prepares the group for a live firing. Fifteen hon-ors students, who were all high school seniors, helped turn many of Benét’s labs into classrooms on April 25th.

High school honors students, who are enrolled in a college-preparatory science program called New Visions, helped turn Army laboratories at the Watervliet Arsenal into classrooms April 25. The purpose of the visit was to give students a firsthand look at the role science and technology has in the de-velopment of military weapon systems. The Army’s Benét Laboratories, which is located

on the Watervliet Arsenal, shifted several of its op-erations into science classrooms for 15 local high school honors students who are enrolled in the New Visions’ Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math program that is administered in Rensselaer, Greene, and Columbia counties. The students were from Troy, Tamarac, Maple Hill, Taconic Hill, Averill Park, Berlin, Hoosic Val-

Salvo April 30, 2012

The Arsenal Salvo is an authorized monthly publication for members of the Department of Defense. Contents of the Salvo are not necessarily the official views of, or an endorse-ment by the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, or the Watervliet Arsenal. News may be submitted for publication by sending articles to Public Affairs Officer, 1 Buffington Street, Bldg. 10, Watervliet, NY 12189, or stop by office #102, Bldg. 10, Watervliet Arsenal. The editor may also be reached at (518) 266-5055 or by e-mail: [email protected]. The editor reserves the right to edit all information submitted for publication.

Commander, Col. Mark F. MigaleddiPublic Affairs Officer, John B. SnyderEditor, John B. SnyderPhotographer: John B. Snyder Arsenal Facebook Page @http://on.fb.me/sq3LEm

Commander’s Corner

I was outside my quarters the other day doing some spring cleaning when the sound of bees caused me to put off that cleaning until maybe … next fall. All kidding aside, you may not hear the sound of bees at the Arsenal before you become SWARMED. I’m talking about our new safety awareness program. Our safety gurus have come up with an innovative way to remember a safety process, commonly called an acro-nym in the military, which should add a new dimension to our safety program. I know, some of you are thinking that this is just what we need … something else to memorize. So, don’t memorize it. Convert it into a checklist.

SWARMEDSigns and barricades in placeWhere PPE properlyAdministrative Controls in placeRisk free walking/working spaceMachine Guarding in place Energy hazard controls in place and functionalDisposal of chemicals...properly

SWARMED is just part to help you LOOK FOR IT, FIND IT, AND FIX IT! But keep in mind that safety is more than a cute tagline or acronym. Our success in pro-tecting the workforce, on and off duty, must be a conscious part of our thought process every hour, by leaders and the workforce. Some of you may believe that injury or loss of life due to an unsafe act won’t happen to you. After all, it is al-ways someone else. But sometimes, we get so comfortable

in our environment that we move into a safety trap because everything was fine the last time we drove on that road or worked on that machine that we become blind to the trap before it closes on us. To give you a sense of how big a problem overlooking safety is, I took a look at Google news for just a 24-hour period leading into the drafting of this column and there were more than 11,000 stories posted. Many of these sto-ries involved death, such as a jury recommending that any-one involved in felling trees should wear a safety helmet following the tragic death of a father-of-five. Another story involved the death of a worker due to his company failing to use energy control, or “lockout/tagout,” procedures prior to allowing the employee to enter the machine’s danger area. Wow, more than 11,000 safety accident stories in 24 hours. As much as I like getting the Arsenal into the news, this is not one story that I want my public affairs officer to have to write. Although you may get SWARMED at work, please do not become complacent this coming summer as you venture more outside. You are too important to the Arsenal — too important to your family — to have you injured for some-thing that could have been prevented.

Mark F. MigaleddiCommanding

Manufacturer 6

Strang said. “I was most impressed, however, at how the many fields of science are brought together to achieve a common purpose at the Ar-senal.” Most of the students have never visited the Watervliet Arsenal. But if Strang’s fel-low students left the Arsenal feeling the same way as he

did, then Benét Labs did a lot more than simply shar-ing their work with high school students — they also educated some of America’s future science and engi-neering experts about the value of military manufac-turing. According to the New Visions website, the STEM program is located at Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti-tute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., and is part of the Questar III program that is sponsored by the New York Board of Cooperative Educational Services. As part of the curriculum, students interact with more than 80 pro-fessionals each year, including researchers from Rens-selaer, as well as technology organizations such as General Electric and Benét Labs. This program is an ideal choice for students who want to know what it re-ally means to be an engineer or scientist.


Students cont.


ley, and Cohoes high schools, said Tammie Bor-land, the New Visions teacher who coordinated the visit. “This is a special program for high school seniors who want to concentrate in science and engineering in preparation for college,” Borland said. “What is great about the New Visions program is that we live and breathe hands-on education and that is why we like to vis-it such places as the Army’s Benét Labs.” Sara Makowiec, an elec-tronics engineer with Benét Labs, coordinated with Bor-land for the visit. After all, who better than Makowiec to know what the students would like given that she had gone through the same New Visions program five years ago. “This was great for us to interact with students who have interest in the type of science and technology that we work with at Benét,” Makowiec said. “For me, I still remember how exciting it was going through the New Visions program five years ago because the program gave me great insight into a wide variety of scientific fields of study.” But it is often easy to please teachers and Arsenal workers who like to share their knowledge with folks outside of the Arsenal fence line and so, the value of the visit truly rested with the students. If one could measure the body language, such as the smiles and looks of inquiring interest, then the visit was a success for Benét Labs and for the New Visions program. But better than body language were the comments from Robert Strang, a Troy High School senior. “This was my first time visiting the Watervliet Ar-senal and I was surprised at how much science and technology is used to manufacture weapon systems,”

Top: New Vision honor students check out the weight difference between steel and composite base plates. The composite was most favored, something Benét would like to hear from the Army.Left: Students, with great restraint by not touching, get a close look at some of the Benét fatigue lab work.



Albany Devils Military Appreciation Game

April 14, 2012

new technology on a similar boiler burning natural gas would have an expected annual fuel savings of $125,000, and for a boiler using oil, the annual savings would be nearly $140,000.” The digitally-controlled prototype added a computerized system that continuously monitored the concentrations of oxy-gen and carbon dioxide in the exhaust fumes to optimally ad-just the amount of fuel and air fed to the boiler, thus improving its efficiency, Poncia said. But the results of this test may have a far greater conse-quences than simply improving the efficiency and environment

at the Watervliet Arsenal. Dr. Jim Galvin, the ESTCP Energy & Water program manager who was in attendance when UTRC rolled out its results, said “The Department of De-fense is seeking ways to reduce its $4 billion-a-year energy costs at military installations. Watervliet Arsenal served a critical role as an energy test bed for the Department of Defense to find in-novative ways to enhance boiler plant efficiencies.” “To replace boiler systems through-out the Department of Defense is too costly,” Galvin added. “But if we can find a cost effective way to improve boiler efficiency, which saves energy and reduces the production of green-house gases, and do so with a relatively short investment payback period, then that process or modification may have great utility for the Department of De-fense. This technology demonstration at the Army’s Watervliet Arsenal appears to

be meeting all those objectives.” According to Poncia, the estimated potential of savings across DoD, based on the demonstration at the Arsenal, indi-cates a nearly $56 million annual fuel cost reduction and the avoidance of approximately 600,000 tons of CO2 going into the environment each year. The Arsenal has four main boilers that provide heat and limited power. Some of these boilers were installed as far back as the 1950s and therefore, lack computer controls that would enhance the efficiency, as well as the environment. The boiler undergoing testing was installed in the 1978, Hoshko said. The demonstration would not have been possible without the constant support of the Watervliet Arsenal, who hosted the demonstration, Poncia said. “We acknowledge the amazing help we received from Rich Hoshko, the Arsenal’s Boiler Plant Manager, and to Vanessa Duenas, the Arsenal’s Energy Manager of Watervliet Arsenal, for supporting and enabling the demonstration,” Poncia said.


Sweating test results in the boiler room?

Dr. Guido Poncia, c, who is the project leader at UTRC, briefs the results of the test to members who represented such organizations as the Army Corps of Engineers and DoD’s Environmental Se-curity Technology Certification Program office.

Do you remember the old test days when you were in school? You may not have been able to eat or sleep, and for others, they sometimes developed strange rashes and other ail-ments that we won’t go into. Suffice it to say that tests were very stressful to many of us. But what may have been more stressful than taking a test? Finding out the results. Well, the Arsenal has been undergo-ing a nearly $250,000 test for the past year and this month the results were in. But for once, the Arsenal didn’t have to sweat it. “United Technologies Research Cen-ter, out of Connecticut, installed a digi-tally-controlled prototype system on one of our steam boilers last year that trans-formed 1970s technology into a state-of-the-art system,” said Richard Hoshko, the Arsenal boiler plant supervisor. The Arsenal site was selected primar-ily due to its close proximity to UTRC and to Fireye, which is a division of United Technologies’ Climate, Controls & Security Systems and is located in New Hampshire. Fireye supported UTRC in the development and instal-lation of the prototype device. An-other strong consideration as to why the Arsenal site was selected speaks to the Arsenal leadership’s willingness to sup-port testing of advanced technologies that may benefit the Army and the Depart-ment of Defense. But the main selling point to the Arsenal leadership in al-lowing this test to occur was that the test came at no cost to the Arsenal. The Department of Defense’s Environmental Secu-rity Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) fully funded the test. Dr. Guido Poncia, who is the project leader at UTRC, said that when his company installed the new control module they anticipated the Arsenal would attain better efficiency in its boiler operations, as well as a significant reduction in green-house gasses. So, with a sense of excitement and hope for solid test re-sults, the Arsenal and UTRC waited … and waited until this month. “During a one-year testing campaign between February 2011 and March 2012, the new system demonstrated a fuel savings of about 4 percent and a corresponding reduction of CO2 emissions,” Poncia highlighted. “The investment in the

By John B. Snyder

Photo by John B. Snyder


Watervliet Arsenal: A place where children inspire 198 years of pride

Photos provided by the

By John B. Snyder

Working in the historic Watervliet Arsenal has giv-en nearly eight generations of workers a sense of pride that may be rarely equaled anywhere in the Army. But give it to children, who participated in the Arsenal’s Take Your Child to Work Day on April 12, to take that sense of pride to a higher level. The Arsenal, with sup-port from the Army’s Benét Laboratories, opened its manufacturing operations to nearly 30 children of the Arsenal’s workforce and showed them the work of skilled artisans and engi-neers who develop, manu-facture, and sustain our nation’s military with large caliber tubes and cannons. This was an opportunity that is rarely shared with the public. “This was no small undertaking as more than 20 workers, from machinists to firefighters to engineers, provided presentations and demonstrations throughout the day,” said Howard Kindell, the Arsenal’s Equal Employment Opportunity Officer who oversaw the event. “Our goal was to strengthen the bonds between the Arsenal and the Arsenal’s family mem-bers,” Kindell said. “And if you could measure success by the excitement shown on the kids faces, then we achieved tremendous success.” For many years, the Arsenal did not conduct a Take Your Child to Work Day, but the pro-

gram was dusted off last year to gauge interest. The feedback from the kids, their parents, and from the workforce who provided demonstrations was so positive that the Arsenal leadership decided to con-tinue the program. The kids ranged from 5th to 12th grade, and the ratio of males to females was balanced. But wheth-er they were 12 or 17, the smiles were universal. Eight grade student Daniel J. Whelan IV said that he never knew much about where his mother worked. “It was really cool,” Daniel said. “Although I liked all the demonstra-tions, my highlight of the

day was seeing a cannon tube go through the forge.” Although the importance of what the Arsenal workforce does has never been lost, it sometimes takes people from outside of the Arsenal fence line, in this case children, for the workforce to know that after nearly 200 years of providing military hardware to our nation’s warfighters that what they do is still “cool.”

The kids weren’t the only ones who got something out of the day. “The questions asked showed a true interest in the science and technology and I think I saw one or two of my replacements in that crowd,” said Timothy O’Connor, an en-gineering technician at Benét Labs who provided a presenta-tion in laser scanning.


Eight grade student Daniel J. Whelan IV said that he never knew much about where his mother worked until the Take Your Child to Work Day. Daniel is standing in front of a 155mm tube that was just forged.


Matthew Woelfersheim, a mechanical engineer who works in Benét Labs, points out some of the capabilities of an Abrams Tank.


The Arsenal Museum has a fairly large library of historic photos, such as this one with former Arsenal Commander Brig. Gen. Alexander G. Gillespie who commanded the Arsenal during World War II.

Photo provided by Arsenal Museum

The Watervliet Arsenal Museum, like many other institutions, has thousands of unique photographs in its collections. Unfortunately, incomplete captions are a common problem when collecting old photographs. This said, last year the museum was fortunate to receive a thoughtful gift of six photos from a local donor where each photo was captioned with the names of the people seen in each image. The photograph included in this month’s SALVO newsletter was taken during World War II and depicts Arsenal Commander Brig. Gen. Alexander G. Gillespie standing alongside four Arsenal employees who, at the time, had 40 years or more of employment: Left to Right: Wilmot H. Roblin, George Tofte, Ernest R. Oathout and Edward P. King. The occasion for the photo was a party at the Arsenal celebrating the 40th anniversary of Gillespie entering the West Point Military Academy in 1902. Unfortunately, the exact date of the event was missing. After doing a little detective work, we located in the museum’s archives a scrapbook for the Watervliet Arse-nal 20th Anniversary Club, 1919-1952. After checking the entries for 1942, we discovered a similar photo to the

one published here along with the date of the party: June 16, 1942. Glued onto the same page as the photo was a copy of the June 17, 1942 Troy Record newspaper article about the celebration:

“A surprise party was given for Gen. Gillespie in the R. W. Building, to celebrate his 40th anniversary of entering the army. The 20 Year Club was invited, along with the department heads and all the officers on the post. A keg of beer was on hand as well as plenty of cold cuts and sandwiches. There was community singing and a great time was had by all 100 present.”

The museum is continuing its research for more informa-tion about the lives of the four men standing alongside Gillespie.

By Mark KoziolArsenal Museum

Making sense of

historic photos

Speaking of photos....It is amazing the type of stuff sent to the public affairs officer. One of these two cuties has worked at the Arsenal since World War II or so it seems. Suffice it to say...a very long time. A Free Arsenal T-Shirt to the 1st person who not only guess-es the name of the person in the picture, but also who picks the correct twin. Call the humble public affairs officer at x5055.

“In regards to our force protection at the south gate, we have been like Soldiers since 9/11 in that we, too, have had to improve our foxholes,” said Robert Shadlock, the Arse-nal’s senior facility engineer. Shadlock said that in the past 11 years, the Arsenal kept tweaking the south gate operations to not only add more force protection obstacles, but also to improve safety in and around the south gate. “Because of limited funding through the years, we have

yet to build the ideal solution for worker and visitor ac-cess,” Shadlock said. “Nev-ertheless, we have done quite well with the resources we had and this month’s opening of a new Visitors Center is just one example.” Just behind the south gate guard building is a new $250,000 Visitors Center that began operations this month. The new center greatly im-proves safety and is support-ive to those with disabilities, Shadlock said. As part of the Visitor Center cost, there was also a

significant upgrade to the electrical system that provides power to the south gate area. “We more than doubled the amount of the transformer capability, as well as installed underground power for the force protection lift gates,” said Benjamin Dedjoe, the Ar-senal’s electrical engineer. But probably one of the most obvious changes is a visi-tor’s first impression. Arsenal Security Officer Mike Valle commented that in the former south gate access point, the lines of people try-ing to get an access badge would often run out the door. “This was a very unsafe condition as we had people run-ning back in and forth in front of cars entering the Arsenal all trying to vie for space in a small building,” Valle said. “Now, all visitor traffic is away from the gate and visitors enter a very nice facility that enhances their first impres-sions of the Arsenal.” This addition was so significant to the Arsenal’s access operations that during a recent visit to the Arsenal by the Army Materiel Command’s Commanding General, Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody, she awarded her commander’s coins for excellence to Al Columbus, chief of Arsenal security, Robert Shadlock, and to Joe Claus, the Arsenal director of emergency services.


AMC Commander’s Visit

March 21st


Photo by John B. SnyderThe south gate guard building in the foreground once handled the flow of traffic, as well as processing visitors. Those two opera-tions are now separate as all visitors are now processed through the Visitors’ Center in the background.

The old adage about first impressions cannot be under-stated and for those who have in recent years ventured into the south gate guard building of the Arsenal know firsthand the value of a recent and significant change to how visitors now enter the Arsenal. The Arsenal’s main gate used to be the historic entry point on Broadway in the city of Watervliet where since 1813 workers and visitors gained access to the Army post. The attacks on 9/11 forever changed not only the fabric of American life as we once knew it; those attacks also changed the Arsenal. The Broadway main gate no longer offered an entry point that would mitigate or elimi-nate a forced, illegal entry. After a quick, but thorough security analysis, the Arsenal leadership moved its main en-try point to its south gate off of 3rd Avenue in Watervliet. Three significant things happened as a result of that decision in 2001.First, the Arsenal has steadily made improvements to its force protection by making it very difficult for an attacker to gain rapid, unimpeded access to the Arsenal. Such things as concrete protection barriers commonly called “Jersey Barriers” to pop-up barriers to a vehicle inspection area have been put in place during the last 11 years. The second outcome from the relocation of the main gate deals with a false perception by many from outside of the fence line. When the Arsenal used the original main gate, thousands of travelers driving along I-787 could see the flow of vehicular traffic into and out of the Arsenal every day. With the relocation to a side street, interstate drivers no longer could see any movement into or out of the Arsenal, which gave many a false impression that maybe the Arsenal had closed. Finally, the guard post at the south entry gate was never intended to be a main entry point. The small structure, which doubled as a visitors center, was not conducive to logging in and out visitors, and had a degree of safety risk as visitors had to park their cars and then crossover the en-try lane to get into the south gate to sign in. Once inside, the small building became rather crowded with security of-ficers doing their business of managing traffic flow, as well as visitors trying to gain access.

Improving force protection, first impressionsBy John B. Snyder

Did you know you can move your resume from Resumix to USAJobs? All you need to do is follow the instructions below.

1. Open a Word doc.2. Go to CPOL (www.cpol.army.mil) employment– Click “Build A resume/check Status”– Under Registered Users click “Login”– Click “Answer”– Click “View Resume”– Highlight the Resume– Right click “copy”– Open word document– Right click “paste”– Click “File”– Click “Save As” to Desktop– Name your resume

3. Go to USAJobs (www.usajobs.gov) – Click “Resume” – Click “Upload resume”– Name your resume – Click “Browse”– Select the resume saved to desktop– Click “Upload”


CPAC Corner

Memorial Day ParadesSave The Dates

The Arsenal is participating in the Village of Green Island parade on Thursday, May 24th and the City of Watervliet parade on Monday, May 28th.

For the Village of Green Island parade, we plan to only provide the bob-tailed truck and lowboy trailer float. Need a Driver!!! The Arsenal commander will speak at the end of parade ceremony.

For the City of Watervliet, we plan to provide the full parade contingent with marchers. The Arsenal commander will speak at the end of parade ceremony.

Green Island Parade kicks off at 6 p.m.City of Watervliet Parade kicks off at 10 a.m.

If you have any questions, contact the CPAC office

at 266-4058.


By Karen Heiser

Processes add either value or waste to a product or service. Although products differ between factories, shop and office wastes are usually similar. This article will introduce you to identification and elimination of waste as the first step to increasing business success through lean management.

There are seven types of waste: overproduction, waiting, excess transportation, excess inventory, excess processing, excess motion, defects and correction .

Overproduction is producing more, sooner, faster than required by the next process. It is costly because it prohibits the smooth flow of materials and can actually degrade quality and productivity.

Waiting is employee or machine idle time. It results when goods are not moving or being processed. Over 90% of a product’s lead time in traditional batch-and-queue manufacture is spent waiting for the next thing to happen.

Excess transportation is product movement that adds cost but no value to the customer. Excessive movement and handling can also cause damage and provide an opportunity for quality to deteriorate.

Excess inventory is raw material, work in process (WIP), or finished goods in excess of requirements for an on-time delivery to the next process, or to the customer. It consumes productive floor space and hides problems because it generates an alternative to investigating the root cause of the problem.

Excess processing is doing more work than necessary that adds no value. This includes change orders, extra operations such as rework, reprocessing, handling or storage that occurs due to defects, overproduction or excess inventory. Any work that goes beyond the customer’s needs is excess.

Excess motion occurs when extra steps are taken by employees and equipment to make up for inefficient process layout, poor use of technology, defects, reprocessing, overproduction or excess inventory.

Defects and corrections result in scrap, repair and rework and are an excess cost to the customer. Impacts include capacity loss, quarantining inventory, re-inspecting, rescheduling.

The eighth waste is your time and skills. When employees are losing time dealing with the seven traditional wastes, they, and the organization are not reaching their potential. And the customer is paying for it.

At Watervliet Arsenal we are justifiably proud of our quality to the customer. As COL Migaleddi often says, “We are too good to be ignored.” Global competition, economic constraints, and technological innovations have driven other good companies to become world-class organizations through lean management. As world- class organizations realize, customers will pay for value-added work, but not for waste.

Seven Wastes…plus one


The SWARM is coming ... huh?By Maj. Donald Freer

Always something new at the Arsenal's

AAFES PX.

Remember...a portion of the profits is

returned back to the Arsenal to support MWR facilities and

events

Experienced safety professionals often seem to have a sixth sense – they walk onto a production floor or into an office and immediately know what is going on. This sixth sense is “situational awareness” developed gradually over several years of working in the safety profession. Any employee can quickly develop situational awareness by learning to focus your attention on specific facets of what is happening around you in an orderly and disciplined way. It takes concentration, practice and patience, but you can do it. Remember that safety begins with you! To help you focus on safety checks and inspection areas the safety office is introducing a new mnemonic aid called SWARMED. A mnemonic aid is simply a learning technique makes memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something, particularly lists. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that are to be remembered. Here is the breakdown of our safety mnemonic:

S = Signs and barricades in place (Ensure all emergency egress, restricted areas, & barricades are posted and functional) W = Wear PPE properly(Ensure all building inhabitants are wearing required PPE)A = Administrative controls (labels)(Ensure all safety labels, placards, and JSA’s are posted and readable) R = Risk free walking/working surfaces(Ensure proper housekeeping and keep working areas clean and clear)M = Machine guarding(Ensure machine guards are in place and operational)E = Energy hazard controls(Ensure all lockout-tag out procedures are followed)D = Disposal of chemicals (Ensure chemicals are properly labeled, stored, and disposed of)


Arsenal Appreciation Night with the ValleyCatsSaturday, 18 August

at 7 p.m.

Contact John Snyder at 266-5055

orin Room 102Building 10for tickets!!!

• The Arsenal has coordinated with the Tri-City ValleyCats baseball organi-zation for the 4th Annual Arsenal Appreciation Night.

• Game is on Saturday, 18 August, at 7 p.m. (Fireworks Night)• Department of the Army Civilians and Arsenal family members may pur-

chase a "Reserved Box" ticket for only $5.50 (42% discount). These are betterseatsthanwhatwehadinthepast(Section230).And,forthefirsttime, if you want to save a few bucks, you may purchase Grandstand tickets for only $4 (38% discount). Yes, a price for everyone.

• Even though we have better seats, All Arsenal Military Veterans will still receive a free ticket.

• You may also purchase a reduced meal voucher for only $3.50 This voucher is good for one hot dog, small soda, and bag of chips.

• Forticketsandinformation,contactJohnSnyder,room102,Bldg.10.

Ticket Sales Begin

30 May

SAVE THE DATE

Contact John Snyder at 266-5055

orin Room 102Building 10for tickets!!!