Watervliet Arsenal Newsletter: Salvo 29 Feb. 2012

Vol. 12, No. 2 U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, NY Feb. 29, 2012

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

She served us well since 1916

Commander’s CornerPage 2

Tool DesignPage 3

Force ProtectionPage 4

MLK AwardPage 8

Photo by John B. Snyder

Although she was a little overweight, having tipped the scales at more than 540,000 pounds, she moved with grace and pre-cision providing support to our warfighters in every conflict since World War I. The 217-ton crane that once aligned the ceiling in the historic “Big Gun Shop” was installed in 1916. Since then, she has moved millions of pounds of barrels ranging from the 16-inch guns for U.S. battleships to the artillery weapon systems that were widely used by U.S. forces in Vietnam. Her last run was in 1982 and since then, she has qui-etly slept until this month. Burt Crane & Rigging, a local company from Green Island, N.Y., lowered this once powerful crane and dismantled her on the floor where she once saw Ar-senal workers toil to near exhaustion to provide our Nation’s warfighters with guns that made them suc-cessful in every conflict. The crane was removed to reduce the weight on the building’s structure.

By John B. Snyder

Page 2 Salvo Feb. 29, 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

Mark F. MigaleddiCommanding

Manufacturer 6

The Arsenal Commander Col. Mark F. Migaleddi addressing the work-force during the town hall meeting on February 16th.

Photo provided by Billy Martin

You may have recently seen your fellow workers being pulled from their jobs and into upper level strategy ses-sions that we call Value Stream Analysis. To those who got pulled, they may not have seen the immediate or direct value of participating in these sessions. And so, I want to take some time this month to try to explain the purpose of these strategy sessions and how they are tied to our opera-tions and to the long-term viability of the Arsenal. Value Stream Analysis, which is part of the Lean Enter-prise, had its origins with the Toyota car company in the 1980s. The Lean Enterprise’s purpose at the Arsenal is to identify and eliminate waste, while preserving and or im-proving our quality and value to our customers. The bottom line is that we must use Lean initiatives to make us more competitive amongst the sea of defense contractors, fellow government-owned manufactures, and civilian manufac-tures. You can’t pick up a newspaper today or watch a 6 p.m. newscast without being reminded that there are significant budget reductions coming to our military. Nearly $500 bil-lion is the current budget reduction target and those cuts will touch the entire fabric of our Army, from personnel to weapons systems. We cannot be blind to impending defense budget cuts by thinking that our current business or future work will not change. It will and so, what can we do about it? I foresee on our horizon that we must go beyond simply being “transformational.” We must look at every aspect of our operations as if our “survival” is at stake. We all have “skin in this game” ensuring the Arsenal has the ability to answer our Nation’s call by providing weapons for the de-fense of our country. A recent Bloomberg news story highlighted the plight of defense contractors as they work their way into a future of declining U.S. defense dollars. In this article, a CEO from one of the largest defense contractors in the world said, “We

are doing everything in our control to position our defense businesses for the declining budget headwind, including continuous improvement initiatives, restructuring, divesting non-core businesses, and headcount reductions.” We must reposition ourselves, too. That is why conducting strategy sessions such as what we recently did for Business Development, purchasing new machines that can perform five machining functions versus one function of the older machines, and looking for and eliminating waste all fits into ensuring the long-term viabil-ity of the Arsenal. So, what do I need from you? I need everyone to: look for and find better, more ef-ficient ways to do their jobs; to do things right the first time so that we don’t waste time and money correcting mistakes; and I need everyone to step up to the plate when called and become an active participant in future Value Stream Analy-sis sessions.


Photos by John B. Snyder

Tool Design: Where history shapes the futureBy John B. Snyder

I was recently wandering around the inside of the Arse-nal’s 1840s-era barracks building thinking about what life must have been like at the Arsenal 170 years ago when I sud-denly realized that I had wandered into a place where few travel. Tucked away in a back room on the third floor of a building, to which I still don’t know the number to, was a place called the tool design office. Inside were John Zullo and Greg Tilley, the Ar-senal’s two remaining tool design-ers. John told me that in the early 1990s there were 15 tool designers at the Arsenal. He tried to explain to me that the Arsenal lost 13 de-signers due to the nine reductions in force that occurred in the 1990s. But I knew better. I have no doubt that those tool designers couldn’t find their way back to this remote office and simply settled for some other job. For those of you who don’t know John, he started working at the Ar-senal as an apprentice in 1970 and has been a tool designer since 1975. Wow, 37 years later and he still hasn’t found his way out his office. Greg was cut from a different cloth. He joined the Arsenal work-force four years ago after graduating from the University of Buffalo with a degree in mechanical engineering. According to John, Greg is his succession plan. The stark difference between John and Greg was only overshadowed by the visual differences that I saw in this of-fice. As I walked into the office, just off to the right were a se-ries of filing cabinets that one would find at the Arsenal about the time the Arsenal completed its first 16-inch gun. The year was 1902. Those old cabinets had hundreds of files drawers that were jammed with record of tooling cards that date back to World War II, if not longer, John said. When I looked at the rows upon rows of files, I immediate thought of the A&E television series called Hoarders. But John and Greg assured me there was a method to their…mad-ness. This is my word usage, not theirs. John said each card told a story. The stories they tell explain what special tools, gauges, or

fixtures were required to assist in the manufacturing of Arse-nal products during a distinctive time period. John liked the word “distinctive,” but maybe “historic” might be a better use of words. Nevertheless, in these files, one could look up the tooling that was required for such products as a mortar tube

during the Korean War or an engineer’s bridge during the Vietnam War or an Abrams Tank can-non during the war in Iraq. And so, I asked John the obvious question, “Why do

we need to keep all of these cards? John offered a couple of exam-ples of why the Arsenal maintains these cards. A few years ago, the U.S. Air Force came to the Arsenal to manu-facturer 105mm cannons for their AC-130 gunships. Well, the Arsenal had not made these cannons since the 1960s but thanks to having the data cards, tool designers and plan-ners had a foundation from which to begin production. This saved thousands of dollars in production planning time, John said. He added that recently the Ar-senal prepared a quote on a new bridge for the U.S. Army. Tucked

away in John’s files were the requirements for a bridge the Arsenal manufactured during the Vietnam War — another foundation from which to assist the Arsenal’s planners. The contrast to all of this was that on John’s computer was a 3-D drawing of a fixture he was currently working on. I was fascinated as he moved this computer-aided design of a fixture to show how it would work once it was manufactured. This 3-D designing was a far cry from the old days when John started at the Arsenal. Back then, he would painstak-ingly stand over a draftsman table for days to pencil in a tool design. Now he can do the same design on his computer in significantly less time. Although he still has that old drafts-man table in his office, it now holds the printouts of the tool design that he does on his computer. John explained that he and Greg design fixtures, gauges, and tools that will be required to support the production of a specified product line. These items will either hold or lift products during their manufacturing process.

Photos by John B. SnyderGreg Tilley, left, and John Zullo comb through the vari-ous tool card drawers to demonstrate the degree of detail that each historical record holds. In the top photo, John is working on a 3-D sketch.


By John B. Snyder

Doesn’t everyone like a story about dogs? After all, those fun-loving, floppy-eared animals are like a family member to many households. That is, unless you are a ter-rorist or a person carrying drugs at the Watervliet Arsenal. The City of Albany Police Department’s K-9 unit con-verged on the Arsenal earlier this month in support of an antiterrorism exercise initiated by the Arsenal’s Director of Emergency Services, Joe Claus. This exercise was not done to counter any current threat, but to test and evaluate the Arsenal’s antiterrorism program, as well as threats to the health and wel-fare of the Arsenal by those who would bring drugs onto this Army installation, Claus said. “In the past year, we have ramped up our force protection preparedness and we have done so by involving more support from emergency responders from outside of our fence line,” Claus said. “For example, just last month we conducted antiterrorism exercise at the Arsenal with a SWAT team from the FBI and this month we had a canine unit from the Albany Police Department.” The Albany Police Department sent four team members and three dogs to support more than 16 Arsenal Law En-forcement Officers in the search of incoming and outgoing vehicles during the two-hour exercise on February 7. Despite it being more than 10 years since 9/11, there were several firsts associated with this exercise. “Prior to 9/11, we rarely trained with communities or government installations outside of the city,” said Sgt. Eric Cotter, who supervises the Albany Police Department’s K-9 and mounted units. “But since then, we have been very aggressive in working with local communities and govern-ment agencies that do not have a canine unit.” But despite Cotter’s expanded mission to venture out-side of the city, this was the first time his unit had trained on an Army installation, Cotter said. Claus also said that this was the first time that a dog unit had trained with the Arsenal’s law enforcement officers in

an antiterrorism exercise. “Having this canine unit added an entirely new dimen-sion to our level of preparedness, as well as improving the image of our law enforcement capability to the Arsenal workforce,” Claus said. As much as the Arsenal would like to train with this dog unit again, trying to work into the K-9 unit’s schedule may be a challenge. After all, this team did more than 750 “uti-lizations” or missions last year, Cotter said. Claus said the key take away was a continuing commit-ment from the Arsenal to improve communications and relationships with emergency responders from outside the arsenal fence line. “Having the Albany Police Department support us will pay huge dividends not only in future training opportuni-ties, but also in protecting the health and welfare of the Ar-senal’s workforce,” Claus said. Although the U.S. Army requires all installations to train, exercise, and test their antiterrorism program at least once each year, the Arsenal has exceeded that requirement by conducting force protection exercises about once a quarter, Claus added.

Arsenal turns to dogs to sniff

out threats

Photos by John B. Snyder

Top: Albany K-9 unit checked outgo-ing vehicles, as well incoming cars, for drugs.Left: Albany police officer with his dog observes Arsenal Security Officers inspecting incoming cars.


By Mark KoziolArsenal Museum

A time when the President met the Arsenal’s

Greatest Generation

Left: President Franklin D. Roosevelt shakes the hand of Arsenal Work Manager Frank Miller, as Brig. Gen. A.G. Gillespie does the introductions. FDR was greeted at the Arsenal gates with the traditional 21-gun salute because of his status as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Even before the president’s visit, the Arsenal had already begun increasing production capacity and adding new workers to the payroll. In late 1940, there were more than 3,000 people working at the Arsenal. America was in a state of partial emergency as of Sept. 8, 1939 due to Nazi Germany invading Poland on September 1, igniting the Second World War. Twelve days after FDR’s Watervliet visit, on Oct. 16, 1940, the federal government held the first peace time draft. Top Right: FDR mixed business with pleasure during the beginning of October, 1940. During the weekend, he relaxed from campaigning by visiting his

Hyde Park home. Then, early afternoon on Monday, October 7, President Roosevelt left at 12:30 p.m. for a drive north to visit the Albany region. According to his schedule, FDR and party were to be at the Watervliet Arsenal at 2:30 p.m. Bottom Right: Army Maj. Stephen L. Conner discusses with Roosevelt the different weapons being manufactured at Watervliet Arsenal. To the far right of the photo, a Secret Service Agent watches the crowd attentively as he stands on the right front running board of the president’s car.

Photos provided by the Watervliet Arsenal Museum


Two-fer...On February 16th, the Arsenal commander conducted a town hall meeting, as well as a Diver-sity Day Luncheon. During the town hall, two special things hap-pened...

Mike Dumas, supervisor of pro-duction planning control, re-ceived the Annual Martin Luther King Award from Col. Mark F. Migaleddi (more on page 8).

And for the first time, leadership from the American Legion ad-dressed the workforce. After the remarks, the Legion members were taken on a tour of the Arse-nal.

Lt. Col. Pablo Rivera Chaplain for TACOM LCMC

Speaking Spanish

Rose SopokFormer DisabilityProgram Manager

Kin TingLMP Master Cell

Speaking Chinese

Tom PondDirector of Operations

Ken GovernorRensselaer CountyAmerican Legion


By John B. Snyder

Two cents and more for your thoughts

Okay, so you believe that you have the “idea of a century” that will make the Arsenal safer, more efficient, or that will improve a process. But where do you turn to get that idea moved from concept to action or better yet, how can you make a buck by offering up your suggestion? The path may not be as clear to take as one might think because the Arsenal uses two types of programs to sift through recommendations by the workforce that may award cash for good ideas. Two of the newer Arsenal employees, by the names of Jim Rossini and Josh Gypson, tried to make sense of one of one of the programs called Value Engineering to me. Both Jim and Josh work in the Operations Directorate, and Josh oversaw the VE program last year. He has since passed his VE duties to Jim. Anyone who knows these two will truly understand when I say that the interview with them was quite entertaining. A 30-minute interview turned into 90 minutes as they passionately tried to explain VE, as well as the meaning of life at the Arsenal. VE, according to Jim and Josh, is mainly about process improvements. And by the way, VE is a TACOM regulatory requirement that has been placed on the Arsenal in which we must attain a savings of 1.5 percent of our total financial obligations every year. Although a process improvement may make the Arsenal more efficient, it may also mean a financial award for those who make the suggestion. For example in 2011, a VE project suggested using seamless tubing instead of a forging to make 120mm mortar tubes. The total cost avoidance was more than $800,000 totaled over FY11, 12, and 13. An amount of $5,000 was given as an award, distributed among the people involved with the project at Benét Labs. If VE isn’t your flavor, then you might take your great idea to Stacey Marhafer, who is the Arsenal’s Army Suggestion Program Manager. Stacey said her program rivals the VE program in that it too may award a cash incentive for a suggestion, even if the

suggestion does not directly save the Arsenal money. “Unlike Value Engineering, a suggestion to the Army Suggestion Program does not have to produce a tangible benefit, such as a cost savings or cost avoidance,” said Marhafer. “A suggestion may provide an intangible benefit that may affect the Arsenal’s functions, mission, or personnel.” Improving workforce safety is a prime example of an intangible benefit. A suggestion to improve workforce safety may be difficult to determine what the tangible cost or labor savings might be to the Arsenal, but an evaluator can estimate a value for these types of suggestions based on the perceived value and reach of the suggestion, which then might qualify an individual for a cash payment. Individuals may receive up to 10 percent of the cost savings or avoidance up to $10,000, and another three percent for anything over $10,000. By the way, for those of you who have submitted recommendations that would do away with the public affairs officer position as a cost savings, those suggestions have been forwarded to my office for consideration. I’m a little behind right now and it may be some time, in fact a very long time before I will get to them. But keep them coming because I enjoy a good laugh.

Army Suggestion Program SuccessSo far in FY 2012...

-13 Suggestions have been adopted-$1,000 was the top award-$2,049 is the total amount awarded

Value Engineering ProgramSuccess in FY 2011

-1 Project-$800,000 in cost avoidance-$5,000 cash award


2012MLK Award Recipient

Mike Dumas receiving his Martin Luther King Award from Col. Mark F. Migaleddi, Arsenal commander, on Feb. 16, 2012. Photo provided by Billy Martin.

City of WatervlietMemorial Day Parade

Monday, May 28Save The Date:

The Arsenal is participating in the City of Watervliet Memorial Day Parade on May 28, at 10 a.m.

We will be looking for volunteers to help us build the floats and to march in the parade.

We have also been asked by two other communities to support their Memorial Day Parades, which we are considering to support.

Mike Dumas received the 2012 Martin Luther King Award during the town hall meeting on February 16 due to his dedication and support to the Watervliet Arsenal’s Equal Employment Opportunity Program.

As Supervisor of Production Planning Control in the Indus-trial Operations Directorate, Mike worked to increase the diversity of the workforce through: recruiting and hiring initiatives; encouraging and maintaining an environment where all groups of employees realize equality and potential for advancement; and he exhibits the spirit and intent of Equal Opportunity as seen through his actions and works by developing the same in each of his subordinates.

National Guard Veterans speak about ‘their’ war in Iraq Where: NYS Military Museum and Veterans Research Center, 61 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs

When: 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 24, 2012

NY Army National Guard veterans who served during different periods in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003 to 2009 will share stories about what happened inside the combat zone.

TThhee ssttoorriieess yyoouu hhaavvee nneevveerr hheeaarrdd…… COMBAT OPERATIONS: The rise of the insurgency The introduction of IEDS The dangers of patrolling The Baghdad Airport Road

NATION BUILDING: Training Iraqi security forces Facilitating national elections Reconstruction efforts Working with local leaders

HUMANITARIAN SUPPORT: Delivering aid to the poor Providing medical services Supporting schools, orphanages And much more…

First Sergeant Joseph Martel, Albany, 105th Military Police Company, OIF 2003-4

Major Vincent Heintz, White Plains, Company A, 2nd Battalion 108th Infantry, OIF 2003-4 Sergeant First Class Luke Chiarenza, Clifton Park, HQ Company, 1st Battalion 69th Infantry, OIF 2005

Staff Sergeant Don Leinfelder, Troy, Company A, 1st Battalion 69th Infantry, OIF 2005, Purple Heart Medal Sergeant First Class James Montesano, Watervliet, Company D, 1st Battalion 101st Cavalry, OIF 2005,

Lt. Col. Jamie Green, Saratoga Springs, 466th Medical Company, OIF 2006 Col. Mark Heffner, Troy, Headquarters 42nd Infantry Division, OIF 2005

Sponsored by the Friends of the NYS Military Museum and the Division of Military and Naval Affairs

SSttoorriieess ffrroomm tthhee SSaannddbbooxx


National Guard Veterans speak about their war in Iraq


What would you do?

You have probably seen this scene played out many times on the local 6 o’clock news of a story involving a home fire in your community. At first, the fire is the size of a car’s hubcap, but within seconds the fire shoots up the back of the home. On your TV, you see neighbors rush to the fire only to then see them stay back, out of danger, to capture the burning home on their cell phones. Once the home had been destroyed, those same neighbors would often post the videos onto their social media sites, such as Facebook, or might relay those videos to the local news organizations for their 15-seconds of fame. After all, this may be the new era when people are more concerned about capturing such scenes on their personal video acquisition systems than they are to inject themselves into the danger…or is it? John “Jack” Maloney, who is one of the production planners in the Operations Directorate, had his opportunity for his 15-seconds of fame on the evening of February 13 when he and his family noticed a small fire, about the size of hubcap, at a neighbor’s house. But he didn’t seek his 15-seconds of fame. Instead, Jack grabbed the house phone and dialed 911 to report the fire. As he was on the phone, his wife, Johanna, and daughter, Maggie, went into the burning house to alert the two families who were home. Jack soon joined them. What would compel the Maloney family to put themselves at great risk, Jack said he can’t explain. “When I saw the fire, I immediately thought about the young child who lived on the second floor of the house, as well as others who lived in the house,” Jack said. “There was no hesitation by my family to enter the burning building.” Jack and his family were able to alert the two families and thus, saved three lives, as well as two dogs. Although Jack is not seeking any notoriety, what Jack and his family did on that Monday evening certainly deserves some recognition.

This story should not end by just the personal courage displayed by Jack and his family earlier this month. We should take this as a learning to point to be more sensitive to our environment and when something seems out of place, albeit as small as a hubcap, that we take immediate and deliberate action.

It may be hard to measure the value that Jack and his family added to his com-munity that night, but suffice it to say that it must be significant. We can be significant, too.

Arsenal employee, family race to danger

By John B. Snyder

Jack’s photo by John B. Snyder - Background photo is not of the Cohoes fire

John “Jack” Maloney


If only this old workhorse could talk of the strains of lifting tens of thousands of barrels and guns since arriving for work in 1916. After many years of no activity, the Arsenal leadership de-cided to remove the crane to lighten the weight on the historic Big Gun Shop.

A local company from Green Island, Burt Crane & Rigging, won the contract to remove the crane.

Starting in the bottom left photo and going clockwise is the progression of the final days of the 217-ton crane. In the bottom right photo, we discovered the signatures of the 1942-1943-1944 Victory Gang “Men of the Watervliet Arsenal.” Those WWII employees signed in lumber crayon on the end of the beam.

Arsenal’s WWI Veteran quietly retired

Photos provided by John Snyder, Billy Martin, and Bryan Myers


Education

Watervliet Arsenal Newsletter: Salvo 29 Feb. 2012